Programming question + Equipment Question

[Jason Donaldson]

Thank you all for the valuable input.
I've decided to separate the lifts across more days: squats and deadlifts on one day, bench press and overhead press on another. I'll need to develop a suitable programming approach for this split. Having a home gym allows for this increased training frequency.
I've also reached out to Rip about improving my deadlift tightness. Maintaining proper bracing has been a persistent challenge, leading to previous tweaks and injuries during squats. The SBD belt has been tremendously helpful for squats - I can't recommend it enough. Unfortunately, it hasn't resolved the tightness issues for deadlifts.
Any suggestions on programming this new split or addressing the deadlift bracing problem would be greatly appreciated.

Getting tight for the squat and getting tight for the deadlift are very different skills. If you try a bottoms-up pin squat, or a top-down deadlift (taking the bar off of low hooks to start), you might get some insight into how they differ.

(That is NOT a programming recommendation, just a one-off demonstration idea...)

[pepito]

Thank you all for the valuable input.
I've decided to separate the lifts across more days: squats and deadlifts on one day, bench press and overhead press on another. I'll need to develop a suitable programming approach for this split. Having a home gym allows for this increased training frequency.
I've also reached out to Rip about improving my deadlift tightness. Maintaining proper bracing has been a persistent challenge, leading to previous tweaks and injuries during squats. The SBD belt has been tremendously helpful for squats - I can't recommend it enough. Unfortunately, it hasn't resolved the tightness issues for deadlifts.
Any suggestions on programming this new split or addressing the deadlift bracing problem would be greatly appreciated.

Not that you should do what I do, but I do the opposite. I mean, I don't train heavy squat and deadlift on the same day. Or press and bench press. Or heavy squat and press. On days I squat heavy, I bench press and clean. On days I press I start with light squats (2 sets at about 80% of programmed weight). This means my low back/hips/legs are still fresh for pressing and that's a bigger deal than you might think. Once the presses are done I've still done relatively little in terms of total tonnage so I have plenty in the tank to really attack the deadlift. On days I squat heavy I bench. The fatigue from heavy squatting doesn't seem to affect my bench as much as my press. I finish with power cleans instead of deadlifts for reasons that may not apply to you. My deadlift is quite heavy relative to my squat not to mention I'm old so it takes me longer to recover from a 5RM max effort.
I think the program alternates press and bench press for a reason. If you're training them both in the same workout you're pretty much deciding one is going to be your main lift and the other is just an accessory. That's fine. Like, if you want to really specialize in the press, bench press and variations of it are great accessory lifts. But if you want to push both lifts to your max, I think you need to train them separately.
So for me (an old guy with a relatively heavy deadlift who wants to continue to hit PRs on the press and bench press) my two day split looks like:
Day 1: Squat 5(RM)x3, Bench 5x3, Clean 3x5
Day 2: Squat 5(80%RM)x2, Press 5x3, Deadlift 5x1.
Good luck. Don't quit.

[Ham]

There's very little personalization involved with going into intermediate territory. It just means increased stress and recovery duration inhibits adding weight workout-to-workout. Most programs for early intermediate lifters look the same. And it makes sense too. If you can add weight to the bar on primary lifts each week, you should.