Haulting dl to reinforce setting back

[Johnsonville]

My deadlift was never an issue until a year ago. I have been having issues setting my lower back for some reason, despite following the setup and all cues. It was brought up in an article referencing haulting deadlifts that they can help with setting the back and engaging the lats, so I was wondering if adding them in on a light day is a bad idea? Currently I do one heavy set of 3 and two heavy sets of five spaced out about 4-5 days. My poundage is going up very steadily, I began this as a linear progression at 275, switched to triples and a light day at 365, and am currently at 395 with no slowing down in sight. I just don’t know where I would plug them in, and from all I’ve seen posted they are pretty brutal to do.

My question is: is there a slot where haulting deadlifts can be plugged in while I am doing a heavy light split?

[Mark Rippetoe]

I never used them like that. They were my heavy pulls, along with rack pulls.

[Jason Donaldson]

Two questions for you, Johnsonville:

1) How did you arrive at the current alternation of a heavy triple with two heavy fives?

2) What tells you that you are having trouble with setting your back?

[Johnsonville]

I never used them like that. They were my heavy pulls, along with rack pulls.

Got it, I’ll just have to set my back like everyone else, until it’s time to break the movement up. Appreciate it.

[Johnsonville]

Two questions for you, Johnsonville:

1) How did you arrive at the current alternation of a heavy triple with two heavy fives?

2) What tells you that you are having trouble with setting your back?

I was given this program by a ssc years ago and have run it a few times. My set of 5 was on its last legs and I switched to triples probably a week or two early to keep progress going. My back can be particularly exhausted some days as I’m a stone mason and train right after work, and the triples are almost always a guarantee, but an end of lp set of five can be hit or miss after a hard day. I know fives are better generally and I should train at a time I’m more recovered, but this is where it fits in my schedule unfortunately, and I’m more training to feel better at work rather than chasing numbers at this particular time.

Some days I just feel a strain on my lower back during the beginning of the pull, nothing crazy, but enough for me to know it isn’t normal. I’d say it’s 40% of the time I feel my back strain; I was reading some articles about breaking up the movement and saw nick mention that haltings are good for some to tighten up the beginning of the pull (my own generalization of the article). My thought was to use them as a light pulling movement to really hammer in the bottom position, but I think it’s time to visit my local ssc again and have him set this straight. I’m very also open to any suggestions

[Maybach]

Triples are useful with certain lifters at certain weights.

The halting deadlift is the one of the two variations that does NOT give the lower back much rest. If you are feeling a strain on your low back, try a rack pull.

I myself have had mixed success with the broken up variations. The rack pull has provided some use for providing a "break" for the lower back, which is usually enough to resume progress on the full movement after a week or two. Haltings, for me at least, tend to be about as exhausting for me as the full pull: if I would have missed a rep on the full deadlift, I will miss a rep on the haltings.

You probably need to keep the full deadlift in your program at least until you're closing in on 500. I will say two heavy pulls a week (5s and triples) is a lot, and you could probably cut that down to just one of those. Are you power cleaning? If you're not, I promise you that helps more than you will expect.

It would be a very small thing to replace your heavy five with a set of low rack pulls at the same weight or slightly heavier for a single week and see if that lets some of the fatigue dissipate. It's still a heavy weight so it's not going to let you detrain: just resume your progression on the full lift the next week.

[Johnsonville]

Triples are useful with certain lifters at certain weights.

The halting deadlift is the one of the two variations that does NOT give the lower back much rest. If you are feeling a strain on your low back, try a rack pull.

I myself have had mixed success with the broken up variations. The rack pull has provided some use for providing a "break" for the lower back, which is usually enough to resume progress on the full movement after a week or two. Haltings, for me at least, tend to be about as exhausting for me as the full pull: if I would have missed a rep on the full deadlift, I will miss a rep on the haltings.

You probably need to keep the full deadlift in your program at least until you're closing in on 500. I will say two heavy pulls a week (5s and triples) is a lot, and you could probably cut that down to just one of those. Are you power cleaning? If you're not, I promise you that helps more than you will expect.

It would be a very small thing to replace your heavy five with a set of low rack pulls at the same weight or slightly heavier for a single week and see if that lets some of the fatigue dissipate. It's still a heavy weight so it's not going to let you detrain: just resume your progression on the full lift the next week.

Thanks for the detailed response. I was assuming my issue was technical, since the majority of my pulls are pain free, but there are some days when it seems that my back just isn’t set right. My idea of adding haltings was to reinforce a proper starting position, but you’re now making me wonder if it is just fatigue on certain days.

Unfortunately my pc and ps days have come to a stop, my wrists just can’t take the rack position of the clean since they are usually pretty beat up from work and it’s an absolute necessity to take care of them, and snatches bother my wrists and forearms, probably a racking issue honestly.

I don’t have a rack at the moment, just a platform in my basement, but maybe I can build some pulling blocks. Or maybe I should just deload, learn to set my back consistently and stay with 5s.

[Jason Donaldson]

Do you film your pulls, to see if you're setting your back or not, or is it that your back feels unset? Those are two different states of affairs, indicating different fixes.

The deadlift is my nemesis lift for multiple reasons, but one thing I've learned over the years is that how my low back feels has very little correlation to how I perform. My low back will feel tired, pumped, sore, whatever, and I'll hit PR sets of 5 anyway. For both DLs and squats, I've had to learn both to ignore how it feels and trust that the feeling will dissipate remarkably quickly anyway. You may well be setting your back just fine, despite how it feels.

I'll second what Maybach has said about haltings. When I use them, I hate them, and dread them far more than I ever have the block pull. They do hit the low back much more, as he said. (All the more because I do them at a deficit, but that's not your situation, it's mine.)

For pulling blocks, that's a very easy project. I built mine with sections of 4 x 4 cut to length (on the chop saw at the lumber yard), bolted to a section of 1/2" plywood. That makes a 4" high block, and I use a couple of sections of 3/4" stall mat on top of it to get the height I need and protect the plates from any possibility of hitting a screw head. Cheap and simple.

If you have reasons not to PC/PS (which I also do, though again, different ones from yours), you could try barbell rows the SS way. I've used those as a light pull before, and had some success.