Squat/Deadlift Disparity

[Dwayne_KONG_Wint]

Hi Rip,

In the last week of December 2009, I messed up something fierce in my left elbow by pulling my elbows down on the ascent of a squat. I had gotten my squat to 365X5, X4, X2...stalling mostly due to the crazy pain I would get in my left arm.

So in January, I picked up the safety squat bar squatting. Its pretty much high bar squatting with a bar that has a yoke that goes on your neck, so you don't have to use your arms much. Elitefts sells them. I did that for a couple weeks, while continuing pressing, benching, and deadlifting...with each progressing nicely.

Then, I returned to low bar squatting when my elbow pain had subsided some with an emphasis on not pulling my elbows down and having a wider grip. My latest performance was 350X5X3.

But here's the thing...I just hit a hard PR on deadlifts tonight of 475X5.

Should I deadlift less to allow my squat to get back in line with my deadlift? or should I keep at my current pace with deadlifting?

Part of me really wants my squat to come up a lot more in line with my dead. Part of me just loves the fact that I am doing so great in the deadlift at the moment that I don't want to stop.

Currently I deadlift once a week on Wednesdays, and I squat three times a week but with a light day on Wednesdays because I find that if I fuck up my form with my elbows on Monday, that gives me some time for the pain to go away by Friday's heavy squat workout and I can continue to progress.

And if it matters, I'm 6 foot 2 inches, weighing in at 252 and 29 years old.
(every weight in here is in pounds)

[Mark Rippetoe]

Are you actually asking me whether I think you should allow your deadlift to get weaker to satisfy some preconceived ratio?

[Dwayne_KONG_Wint]

Point taken...just wish I hadn't stalled on the squat with that injury b/c I could be further along than I currently am.

I'll keep the pace with the deadlifts.

[grubinski]

It could be worse. You deadlift something like 35% more than you squat. My disparity is about 70% (deadlift 335 for 1x5, squat 195 for 5x5 at a bodyweight of 157-8 or so).

I'm not planning on backing off on my deads anytime soon.

[Manowar2010]

Point taken...just wish I hadn't stalled on the squat with that injury b/c I could be further along than I currently am.

I'll keep the pace with the deadlifts.

Even if you were to try and get your squat inline with your deadlift, what ratio would you be shooting for? The reason I ask is for a person your height, your squat to deadlift ratio doesn't sound bad at all to me. If you were to do one set of squats x 5, it sounds like the weight wouldn't be too far behind your deadlift weight x 5 (percentagewise).

Ken