Deadlift is stuck

[Barry Charles]

My dl has been stuck at around 280 for 3 weeks.


Actually, it's been 6 weeks, just checked my log.

Thanks again.

Being "stuck" is not well defined. It doesn't tell us nearly enough (in some ways it doesn't tell us anything useful).

Does it mean you can do 280 but you fail at 281? When you attempt a set of three you fail on the first rep? Last rep? How does it fail? Off the ground? Comes out of the hands? Cant lock it out? Are you stuck at 280 in the sense that you are not willing to try 285 because the reps leading up to 285 are miserable? ETC. They all mean "stuck" but all have potentially different solutions.

Tell us what "stuck" means and then we can suggest some things to try.

[Al Copersino]

Being "stuck" is not well defined. It doesn't tell us nearly enough (in some ways it doesn't tell us anything useful).

Does it mean you can do 280 but you fail at 281? When you attempt a set of three you fail on the first rep? Last rep? How does it fail? Off the ground? Comes out of the hands? Cant lock it out? Are you stuck at 280 in the sense that you are not willing to try 285 because the reps leading up to 285 are miserable? ETC. They all mean "stuck" but all have potentially different solutions.

Tell us what "stuck" means and then we can suggest some things to try.

Thanks for all the responses.

What I mean by stuck at 280: I did 275x1x5 several weeks ago, and since early January have been trying to progress to 280x1x3, then 280x1x4, and then 280x1x5. I did 280x1x3 but I wasn't able to get that 4th or 5th rep at 280. I did a small reset to 275x1x5 and then tried 280 once again, but again no luck getting past 3 reps.

In response to my slow deadlift progression, I added some RDLs one day a week (2x8), as well as some other grip work (farmers walks done for HIIT once a week). As for other pulling exercises, I do chins 3x5 once a week, and rows 3x7 once a week.

bbuszard I think is suggesting DL'ing 1x5 plus 2x5 back-off sets (at 90% or so of the 1x5 weight, I'd guess?) once a week.

Finally, the difference between my squat and dl progress is pretty stark. I squat heavy (3x5), light (1x5 at -10%), and medium (2x5 -5%) each week, and every three weeks I'm still able to add 5 lbs to the squat. It seems pretty clear that you're all right that my dl volume is too low.

thanks again.

[Al Copersino]

What I mean by stuck at 280: I did 275x1x5 several weeks ago, and since early January have been trying to progress to 280x1x3, then 280x1x4, and then 280x1x5. I did 280x1x3 but I wasn't able to get that 4th or 5th rep at 280. I did a small reset to 275x1x5 and then tried 280 once again, but again no luck getting past 3 reps.

.

Shit, I got my numbering wrong in the post above: 275x1x5 should of course read 275x5x1, and so on for 280x3x1, 280x4x1 and 280x5x1.

[WFB]

Assuming you've answered the big 3, and your form is correct, you could try following this: How to Get The Most Beginner Gains: The Deadlift — Progressive Rehab and Strength

[Barry Charles]

Thanks for all the responses.

What I mean by stuck at 280: I did 275x1x5 several weeks ago, and since early January have been trying to progress to 280x1x3, then 280x1x4, and then 280x1x5. I did 280x1x3 but I wasn't able to get that 4th or 5th rep at 280. I did a small reset to 275x1x5 and then tried 280 once again, but again no luck getting past 3 reps.

In response to my slow deadlift progression, I added some RDLs one day a week (2x8), as well as some other grip work (farmers walks done for HIIT once a week). As for other pulling exercises, I do chins 3x5 once a week, and rows 3x7 once a week.

bbuszard I think is suggesting DL'ing 1x5 plus 2x5 back-off sets (at 90% or so of the 1x5 weight, I'd guess?) once a week.

Finally, the difference between my squat and dl progress is pretty stark. I squat heavy (3x5), light (1x5 at -10%), and medium (2x5 -5%) each week, and every three weeks I'm still able to add 5 lbs to the squat. It seems pretty clear that you're all right that my dl volume is too low.

thanks again.

There are many ways to skin this cat. Reynolds (here) has a few recent articles that advocates changing the minimal amount of variables and programming for maximum efficiency. That your other lifts are going up is nothing but good.

For deadlifts, first try a few mixed grip. Be careful as some people do not tolerate it, but it is very strong. Lots of pro-con discussions on the forum. Can easily turn a set of 3 into a set of 4 or five. Double over hand is great but mixed is a lot stronger. Hook is also great but has to be developed. For example, I can deadlift 200lbs more mixed than double overhand.

The second thing to consider is that going from 1x3 to 1x4 (@280) is a 33% increase, where as going from 280x3 to 285x3 is a 2% increase. I would progress using a fixed rep scheme and a very conservative progression. One set of five for deadlifts has been proven to work extremely well for many people and is sustainable for a very long time. But you may be ready to progress 1x3. If that (plus the warm ups and other stuff you do) is not enough volume, you can try 2 sets of three or one top set of three and one drop set of three.

Bottom line: If I could do 1x3@280 I would try 1x3@ 285 the next week, NOT 1x4@280.

[vanscyoc]

Assuming you have exhausted linear progression, assuming form is correct and assuming you're eating and sleeping enough...try two DL workouts weekly at least 96 hours apart. First for intensity about 266 lbs then 96 hours later try dynamic effort, i.e 55% of first workout but fast and maybe 2 (or 3) sets of 5 across and go fast...idea is to move the 5 reps as fast as can but WITH EXCELLENT FORM JUST LIKE INTENSITY DAY. Add 5lbs each intensity day...or even micro load until get past old PR. Use straps when grip fails but I'm betting you will be well over old PR before grip fails. I'm betting that once you get to about 370 you'll need to drop to one day per week strapped but who knows. Or wait for RIP to chime in but that's how I'd get unstuck if I were you. I'm close to your age and had to change squats to twice weekly because wasn't recovering on novice progression doing three days. I never missed a rep just felt like shit I'm still adding 5lbs each workout doing twice weekly but when that fails I'm going to use dynamic effort day for one workout.

[Gerald Boggs]

In response to my slow deadlift progression, I added some RDLs one day a week (2x8), as well as some other grip work (farmers walks done for HIIT once a week). As for other pulling exercises, I do chins 3x5 once a week, and rows 3x7 once a week.

Not any advice, but curious about why you think adding these exercise will help improve your deadlift. I thought the rack pull and halting pulls were the first to be added to help with a stalled deadlift?
Programming Halting Deadlifts | Nick Delgadillo

[Al Copersino]

Not any advice, but curious about why you think adding these exercise will help improve your deadlift. I thought the rack pull and halting pulls were the first to be added to help with a stalled deadlift?
Programming Halting Deadlifts | Nick Delgadillo

Yeah, I didn't mean to imply they help with the deadlift directly. I was just trying to give people a sense of my weekly volume of back exercises since I suspected people would recommend I raise my (too low) DL volume and I wanted them to have the whole picture.

[Gerald Boggs]

If you want to check your grip strength, have a go at the rack pulls. I was wondering if my grip was a weak link, but found I could rack pull 20% more then I deadlift and my grip was fine.

[Jeff Erickson]

I do pieces of the advice above. Karl has me aiming for 2x3 for my heavy days, once a week. At another session the same week he has me doing RDLs. I hope to get un-stuck with my DL soon. I'm your weight and 5'10" but have some years on you at almost 63. I'm a bit over a year into SS. I haven't gained weight in a while so my own theory is that I need to step up my game there.