Andy Baker HLM method -- programming DL

[worksalot]

Hi,

32 yo sedentary male here. 5'7, 165 lbs. I've been lifting for a bit less then a year.

I'm on an HLM program right now. Powercleans on mondays, DL on wednesday and RDL on Fridays.

Ever since the end of the novice program, progress has been very slow and difficult for my DL and I suspect I need more than 7 days to recover between maximum DL attemps.

For the last ~ 2 months, the usual pattern is something like that : I'll get my max for five reps, then the next week I will barely be able to lift 2 reps while adding only 1kg, and sometimes, the bar wont even budge once. Then, the week after, I'd suddenly be able to do 5 reps, and then add some 1kg more. For instance, last Wednesday, I lifted 140 kg x 5 (new PR), and today, my last DL warm-up felt like a work set, and I couldn't lift at all the 141 kg work set. I don't think I would've be able to lift 140,5 kg, or even the 140kg I lifted last week.

I guess I need to introduce rack pulls + haltings. My question is how to program them.


1. Do I keep PC + RDL the same, and alternate between rack pulls and haltings every other Wednesday ?


2. When do I DL, if ever?

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

What I would do is follow this natural cycle / pattern you have noticed. It's very common. Keep doing the DL on Wednesdays. One week, go heavy, and pull a heavy set of 3-5. The next week, drop the weight around 10% and pull with a medium amount of volume, like 3x5 or 4x4 or something like that. Just cycle back and forth between higher intensity and higher volume.

[worksalot]

Thanks Andy, that sounds very logical !

At what point do you usually program partials ? Only when the heavy-medium method fails ?

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

I never really did the Halting + Rack Pull alteration. That is Rips thing more than mine. Not saying it doesn't work, I just never programmed that particular combo. I generally like lowest effective dose of complexity. Start with tinkering around with sets/reps/vol/int with an exercise and THEN start toying around with exercise selection. Rack Pull / Halting is fine, so is Rack Pull / SLDL.

[worksalot]

Thanks, Andy.

Really appreciate your advice.

[Bradley Gish]

I’ve been programming Haltings/ Rack Pulls for over a year now with decent success. I’m closing in on a #600 DL. I use a five week rotation HDL/RP/HDL/RP/DL. You can probably start the RP with a set of 5 close to your 1RM DL. HDLs will start with a set of 8 that’s close to your 5RM DL. You may have to adjust this from here, as this isn’t set in stone. This article is useful, and you could always go directly to Rip and ask advice:

Programming Halting Deadlifts | Nick Delgadillo