Deadlift advice

[MarkDavidson]

Apologies in advance for the length post.

I have been training for years since my army days, mainly just to keep in shape but also because I enjoy it. However, 7 months ago I started down the strength training road and have really taken to it.

I train 4 times a week, Monday, Tuesday, off Wednesday then Thursday Friday.

I currently do upper on Monday and Thursday and lower on Tuesday and Friday. Upper is bench press, rows, and overhead press while lower is squat and deadlift.

I have made good progress on all my lifts from where I started off and am very happy with where I'm going except in the deadlift.

Here is my question/dilemma. I have been deadlifting twice a week but feel that it may be becoming a bit much. I have been doing 3 sets of 5 twice a week and adding weight each time. A few weeks back I was feeling good and I pulled 227.5kg for 1 with good form, the following week I did 200kg for 5, the last rep was sloppy and form was slipping.

I decided to base my deadlift program off my 1RM and do a light and heavy day each week and add weight every session. Any way, yesterday was my light day and I did 182kg (80% of 1RM)for 5 reps x 3. On my heavy day I was planning on 1 set of 5 at 204.75 (90%). Is that too much? Either that or 2 triples at the same weight?

When I discussed it with the guy who coached me earlier in the year(my gym owner) he says I should base my workout off of my 5RM. The weights that workout to be seems low. He suggested 80% of 5RM for light and 90% for heavy. That would be 160kg for 5 reps x 3 and 1 set of 180kg x 5 for heavy.

Considering I just did 182 for 5 x 3 the other night I don't think that is right.

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

[SD3]

Apologies in advance for the length post.

I have been training for years since my army days, mainly just to keep in shape but also because I enjoy it. However, 7 months ago I started down the strength training road and have really taken to it.

I train 4 times a week, Monday, Tuesday, off Wednesday then Thursday Friday.

I currently do upper on Monday and Thursday and lower on Tuesday and Friday. Upper is bench press, rows, and overhead press while lower is squat and deadlift.

I have made good progress on all my lifts from where I started off and am very happy with where I'm going except in the deadlift.

Here is my question/dilemma. I have been deadlifting twice a week but feel that it may be becoming a bit much. I have been doing 3 sets of 5 twice a week and adding weight each time. A few weeks back I was feeling good and I pulled 227.5kg for 1 with good form, the following week I did 200kg for 5, the last rep was sloppy and form was slipping.

I decided to base my deadlift program off my 1RM and do a light and heavy day each week and add weight every session. Any way, yesterday was my light day and I did 182kg (80% of 1RM)for 5 reps x 3. On my heavy day I was planning on 1 set of 5 at 204.75 (90%). Is that too much? Either that or 2 triples at the same weight?

When I discussed it with the guy who coached me earlier in the year(my gym owner) he says I should base my workout off of my 5RM. The weights that workout to be seems low. He suggested 80% of 5RM for light and 90% for heavy. That would be 160kg for 5 reps x 3 and 1 set of 180kg x 5 for heavy.

Considering I just did 182 for 5 x 3 the other night I don't think that is right.

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

If that 1RM of 227.5 kg is accurate then I think planning on starting a new cycle with a heavy day of 1×5 @ 90% is too aggressive. Those weights he gave you (160kg 3×5 for volume, and 180kg 1×5 for heavy day) work out to about 70 & 80% respectively. That looks like a good starting place for this next cycle and will give you some room to build some momentum going forward. That being said if it feels incredibly easy for you then you can of course bump it up a little, but I wouldn't go up much more than about 5% each (to 75 & 80%).

[El Rojo]

Set the light day based on your heavy day. Starting with a 10% offset is good and you can increase the spread over time if need be. You are doing just fine.

That said, I would use a variant for the light day and train that maximally. Stiff-leg, snatch grip, deficit dl... whichever you like the better.

[MarkDavidson]

Thanks people.

I think I'll go with 75% for volume and 85% for heavy and increase the weight from there.

[Andrew Jackson]

Those are reasonable starting points for your heavy/light days respectively and you should be able to add weight week over week from there. If the heavy days stalls out you could try cycling reps/sets for the top set. You'll likely be able to push progress for several weeks from there.