Deadlift progress

[Cousin Bo]

Hello Andy,

I'm having trouble with increasing my deadlift. I have been doing TM 4 day split, I deadlift on my Intensity day after squats. I start out with reps of 5 and add 5lbs every week. After a while I can't make 5 reps so I do 4, then 3, etc. When I get to doubles and singles I usually do a back off set of 80% for 5. At a certain point when singles get too heavy I reset and start over again.

This time I can tell I might stall around the same weight because the progression is looking the same as the last cycle. I have been gaining weight at a steady rate and my other lifts are all doing well.

The only thing that has changed is that I started doing heavy shrugs on Tuesdays (deadlift on Friday).

Do you think I should move the shrugs to Monday after Volume or add RDLs, SLDL or Back Extension at any other point? Or drop everything and just do deadlifts with a different type of progression scheme?

Thanks for the advice.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

In my experience, shrugs aren't going to do a whole lot to move your deadlift. I think adding in about 2x5 heavy stiff legs would work better. You could do them on volume day or as back off work after your regular deads on ID

[Cousin Bo]

In my experience, shrugs aren't going to do a whole lot to move your deadlift. I think adding in about 2x5 heavy stiff legs would work better. You could do them on volume day or as back off work after your regular deads on ID

The reason I mentioned shrugs was because I thought they might be adversely affecting my progress. I do 8 sets of 3 or 4 reps on Tuesday.

Thanks for the advice, I'll keep the shrugs for vanity and add SLDL after deadlifts on Friday.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

That's a lot of volume on the shrugs. Especially if they are heavy power shrugs then it may very well be adversely affecting your deads

[Cousin Bo]

Yeah, I figured it wasn't helping.

I'll just do some dumbbell shrugs with higher rep from now on.