Deadlift substituted for squats?

[cripsare4kidz]

A little tidbit/intro: I have Dystonia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dystonia) which is treated by DBS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_brain_stimulation) but not entirely uhh..."cured". I have certain hip/spine/knee/ankle alignment/joint issues that aren't extremely pronounced, but play a factor in lifting. For example, I won't do power cleans because my pelvis tilts to one side, causing my hip to rise when doing any movement where my feet leave the ground, such as walking or running.

Would it be plausible to build the routine mainly around deadlifts? I enjoy squatting, but sometimes get weird feelings in my knees, not a shakiness, but more of a pulling/tearing that doesn't necessarily hurt but feels weird. I also get a lot of pressure (not pain) in my lower back on some sets, which someone told me was due to a lot of blood rushing to that area.

As of right now, my routine is:

Workout A
3x5 Squat
3x5 Bench Press
1x5 Deadlift

Workout B
3x5 Standing Press
3x5 Pendlay Rows
3x5 Deadlift

For all I know my squat problem could be a flexibility issue. I'll try and get a video up tomorrow.

[FKYT]

Have you tried Jefferson squats or hack squats? How do those feel?

[Dastardly]

Stay away from jefferson or hack squats. Both set you up with a bent/twisted spine and are extremely difficult to employ an efficient safe technique even for an experienced trainee.

[ryderuveze]

If you want to switch to a DL based routine I would highly recommend checking out "Power to the People" by Pavel Tsatsouline. He advocates a DL and one press with a different set scheme than SS, but you can easlily incorporate his DL programming into SS. I've recently done something similar to what you're thinking of, but I still squat and PC. You could try something like this...

Mon
Bench/Press 3x5
DL 1x5 5RM, 1x5 90%, 1x5 80%
Chin Ups

Wed
Squat 3x5
Press/Bench 3x5
Row

Fri
Bench/Press
DL 1x5 5RM, 1x5 90%, 1x5 80%
Pull Ups

[Subsistence]

Can you do leg presses? I would try to do some movement with more quad involvement if I could. Or front squats. Many even fucking leg extensions if you become desperate.

[Josh306]

Deadlifts are an awesome strength builder, but I'm somewhat surprised to see Pendlay Rows in your routine. They strike me as something that would put an unneccesarilly large amount of torque on the lower back, given that the point of the exercise is really to strengthen the upper back. In the videos I've seen of Pendlay explaining these, he has an experienced Olympic lifter who already has massively developed erector spinae muscles demonstrating the exercise. Struck me as a lift only someone with that kind of erector spinae development should be doing, and certainly not someone like yourself with an already somewhat compromised back.

[cripsare4kidz]

My erector spinae and lower back are completely fine, its mostly my upper back, just have a bit of kyphosis. I was surprised I could do pendlay rows too lol. I always stressed having a strong back and that used to be all I would hit, but I'm more worried about the curvature of the spine when my hips are moving.

[veryhrm]

Squats, especially bellow parallel LB squats, feel weird for a lot of people in the beginning, i believe. How long have you been at it ? After about 3.5 months of doing them i still don't have them entirely dialed in when the weights get heavy. If you can get the form down i'd say i'd say keep w/ the squats. How are you working on form ?

[Josh306]

OK cool, glad to hear your lower back is fine. Just be careful with those rows, cos they look like an injury waiting to happen if you ask me. Not that anyone is asking me

As for your actual question, subbing deads for squats just means you won't get the unique benefits that come with squatting to parallel or below ie. maximum hamstring and glute strength. But you'll still get a decent amount of this from the deads, plus all the other benefits of that lift.

[Bif]

Stay away from jefferson or hack squats. Both set you up with a bent/twisted spine and are extremely difficult to employ an efficient safe technique even for an experienced trainee.

Sez you. Read this thread to see how to do the Jefferson Lift. It's a great lift -- works you hard.

http://startingstrength.com/resource...ad.php?t=25406