Difficulty recovering from deadlifts.

[twogun]

I have SS, Strong Enough, and the DVD. Sent a copy of SS to a friend also. Thanks for the quality work.

41 yrs. 6'3" 240# (up from 225) SS for about 6 months.

Work sets:

Squat: 250 (up from 135)
Bench: 245 (up from 175)
Deadlift: 412 (up from 315)
Press: 145 (up from 95)
Hangclean: 175 (up from 135)
Pull/chinups: 10/13

Deadlifts are still progressing but getting brutally hard to recover from. My squat sets the following workout are horrible.

If I understand what I've read in SS, rackpulls and haltings aren't as hard to recover from. So, I'm thinking about going to alternating weeks of haltings, rackpulls, deadlift. Deadlifting once every three weeks. Also thought about throwing in a day of goodmornings and only deadlifting once a month.

Is this reasonable, or is there a better approach?

[Mark Rippetoe]

How often are you deadlifting?

[twogun]

Usually works out to once every 10 days. Sometimes two weeks between. The recovery seems adequate for deadlifting, but when I squat two, three, or even four days after I'm very weak.

[Kenny Croxdale]

I have SS, Strong Enough, and the DVD. Sent a copy of SS to a friend also. Thanks for the quality work.

41 yrs. 6'3" 240# (up from 225) SS for about 6 months.

Work sets:

Squat: 250 (up from 135)
Bench: 245 (up from 175)
Deadlift: 412 (up from 315)
Press: 145 (up from 95)
Hangclean: 175 (up from 135)
Pull/chinups: 10/13

Deadlifts are still progressing but getting brutally hard to recover from. My squat sets the following workout are horrible.

If I understand what I've read in SS, rackpulls and haltings aren't as hard to recover from. So, I'm thinking about going to alternating weeks of haltings, rackpulls, deadlift. Deadlifting once every three weeks. Also thought about throwing in a day of goodmornings and only deadlifting once a month.

Is this reasonable, or is there a better approach?

Twogun,

The lower back is easily and quickly overtrained. Rack deadlifts are hard to recovery from. So, infrequent (less often) is best. Your once ever three weeks is a good idea.

This "No Deadlift, Deadlift Training Program" [http://www.liftinglarge.com/index.as...=Custom&ID=20] provide you with some good information. It is based on Bill Starr's "A Different Approach To Improving The Deadlift" and Loren Betzer's "To Deadlift More, Don't Deadlift."

The foundation of Starr's program is built on Good Mornings and Power Cleans.

Kenny Croxdale

[Mark Rippetoe]

Kenny is quite right (he's been doing this as long as I have), and that is why we usually switch from full deadlifts to a combination of rack pulls and halting DLs sometime in the intermediate stage of training. Your numbers indicate you may be there now. Or it may be that you are just not paying enough attention to recovery, and that should be given some thought as well.