When to start programming haltings/rack pulls/deficit pulls?

[stronger]

Pulled 365x4 on a 5rm attempt tuesday. I've been staying up till 4am every night for the past month, so that probably hasn't helped me one bit. I know, I know. Dumb.

When would it be a good idea to start including various deadlift assistance exercises? Am I correct in thinking I would program them in some alternating fashion, i.e. week A - rack pulls week B - halting deadlifts?

Apologies if this has been covered in SS:BBT, my copy is currently on loan.

[Bloodninja666]

What was your sticking point in the missed rep?

[stronger]

What was your sticking point in the missed rep?

the whole thing.

It was one of those deadlifts where your grip wont even wrap around the bar because your body says you are utterly spent. Rep 5 wasn't even attempted (grip strength is fine though, never an issue)

My weak point is off the floor, so I should probably start working on haltings anyway. Trying to make a push for 500 in 2010

[Mr.City]

It could be an issue of overtraining. How often are you deadling and how big are your jumps?

[zepled37]

Sounds like a recovery issue for this specific case, but I'm interested in opinions on this in general.



My deadlift was progressing nicely and feeling very strong, but feeling heavy again now. Not sure if it is a recovery issue or just temporary.

If you alternate rack pulls and haltings, when do you work in regular deadlifts?

[stronger]

It could be an issue of overtraining. How often are you deadling and how big are your jumps?

I'm deadlifting once weekly, on my volume day for Texas Method. My jumps are 5lbs/week

so for example, last workout was:

squat- 320x5x5
press- 123x5x5
deadlift- 365x5

I'm sure my deadlift numbers are somewhat dampened by the two preceding exercises (especially the squats), but that's just the way it is. Recovery is definitely an issue, and I have no one to blame but myself. Caloric intake also needs to be more consistent.

[stronger]

If you alternate rack pulls and haltings, when do you work in regular deadlifts?

Under this program, from what I gather reading Rip's posts, you don't deadlift except when you are warming up for the competition and then making your official lifts.

This is what he followed when he was competing, but I'm sure you could test every 2 months for fun, for instance.

[zepled37]

FYI:

I decided to not be so lazy and looked up haltings in SS:BBT and found some descriptions of when to switch on page 209. Basically no surprises...when you can't recovery from the deadlift within in the time frame needed for your workout routine, switch to haltings and rack pulls.

Rip gives the example of someone pulling 500+ for 5 reps which is pretty damn strong, but obviously there is not specific number for this. Same as many answers I believe. If there are no recovery issues from sleep, food, stress, etc., then you might need to change your program.

[PMDL]

I'm deadlifting once weekly, on my volume day for Texas Method. My jumps are 5lbs/week

so for example, last workout was:

squat- 320x5x5
press- 123x5x5
deadlift- 365x5

I'm sure my deadlift numbers are somewhat dampened by the two preceding exercises (especially the squats), but that's just the way it is. Recovery is definitely an issue, and I have no one to blame but myself. Caloric intake also needs to be more consistent.

Two things:

1) Sometimes deadlifting once a week gets to be too much to keep the week-to-week linear gains going; however,

2) That's also a helacious squat workout you just did before hand, and I'd almost guarantee that the fatigue is limiting your pull.

I don't think people need to think about completely dropping the pull from training in favor of special exercises until they're very, very strong. I'm talking well over 500 and probably over 600 before you'd even need to consider it.

I'd look more at fiddling with the loading parameters, specifically not kicking your ass with a squat workout before you try a deadlift PR. If you're set on doing squats, either do them light or do easier front squats. If it were me, I wouldn't squat at all beforehand.

If that doesn't work, then go through the rest of your troubleshooting process.

[bugbomb]

Another idea is just to deadlift in a separate session. I typically do my squats and presses in the gym, and then do my pulling exercises in my garage later. I've found that the few hours often lets me recover enough to pull strong, and I have the added benefit of receiving precisely ZERO dirty looks when I set the bar down noisily.

How much do you weigh? 365x5 is a solid pull, but I wouldn't think you'd need anything fancy yet. Also, it doesn't seem wise to make programming decisions when you are aware that there are easily controllable recovery issues.