Deadlift Failure and Volume

[mgage]

Hi Andy,

I have been failing on deadlifts the past two attempts at an intensity day. Last time it was missed reps on 395. This time the bar just wouldn't budge at the same weight. I've added volume to DL, as discussed below, and I'm thinking that might be the reason I'm missing a weight that shouldn't be that hard. I just wanted to run it by you and see if you agreed that maybe I should back down the DL volume.

I was doing a 4-day texas method split until a few weeks ago. For deadlifts, I switched not too long ago from a heavy set of 5 to 2 sets of 3 and eventually down to 2 sets of 2 to keep things moving in 10 lb jumps (this is another thing I could tweak down to 5 lbs). So, volume wasn't that high.

I was only having moderate success on TM and averaging progress about every other week. So, I decided not to fight it and try and construct my own bi-weekly progression. The quick version looks like this:

Volume Week:
Mon - Bench heavy-ish 90% or so single, back off for 5x5; incline, chins
Tue - Squat single, then 5x5; work up to 1x5 deficit DL
Thu - Press single, then 5x5; close grip bench, chins
Fri - moderate power cleans; deadlift single, then 3x5; paused squats for 3x5

Intensity Week:
Same ordering of things and basically just runs the same as intensity days of TM. For Bench and Press, I'm working up to 2 sets of 3, squat still on a set of 5, and deadlift is 2x2. Intensity sets from this week were 215 for bench, 155 for press, 340 for squat, and supposed to be 395 for DL which I have pulled before for singles. I'm 5'7" and 197 lbs. if that helps you too.

Questions:
1. Would you drop the volume day DL down? Maybe 1x5 instead?
2. Would you do anything with the deficit DL?
3. Any other glaring problem that I'm missing?

Thanks for your help!

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

Probably just too much squat and pulling volume overall