stuck on the deadlift

[espl88]

Hi all,

I am on the novice A/B program. It currently looks like this:

A:
Squat
Bench
Deadlift/Power clean

B:
Squat
Press
Chin ups
Back extensions

I have managed to increase on the deadlift every single workout, but now it's starting to become really heavy, and today I did not mange to do 5x1, but 3x1. I Increased from 153 kg to 155 kg.

What is the recommended way forward when this happens? Should I add some extra work after my deadlift sessions, like pause deadlifts or something similar?

Would be grategul for any input.

Cheers,

Espen

[Brodie Butland]

What are your other lifts right now?

[espl88]

What are your other lifts right now?

My latests lift were:

Press: 63.5 kg
bench press: 106 kg
Squat: 118 kg.

For the squat, I do one set of five and then two back off sets at 5% reduction. For the press and benchpress, I do 3x3. For all of these lifts, I try to increase Mon and Fri, and have a lighter day on wednesday at 80 %. The squat is a real struggle atm, but I manage to do 1 kg jumps. The bench and press are increasing quite well now after I went from 5x3 to 3x3.

Espen

[Brodie Butland]

Age and gender?

[espl88]

Male 28. I am 188 cm and weigh approx 100 kg.

By reading other articles I see that I shouldn't really be stuck. I eat alot, altough I am not counting calories. But it would surprise me if it wasn't sufficient. I do not have very good sleep tho.. some weeks I sleep ok, but other weeks I might have terrible sleep, and I understand that is negative on my strength development.

So I take long break between sets, I eat alot, but I probably dont get enough sleep, but there's little to be done on the last point.

[Brodie Butland]

Well, the first issue is you're not really doing the program, which calls for 3 sets of 5 across except for the deadlift and the power clean.

The second issue is that you're not eating enough to recover. Even if sleeping is sometimes out of your control, eating is not. You'll need to track your intake for a few days to see where you are and adjust from there--guesswork isn't enough when you get into advanced novice.

There also may be form issues, so I'd recommend visiting the technique forum to see how you're doing there. The deadlift especially is prone to failure with form faults, so cleaning those up is imperative.

[espl88]

That makes me a bit confused. I was doing 5x3 for all exercies, but I plataued on the squat, bench and press. Changing from 5x3 on the squat to back off sets, and to 3x3 on the bench and press, and adding in a lighter day, was something I got from the "advanced novice" section, so I wasnt aware that doing those changes were not according to the program?

I get from your response that you want me back to doing 5x3 on all exercises. Is doing another resetting while tracking my calories the way to go? And if so, when I do this, and I plateu again, should I avoid doing any of the adjustments I already did, or what should be my next approach?

[Brodie Butland]

That makes me a bit confused. I was doing 5x3 for all exercies, but I plataued on the squat, bench and press. Changing from 5x3 on the squat to back off sets, and to 3x3 on the bench and press, and adding in a lighter day, was something I got from the "advanced novice" section, so I wasnt aware that doing those changes were not according to the program?

You are correct that changing up rep and set schemes is a viable option--but to clarify, this is only once you have exhausted linear progression. It should be a last resort, not an early fix. The purpose of switching to a top set and backoff sets, or to go to 3x3, is to milk a last little bit of linear progression before switching to intermediate because the normal 5x3 template is too much to recover from.

If you're squatting top sets of 116kgx5, then that suggests to me you plateaued a bit before that. Unless you're a very rare case, your problem is recovery--i.e., not eating enough--not overtraining. Although everyone's numbers are a little different, I would expect a 28 year old male weighing over 100kg to get a bit beyond 116kg before having to switch to intermediate, or vary the rep and set scheme to milk out the last little bit of LP.

Your bench press and press may be closer to the transition stage...but it's hard to say for sure without seeing how proper recovery affects your ability to progress.

I get from your response that you want me back to doing 5x3 on all exercises. Is doing another resetting while tracking my calories the way to go? And if so, when I do this, and I plateu again, should I avoid doing any of the adjustments I already did, or what should be my next approach?

Exactly. I would do a small reset (maybe 10%), do the program as written, and track your nutritional intake (esp. macros...not just calories).

I would also make sure you're resting sufficiently between work sets. If you're only resting 3-5 minutes, it's probably not enough.

The First Three Questions | Mark Rippetoe

[espl88]

Thanks! Will try these suggestions.

[Brodie Butland]

Thanks! Will try these suggestions.

You're welcome, and best wishes for the gainzZz.