Best Deadlift for a Thick Yoke?

Basically I’m trying to find the variation that gives me the full benefit to the upper back while limiting the amount of stress my lower back/ legs take since I’m squatting 4 days a week

I’ve used 4-6 inch blocks. From the floor probably recruits more legs, and requires more effort to get into position.

I would definitely start off using blocks if you’ve never done them before, and work your way down as you progress if you desire.

Any version will work. Not technically a deadlift but cleans are king for building the “yoke” in my opinion

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x2 Id consider cleans, also snatch grip high pull

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Yeah I love these. A set up I was thinking of would be something like this:

A) SGHP ramp to a 1-3RM

B) Rack Pull (maybe snatch grip rack pulls) 4x6

C1) chest supported row: 3x6-8
C2) Lat pulldown/chins: 3x8-12

D) some sort of face pull/pull apart/ rowing ergometer

That routine will build your back. High pulls are amazing for the upper back. You probably won’t be able to do any actual snatch grip on the rack pulls because the pins will get into the way. You can do a wider than normal grip though, and it should be sufficient for just building the back. If it were me I’d probably do the rows for slightly higher reps since you’ll already be doing two heavy lifts in lower ish rep ranges.

This is a good point. I’ll probably up the reps to 10-12. Maybe work my way up to 5 sets

Do snatch-grip deadlifts from the floor. Use straps and go for higher reps. I’ve doner 225 X 20 beltless in the past without compromising my spine, its just in the nature of the lift that you have to use lighter weght than you could handle conventionally. I think the lift is much more difficult that deficit deadlifts and targets the upper/mid back much more than other DL variations.

You’ll hate it though

Ever consider Kelso shrugs?

For me its not which one, but how.
On the final rep of my last set (whether heavy singles, triples of amrap) I will stand tall at the top and retract and depress my scaps and try to tense my traps and just hold at the top position until my traps feel like they are going to rip off. That and using 3 sec holds at the top of any shrugging movement.

And heavy ass clean pulls

I had good results with high reps snatch grip deadlift (using straps).

I’ve been coming back around to the idea of Romanian deads at the very end of a back workout, last exercise of the day, after “pre-exhausting” the lats and other back muscles with rows, pulldowns, and whatnot. If your back training is organized right/programmed accordingly, there’s basically no lower back risk since you’re not significantly draining the low back with the other work.

Why does it specifically have to be a deadlift variation then? Are face pulls or something like that not more appropriate?

I guess I just kinda figured a well rounded back training would include some kind of deadlift. Lots of guys swear they’re back thickness to em.

I don’t personally have much experience with them, but if I was trying to specifically target my upper back with some form of deadlift I might even consider doing them zercher style.

I know you are asking about deads, but I would probably rather do zercher squats over zercher deads, just for awkwardness.

I saw on YouTube the other day that Bugenhagen said something about cable zerchers where you attach the long bar to both pulleys and zercher it up. Tried it yesterday and it felt crazy. Big pull on my upper back/traps/mid back/ and even flutes because I started good morning’ing some of the later reps.

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Most of the useful stuff has already been said, in my limited experience I too rely on high pulls and snatch grip deads for traps (and a ton of other useful extras).

High pulls, I’ve been doing them for a couple weeks, still have to find the right weight and pull height, btw doing them in 10x3 EMOM has worked good - not too long to get boring, not too short to break me, enough rest time to improve technique and keep the reps explosive while packing a decent amount of volume. Since I’m still fiddling with this exercise, I use different grips and change things up from time to time - i.e. sometimes I’d do a progression in each set like clean grip high pull from blocks > clean grip high pull from hang > power clean from hang, or something like that.
I’d like to get good enough at it to do the trapi exercise (you can look it up on Youtube), which is basically a continuous set of high pulls from hang with no pauses between reps.

Snatch grip deads, I most surely have weak legs/quads, so I tend to feel them more in the legs before I can get low back soreness. I do them in 5x10 with a weight that is less than 50% of my conventional deads 1RM, pausing a second or two at the top. Adding a slight shrug at the top won’t hurt if you want them to really hit your traps. Doing them from the ground might effectively tire your legs a lot if they’re already tired from all the squatting, but doing romanian snatch grip deads starting from just above the knee should solve the issue. The exercises list you posted seems very upper back-centric so your lower back should be able to handle some work just fine.

Another option would be overhead shrugs. They’re not groundbreaking stuff, but are a good way to hit the traps without hitting the rest of the body. I’ve been doing them for some time now and definitely keeping them in my routine - 5x10 too, with a weight that I can overhead press for 8-10 good reps at any time, and a wide grip. The trick is to do every rep slowly and pausing at the top for a few seconds, since ROM is very short, it makes sense to me that increasing time under tension is key. Being overhead, it hits the whole trap (medial and lower portion too) and reinforces the habit of keeping a weight overhead, which is always useful.

I love the snatch grip high pull. It really does build your upper back, and it’s an explosive, speed movement that gives you power, too. Thibs is a big fan.

Depends who you ask. If you’re talking strictly size, plenty of bodybuilders saw better back growth after dropping deads. Other guys use deads but don’t “count it” as part of their back training. We discussed a bunch about it in this thread.

Just sayin’, deads are a big basic exercise, without a doubt, but they’re not “essential” for back size. If you want to train the back without stressing the lower back and legs, deadlift variations don’t fit the bill 100% because they’ll always use the low back/legs to some extent.