Deadlift Volume

I’m doing the Greyskull program and it’s going well, getting stronger and losing a bit of weight so all good! Only part of the program I’m not that sure of is the deadlift, you do it once a week, which I know is plenty but you only do one AMRAP set with no warmup! I’m up to 10 reps at 80kg at the moment and while this takes it out of me for a couple of minutes I recover quickly and feel I could do more. It feels more of a strength test rather than a actual workout if that makes sense.

I’m recovering very well between sessions as well so wondering it I should up the volume a bit. Maybe do them like the rest of the program and do 2x5 + 1xAMRAP. What do you think?

If the program is working, I don’t understand why you would want to change it.

I only perform 1 set of deadlifts (or mat pulls) once a week. I feel like it works well.

I do not know the program you mentioned but i’m sure you can burn 1 rep @ 95lbs then at 135 till you hit your working set. Just do a few reps maybe even sets of 1.

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
If the program is working, I don’t understand why you would want to change it.

I only perform 1 set of deadlifts (or mat pulls) once a week. I feel like it works well.[/quote]

Ya I know man and don’t want really to mess with it much if at all. I just want to get the most out of my time in the gym. Do you do any warm up? Just feels a bit odd not doing warm up sets for a compound lift! For squats I do no bar squats, empty bar x10 then 2 sets of 5 working up to my working weight. I feel this helps with technique as much as anything so going straight to working weight with deadlifts just seems unwise at best!

[quote]Dave_70 wrote:

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
If the program is working, I don’t understand why you would want to change it.

I only perform 1 set of deadlifts (or mat pulls) once a week. I feel like it works well.[/quote]

Ya I know man and don’t want really to mess with it much if at all. I just want to get the most out of my time in the gym. Do you do any warm up? Just feels a bit odd not doing warm up sets for a compound lift! For squats I do no bar squats, empty bar x10 then 2 sets of 5 working up to my working weight. I feel this helps with technique as much as anything so going straight to working weight with deadlifts just seems unwise at best! [/quote]

When I deadlift, it’s the first lift of the day, so I warm up for it. My understanding is that you deadlift later in the workout for Greyskull.

When I compete, I don’t warm up for deadlifts, as they happen later in a contest and I find I am warm by the time I get to them.

That said, I don’t think warming up is going to negative impact your training.

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:

[quote]Dave_70 wrote:

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
If the program is working, I don’t understand why you would want to change it.

I only perform 1 set of deadlifts (or mat pulls) once a week. I feel like it works well.[/quote]

Ya I know man and don’t want really to mess with it much if at all. I just want to get the most out of my time in the gym. Do you do any warm up? Just feels a bit odd not doing warm up sets for a compound lift! For squats I do no bar squats, empty bar x10 then 2 sets of 5 working up to my working weight. I feel this helps with technique as much as anything so going straight to working weight with deadlifts just seems unwise at best! [/quote]

When I deadlift, it’s the first lift of the day, so I warm up for it. My understanding is that you deadlift later in the workout for Greyskull.

When I compete, I don’t warm up for deadlifts, as they happen later in a contest and I find I am warm by the time I get to them.

That said, I don’t think warming up is going to negative impact your training.
[/quote]

Ya the deadlift is the last of the session so guess my muscles would be warmed up well enough but I’ll put in a couple of warmup sets for movement practice. Thanks for the input man.

[quote]Dave_70 wrote:

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:

[quote]Dave_70 wrote:

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
If the program is working, I don’t understand why you would want to change it.

I only perform 1 set of deadlifts (or mat pulls) once a week. I feel like it works well.[/quote]

Ya I know man and don’t want really to mess with it much if at all. I just want to get the most out of my time in the gym. Do you do any warm up? Just feels a bit odd not doing warm up sets for a compound lift! For squats I do no bar squats, empty bar x10 then 2 sets of 5 working up to my working weight. I feel this helps with technique as much as anything so going straight to working weight with deadlifts just seems unwise at best! [/quote]

When I deadlift, it’s the first lift of the day, so I warm up for it. My understanding is that you deadlift later in the workout for Greyskull.

When I compete, I don’t warm up for deadlifts, as they happen later in a contest and I find I am warm by the time I get to them.

That said, I don’t think warming up is going to negative impact your training.
[/quote]

Ya the deadlift is the last of the session so guess my muscles would be warmed up well enough but I’ll put in a couple of warmup sets for movement practice. Thanks for the input man.[/quote]

That sounds like the best approach. Definitely don’t change what’s working, but there’s no way a couple of warm ups would hurt.

[quote]Dave_70 wrote:
Only part of the program I’m not that sure of is the deadlift, you do it once a week, which I know is plenty but you only do one AMRAP set with no warmup! I’m up to 10 reps at 80kg at the moment and while this takes it out of me for a couple of minutes I recover quickly and feel I could do more. It feels more of a strength test rather than a actual workout if that makes sense. [/quote]

Nobody ever said you’re not supposed to do warmup sets on Greyskull.

[quote] JohnnyPain wrote:

You do need to warm up your lifts. 8 reps on the warm up sets is a bit much though for many. Stick to 5 or less with the exception of the first set maybe during the warm up.

[/quote]

That being said, your working weight is still very low. But try this the next time you deadlift:

bar x5 (you won’t touch the ground with just the bar, so it’ll be more like an RDL)
40kg x5
60kg x3
85 kg x AMAP

warmup sets aren’t just there to warm up; you can use them to practice your technique. Aim for perfect posture, tension and leg drive.

There’s no reason not to do a warm up set or two if you feel you need one. I’m not familiar with Greyskull, so I don’t know how the sessions are sequenced but if a warm up helps, do it. Its well worth trying it to see if it has an effect or not.

You should definitely warm up before your max set. Ramp to your top set with a couple 5s, a triple, then a single or double.

If you want to add a little extra volume then you can do every warmup as a set of 5 and increase weight on every set each week. When the top set starts getting difficult to add weight then lower the warmups to sets of 3 and keep adding weight for as long as possible. I used this method for years deadlifting 1x / week to great effect.

You could work up to a set of AMAP. For example last week I did this:

135x5
185x5
235x5
285x7 (AMAP)
Extra set:
305x5