I see much information at the internet that one shall not deadlift heavy twice a week. Everyone seems to do 1 heavy 1 light or just 1 heavy session.
Am i the only one doing 2 heavy sessions a week?
My program is:
Monday/Thursday: Heavy singles at clean and press, bench press and biceps curls.
Tuesday/Friday: Heavy singles at squat, deadlift and rows.
This is followed up with several higher rep sets each session for hypertrophy work. I have done this routine for about 4 months and added 11 lbs to bench, 11 lbs to clean and press, 44 lbs to deadlift, 22 lbs to squat.
I am currently having a deload week and will max out on saturday so i am expecting to have new PRs by then.
My sessions takes 3 hours to complete.
My max lifts are raw (no belt, straps, wraps):
Squat 396 pounds, deadlift 528 pounds, bench press 275 pounds, clean and press 203,5 pounds.
My question to you guys is, what are the pros/cons of deadliting heavy twice a week?
@Niksamars, indeed they are heavy. Last cycle i stalled only after 4 weeks with this program, this cycle i stalled after 6 weeks. So it seems like my work capacity has gotten better as i have gotten stronger.
It will be interesting how many weeks i can go my “third” cycle before stalling with even heavier weights.
[quote]Boola wrote: @Niksamars, indeed they are heavy. Last cycle i stalled only after 4 weeks with this program, this cycle i stalled after 6 weeks. So it seems like my work capacity has gotten better as i have gotten stronger.
It will be interesting how many weeks i can go my “third” cycle before stalling with even heavier weights.[/quote]
I found as I got stronger, it was my ability to recover that became the limit. When I started competing I could run a prep-program that lasted 12-16 weeks. Ten years later and significantly stronger, if my prep ran longer than 6-8, it took pounds off my meet total.
My max lifts are raw (no belt, straps, wraps):
Squat 396 pounds, deadlift 528 pounds, bench press 275 pounds, clean and press 203,5 pounds.
[/quote]
How much do you weigh? Fact is plenty of stronger people than you got stronger by NOT doing what you did, because it seems to work better and you can recover from it quicker. Remember a workout is only as good to the point you can recover from it, anything else is simply not helping.
Indeed there are many schools out there, light/heavy etc. And i know guys which deadlift less often which are stronger. You are right with recovery, it will be interesting to see if i can pull 250 kg on saturday, if not i will only deadlift once a week.
@Herc410, that’s brutal man. The only thing i think it’s important is to have a rest/deload week before a max attempt so the cns is completely restored. Other then that i don’t either see difficulties deadlifting twice a week.
Damn heavy deads following heavy cleans 4 times a week. Thats a damn good effort to be able to recover from that.
I’ve done the baby 4 weeks smolov squat cycle before and that damn near killed me emotionally. I felt like a girl having to drag my arse into the gym 4x a week to squat.
How do you find you sleep? Are you eating more to help with recovery? Or do the 3 hours also include a bit of mobility/flexibilty/foam rolling?
Thanks man, it is grueling indeed. Smolov sounds not so easy either, i have never tried it myself though.
Warmup is always some light goblet squats followed by overhead squats 100 lbs for 3x3 then i begin to warmup with the normal excercises.
The key points to get a program like this to work is:
*Sleep 8-10 hours, preferably 10 hours.
*Eat a lot of calories, i am around 4000 a day sometimes more.
*Do it only for a month, then have a rest week/deload week and test your maxes.
I am going to start deadlifting heavy/light the 16th now because i feel this routine is really draining and mentally taxing. And i want to spend more time on work and other stuff instead.
Personally speaking I don’t see the reason to spend 3 hours in a gym when methods out there have shown to give you better results in less time. Just my 2 cents.
@LiquidMercury, indeed that’s another good reason to have a shorter routines. Altough John Broz have nice with squatting everyday so i tought heavy work pays off.
Strange that the deadlift can take so much from the cns really. When one could squat everyday and get away with it, and not deadlift twice and get away with it. We have such a weak cns in those terms of thinking.
Well thanks for the post i guess we can close this now.
Well you’re moving more weight and activating the upper body a bit more deadlifting versus squatting. Personally I only deadlift the 8 weeks leading up to a meet and don’t really deadlift the rest of the year.
Well you can see it that way aswell. But i think you should be happy to tell yourself that you are at an elite level and not saying “Nothing spectacular”. Because that’s a very strong deadlift to make either being 275 pound or 181 pounds.
But it’s always good to aim higher of course, without that we would not progress!
Hope be seeing you breaking the world record in a few years then! Good luck!