Ok guys , I am currently running that extended RSR so I squat twice a week .I am planning to do romanian deadlift sets after squat sets as an accessory exercise hopefully I push my deadlift forward by the end of RSR 8 weeks cycle (i.e. I will be doing romanian deads twice a week following squats and will not do my conventional deadlift until I finish the RSR )
Is that a good idea to push my deadlift or I will kill my lower back by such a plan ?
note : I am a natural raw w/wraps lifter
bw :220lb squat rm : 530lb deadlift rm: 540lb BP rm: 341 lb
Thanks in advance
I think its a great idea, just don’t over due the RDL’s, make sure form is good no back rounded etc…
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Romanian deadlifts are good, but why do you want to replace your competition deadlift with them? Maybe RDL one day and regular deadlift the other would make more sense.
What is RSR?
I’m not OP but I think pushing different lifts at times can be beneficial, I probably go 4 months out of the year when I don’t train my conventional deadlift at all and I pulled 275Kg PR on Wednesday after 4 weeks of adding it back in and a shoulder surgery a 4 months ago, I think it just depends on the person.
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Yeah, that’s one way to go about it. But still, RDL probably isn’t the best replacement for deadlifts, maybe SLDL (so you get a full range of motion) or deficit deadlifts.
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RSR : Russian Squat Routine
I train 4 days a week so the split may be good as follows : day1: squat day2:Bench Press day3 : squat day 4: OHP and arms .Am afraid that regular deads in this case would tax my lower back a lot especially am a natural 40y lifter so maybe the RDL’s is going to be a good idea in this case or may be like what you said to include regular deads every other week for example after squat in day 3 when it is 6x2 80% rm squat so I can deadlift like 70-80% deadlift rm for instance
Exactly mate . I remember last year I broke through a deadlift plateau just after doing the Russian squat routine with 3 times squat a week after finishing it I set a new PR at deadlift it was 220 kg and become 240 kg by the end of the RSR and later on 245 kg though I wasn’t doing any deadlift for 6 weeks in a row
Ok, I see what you are saying. Seeing as you have already done this before (no actual deadlifting), it’s a fairly safe bet. Another possibility would be to do RDLs on one day and just work up to one top set for your competition deadlift the other day, maybe do some rows after. I’m not really a fan of not doing the competition lifts for an extended period, but if you have had positive results doing so in the past then I won’t try to stop you.
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Yeah I get the whole not being a fan of not training a comp lift, for me at least I have a hard time with recovering from deadlifting, when I pull a true 3 rep max or anything above that it trashes me for atlas 3 days on pretty much everything, its a tough thing to balance.
How often do you deadlift a week?
I deadlift once a week, on my main squat day I usually do good mornings or RDLs. I have deadlifted twice a week with success too, I just don’t see any added benefits of increased deadlift frequency. If 1-3rms cause a lot of fatigue then maybe don’t do them often, or at all. I almost never do any sort of rep maxes, you could just work up to a heavy (not max) triple/double/single and do lighter volume work after.
I don’t really find deadlifts to be much more fatiguing than squats, but if I’m tired then my deadlift is affected more than my squat or bench it seems. Once you have the weight loaded on your back or in your hands it kind of wakes you up, with the deadlift you have to wake yourself up if you want the bar to come up off the floor.
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Hmm the idea I was toying with this next cycle is speed deadlifts one day with like 50 percent and wave that up to 70 percent over four weeks maybe doing a 10x2
You don’t need to go that light, most speed work guidelines you see online are based on Westside and they use bands and chains there. I would keep it between 70-80%, if you’re only doing 1-3 reps per set it’s not too heavy at all. What I do these days, not just for deadlift but for squat and bench as well, is a heavy top set of 1-3 reps (not an all out max, unless it’s a bad day) and then speed work as described for volume. I would start off with something like 70%x3x4-6 sets with 1 minute rest and add 10lbs each week, 5lbs. for bench. When that gets too hard you can increase rest periods to 90 seconds and/or switch to doubles. You could do singles for deadlift but it kind of seems pointless for squat and bench. I got this from Josh Bryant.
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I happen to have access to use of chains and bands, I was thinking starting out with a bands that will ad around 80 pounds at the top
I don’t really know all the specific details of how to set up DE work according to Louie Simmons, you can look up his articles on the Westside Barbell site. That still sounds light to me if you have 50% bar weight, you have a 600 deadlift so 300+80 at the top in bands is just over 60%. Blaine Sumner recently spent some time at Westside and was saying how they use way more band tension than most people think and DE work is not easy at all.
Here is some dude pulling against mini bands. The bands are draped over the bar, then anchored to the floor. The bands are just barely stretched at the bottom, and merely kinda stretched at the top. So, they add a little, pretty gradually.
Here’s Louie. The bands are “Quaded.” Looped around bar, under power rack, back over the the rack again, under the rack, and finally looped over the bar again. The bands are way more stretched at the bottom, and become way, way more stretched at the top. This means more tension to start, and a much greater, and faster increase in tension as you move through the lift. It’s the rapid increase in force “against” you that teaches you to pull faster.
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I usually deadlift once a week as a maximum no more than once a week squat once or twice only when squat thrice then I don’t deadlift at all until finish the cycle after 6 weeks
I love doing Romanian deadlifts. IF your hamstrings are the muscle group that limits you in a conventional deadlift, the RDL is a great choice to work on to increase your conventional deadlift, right?
Yes, but often it seems that people have weak glutes as well, or just don’t use them properly.
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