Sometimes we like to outsmart ourselves with complexity, and often we wind up doing more work and more thinking than we need to, when less work will get the job done just as well.
I’m currently coaching a young lifter who is working his way through law school and doesn’t have a lot of time or energy to devote to weight training, although he still makes it into the gym 2-3 days per week pretty regularly. And he busts his ass while he’s there.
He’s also very underweight (only about 140 pounds) but he seems pretty happy at this body weight. He knows he’ll be stronger if he gains weight, but I’m not one of those coaches who forces the issue all the time.
Your weight is your decision not mine, and I’ll figure out a way to get your lifts up regardless. It might be slow and tedious, but we’ll get them to move.
So for the last several months we’ve been using a very simple method for his deadlift program, and just last week we hit our 405 deadlift goal. Not bad for a buck-40 lifter.
On Thursdays we Press & Deadlift. And that is our only Deadlift session of the week. No light days, no assistance work. 3 sets of Deads once per week.
Just a few weeks ago we tested the Deadlift and he pulled 385. So we set up his next training cycle like this:
Week 1: 5 x 5 x 75%
Week 2: 3 x 3 x 90%
Week 3: 3 x 5 x 80%
Week 4: 2-3 x 2-3 x 95%
Week 5: 3 x 4-5 x 85%
Week 6: New Single
We’ve done this cycle twice now, each time, we’ve hit a a new 20-lb PR in Week 6. The first 3 weeks are generally not too hard, and in fact, in this second cycle we actually wound up pulling 8-reps in the last set at 80% in Week 3. The 95% week is definitely the hardest week and so I build in some flexibility. We can do as little as 2×2 or as much as 3×3 depending on bar speed. Week 5 is somewhat hard, mainly from the fatigue of the 95% week and so again, we have some flexibility in rep range. I’m aiming for 3×4, but if he feels good, I let him pull 5. No AMRAP sets in Week 5 though. We save any extra energy for week 6.
So far this cycle has paid off and now I’ve got a few other clients running it as well and so far so good.
Is this right for you? No way to tell, but if your Deadlift is stuck, and you’ve overcomplicated your programming (again) then try this out and see what happens.
When in doubt…..increase effort and simplicity.
If you like this, you can find even more simple programs here: TRAINING PROGRAMS
