Deadlifting

Question for the fellas on here who deadlift, I'd like to hear your views.

I'm confused as to how often you should be doing these and in what pattern (in terms of sets/reps). I keep reading conflicting advice on the bodybuilding websites.

At the moment I do deads once a week, I do 4 sets in blocks of 6 reps. I don't do my reps as quickly as I would say upright or bent over rows though. My technique tends to be, deep breath in to raise the pressure in my core so I can feel it pushing against my belt, lift, hold for a couple of seconds at the top, then let the weight down, breathe out whilst setting myself again, take another deep breath then lift. About 2-3 seconds between each 'rep'.

Some of the stuff I've read says you should only deadlift every 2/3 weeks because the back is easy to overtrain. And when I look at some of the other fellas in my uni gym (admittedly these look like powerlifters from their build) they seem to be just lifting 1 rep at a time with massive rest time between each lift attempt.

Also, what other exercises do you guys do on deadlift day? I do back and forearms on the same day, so its Deadlifts, weighted pull ups, bent over rows, reverse bicep curls and wrist curls. I always do deads first though because I want my energy levels to be at their highest.

Must say the dead is my favourite exercise, I look forwards throughout the day I'm doing it on to getting in the gym and pulling. Also noticed its helped my posture a lot, I used to slouch a bit before I started deadlifting but the deadlift seems to have straightened out my posture.

i work up to 2 sets of 5 reps! a couple of seconds rest between each rep!

assistance excercises you need are: Good mornings, SLDL, Pull throughs, hyper extensions (with back day) pick one excercise 2x10-20 reps

good mornings on leg day 2x10-20 reps!

Again, it depends if your goal is size or strength.

1-4 reps = power
5-7 reps = strength (myofibril hypertrophy)
8-12 reps = size (sarcoplasmic hypertrophy)
13+ reps = endurance

Although I think with deadlifts (and squats, to a lesser extent) there is something to be said for working in a slightly lower rep range if your goal is purely to gain size anyway. Pulling that heavier weight will release a lot of testosterone, more so than working in a slightly higher rep range, even if it doesn't fatigue the muscle fibres quite so thoroughly, the hormonal benefits more than make up for it, if you ask me.

Not everybody does a back day and a leg day. It's more beneficial and gives better growth to work each muscle more than once a week.

theres plenty of different ways to arrange you deadlift volume, frequency, and intensity. Stick with what works for now (presumably what youre currently doing), and try a different approach in the near future. When I started deadlifting I was doing the same as you, it seems. Roughly 4 sets of 6, once a week, simply adding 5-10lbs each week.

Since then ive used all sorts of different ways of training them. Up to 3 times a week, 10-20 heavy sets of 5 each time, plus other exercises.

Recently I tried higher reps again, such as 8-10. Theyre great too. I normally would do the heavy **** first, then drop the weight and do a few high-rep sets afterwards.

here is an example of one of my recent DL workouts. reps,reps,reps x weight:

5,5 x 60
2 x 90
1 x 100,110,120,125
1,1 x 130
1,1 x 135
1,1,1 x 140
3,3 x 140
1,1,1 x 140
1,1 x 145
1,1 x 150
8,8,6 x 120

I always used to do heavy sets without reseting between each rep. Now im starting to do them as a series of singles, just standing up between each rep, then going again. The triples with 140 were done this way. I need to practice my first-pull so singles are a big feature in my DLing currently.

For the light-weight high-rep sets I dont reset, nor touch-and-go, but wait a second or two at the bottom, keeping in shape, then pull again.

pick any well-recommended way of training, and stick with it for a while.

lol bull ****! different strokes for different folks i guess but im a believer in HIT training

Are the weights your lifting in pounds or kilos? I normally do 5x5 for a dead routine, i do them once a week with a couple of warm up sets to grease up the joints then theres nothing left but to deadlift. Its also my favourite exercise, because to see twice my body weight being lifted off the floor gives me a great buzz and its good for confidence and motivation, plus all the added benefits like testosterone etc etc

If it takes you a whole week to recover, then I guess that's what you need to recover, but it sounds like you have a really, really poor recovery time. Personally I think most people can easily handle working each muscle at least twice a week if they're sensible enough not to do 15 sets for it each workout.

I've had much, much better growth working each muscle multiple times a week than just once. Rather than doing 12 sets for chest once a week, doing 5 sets 3 times a week has at least doubled my growth. Same with every other muscle. Working to absolute failure doesn't do much unless you're so huge that you need to recruit every last type II fast twitch muscle fibre to get any size. For anybody who's not a monster, full body training is the way to go.