Post: #26

Yeah I suspected it more more my air than caffeine.

The positive side is I am busting pb's all over the place recently, my discipline is up and I'm seeing gains so I am doing something right.

I guess this comes with the territory. Just asking those who've mapped this out before me. As Newton said, "I stand on the shoulder of giants"

Cheers fellas.

Post: #27

If you're fainting after doing a set of deadlifts, I would look at your cardio endurance. Your poor heart is giving out.

Try doing some jump roping. Lower the DL weight and add in cardio to get your heart up to par. Try again later on.

Gotta look holistically at yourself when doing compound lifts.

Post: #28

(11-19-2012 12:21 PM)muc Wrote:  Thanks for the answers. What you say makes sense.

Yeah I do the deadlifts fairly at the beginning. My routine is walking/running + 40 pushups (warmup), then squats, then overhead-press, then deadlift and then all the rest. Usually I start with very low weight and do 6 reps, then increase 10kg, until I reach the limit and then I try to do 3 sets at the limit (18 reps total), but I'm not sure if that is clever. Perhaps I should just increase with 1 set each and stop when I can't lift it anymore.

But yeah, it's an excellent exercise. Everyone should do it, but very few people at the gym do it. Very few.

Deadlifting for reps is asking for trouble. The most I ever do is 5 to 4 sets of 4 reps at 60-70% 1 rep max and I reset between each rep. Everything above that is 3-4 sets of 2-3 reps max up to 85% and then only singles above that. I only lift one weight during my work sets for deadlifts. So I'll warm up with a set of 5 @ 25%, 3 @ 50%, then do all my work sets at 75%. Or if it's a heavy day I'll warm up with 5 @ 25%, 3 @ 50%, 1 @ 75% and then all my work sets at 90%.

If you want to hit your hamstrings for reps there are other exercise such as the glute ham raise which are better suited for that kind of work out. Doing high numbers of deadlifts in a single session is just asking for a hernia.

Post: #29

Ensam,

So based on what you are saying, I guess I am doing it all wrong. I warm with 2 sets (5 reps) at 135, then 2 sets (5 reps) at 175 and today I went for 2 sets (5 reps) at 225. Last set at 225 was pretty rough (like I set it down for a second between each lift).

I felt light headed (usually do) and was a little more nervous after watching those videos of the guys passing out. I leaned against the wall between sets and took deep breaths.

So how many singles do you do? And how much do you escalate the weight for the singles? Or you just keep it at 90%? Thanks.

Post: #30

Your work sets seem pretty reasonable. Maybe cut down on the warm up a bit and get up to the heavy weights as quickly as you feel safe. So 1 set of 5 @ 135, 1 set of 3 @ 185, and 4 sets of 4 at 225.

For me today was a 4x4 80% (of 405) day so I did:
1 x 5 warm up @ 135
1 x 3 warm up @ 225
1 x 1 warm up @ 285
4 x 4 work sets @ 325

The warm ups are really just enough to get my form locked in. I do deadlifts last so I'm already pretty warmed up and loose. I do enough at each weight to feel safe and then go up to my max weight as quickly as possible. This way I'm spending all my energy lifting heavy. I reset my hands on each rep and I sit down on a bench and rest for 3-5 minutes between sets.

I typically go 8 weeks between 1 rep max tries. Each 8 week cycle consists of two 4 week mini-cycles. A 4 week mini cycle goes from Week 1 - 5x4 70%, Week 2 - 4x4 80%, Week 3, 4x2-3 85%, Week 4 5x1-2 90-95%. Then on my max rep day I'll warm up relatively quickly, take a 1 rep at 95% if it goes well I'll take a 1 rep at my max rep, then I'll do 5 lbs above my previous max. If I make the lift and am feeling good I might go 10-15 lbs above and do one more try. The results have been a pretty consistent 15 lbs increase in my one rep max every 8 weeks over the past year. I was at 315 when I started and am now at 405.

Post: #31

Everyone is different. Some people can tolerate more deadlift volume, some less so. Even with the same lifter, depending on where he's at and how he's been training in recent months, he may respond to volume differently.

I'm built rather poorly for deadlift, but sometimes I respond very well to high volume (e.g doing Sheiko with double deadlift sessions, or 3x weekly deadlifting) and other times (like right now) I respond best to doing up to 3x3 twice weekly. Got me up to 500x1 at 165 bw so far.

If what you're doing is working, keep going. When it stops working, change it up, listen to your body.

Generally though, I'd advise people to build up volume through squats, KB swings and other lighter DL variations like RDL, SLDL etc. and keep the work sets on main deadlift to the rule of 10 (2x5, 3x3, 5x2, 6-10x1 etc.)

Post: #32