If you are looking to add muscle mass, multiple sets of deadlifts in the 5-10 rep range will light your back up like no other lift.
If you are aiming to gain strength, completing a program involving deadlifts in the 1-5 rep range over various sets will help you get there.
If you just want to improve the strength and stability of your trunk, including abs and lower back, deadlifting relatively lighter weights with perfect technique will increase the stabilization strength of your abdominals, lats and erector muscles like no other lift.
There is nothing more functional than being able to safely lift an object from the ground. If you are training hard, chances are you are training the deadlift!
For the purpose of this article, let's focus on trying to add strength to our deadlift. The following deadlift program will be run in a cycle of 8 weeks and it will be focused primarily around a technique called isometric training. Isometric training has been around for thousands of years and its benefits have been scientifically researched and proven. Isometrics can simply be defined as a static contraction of a muscle. Your muscle is working against an object or weight, but the object or weight is not moving, therefore the angle of your joints is not changing. We can use isometrics to break through sticking points, or the point in the lift that the bar slows down or gets stuck. Each person has his or her own spot where a sticking point occurs. To find yours, think about where the bar slows down on your normal sets of deadlifts. Your sticking point will be right at the beginning of that spot in your range of motion.
Isometrics are best done for 5-6 seconds per set. Each set is 1 rep only. Picture yourself inside a power rack deadlifting the bar into safety pins located at your sticking point. As you pull into the pins as hard as possible for 5-6 seconds, you are exerting force against the pins but the bar is not moving. You are producing a ton of force right at the point where you are weakest in the deadlift. It has been shown that you can produce 15% more force in an isometric movement than you could doing a full muscular contraction. By producing this force during a set of isometrics, you are priming your body to be able to produce more force on your next set with a full unrestricted repetition. After driving your deadlift into pins set up in the rack, you will then move to another bar loaded to a given weight and pull a set of 2 full range of motion speed reps.
After the isometric set, the normal speed deadlifts you pull will feel even lighter. You will be producing more force on these reps because your body has been primed by the isometric contraction before the set. The more force you can exert into the barbell, the more weight you can lift!
Nick with a 600 deadlift for 2 reps.
Note: This video has volume. Click the video again to pause it.
We will complete the isometric / speed sets as the secondary lift on our deadlift day after our main heavier deadlift work. This program will be taxing, but it will help you set new deadlift personal records! The percentages will be based on your current one rep max of the deadlift. If you don't know it, take a workout the week before to work up to a difficult single and you should be able to get a good estimate from there. Be conservative! We don't want to miss reps. As usual, warm up before starting and gradually work up to your given weight for the day. On the isometrics, make sure you are pulling as hard as you can and keeping yourself in good position. For the speed sets, pull those as explosively as you can with perfect form. Let's get into the program:
Week 1:
Deadlift: 1 set @ 88% x 2 reps -- Rest 3-5 minutes
Isometric Deadlift Against Pins At Sticking Point: Bar x 5 seconds (The weight is irrelevant - the bar will not be moving but you will be pulling against the pins with maximal force. You can use around 95 - 115 lbs if your deadlift max is below 200. If it is over 200, just use 135 lbs, the equivalent to one plate per side on a standard bar.) -- Rest 2 minutes
Speed Deadlift: 70% x 2 reps -- Rest 2 minutes
Isometric Deadlift Against Pins At Sticking Point: Bar x 5 seconds -- Rest 2 minutes
Speed Deadlift: 70% x 2 reps -- Rest 2 minutes
Isometric Deadlift Against Pins At Sticking Point: Bar x 5 seconds -- Rest 2 minutes
Speed Deadlift: 70% x 2 reps
-- Follow these up with 3-4 accessory back exercises such as dumbbell rows, pull-ups, lat pulldowns etc.
Week 2:
Deadlift: 1 set @ 90% x 2 reps -- Rest 3-5 minutes
Isometric Deadlift Against Pins At Sticking Point: Bar x 5 seconds -- Rest 2 minutes
Speed Deadlift: 72.5% x 2 reps -- Rest 2 minutes
Isometric Deadlift Against Pins At Sticking Point: Bar x 5 seconds -- Rest 2 minutes
Speed Deadlift: 72.5% x 2 reps -- Rest 2 minutes
Isometric Deadlift Against Pins At Sticking Point: Bar x 5 seconds -- Rest 2 minutes
Speed Deadlift: 72.5% x 2 reps
-- Follow these up with 3-4 accessory back exercises such as dumbbell rows, pull-ups, lat pulldowns etc.
Week 3:
Deadlift: 1 set @ 92.5% x 2 reps -- Rest 3-5 minutes
Isometric Deadlift Against Pins At Sticking Point: Bar x 5 seconds -- Rest 2 minutes
Speed Deadlift: 75% x 2 reps -- Rest 2 minutes
Isometric Deadlift Against Pins At Sticking Point: Bar x 5 seconds -- Rest 2 minutes
Speed Deadlift: 75% x 2 reps -- Rest 2 minutes
Isometric Deadlift Against Pins At Sticking Point: Bar x 5 seconds -- Rest 2 minutes
Speed Deadlift: 75% x 2 reps
-- Follow these up with 3-4 accessory back exercises such as dumbbell rows, pull-ups, lat pulldowns etc.
Week 4: No deadlifts. 3-4 accessory back exercises only.
Week 5:
Deadlift: 1 set @ 95% x 2 reps -- Rest 3-5 minutes
Isometric Deadlift Against Pins At Sticking Point: Bar x 5 seconds -- Rest 2 minutes
Speed Deadlift: 77.5% x 2 reps -- Rest 2 minutes
Isometric Deadlift Against Pins At Sticking Point: Bar x 5 seconds -- Rest 2 minutes
Speed Deadlift: 77.5% x 2 reps -- Rest 2 minutes
Isometric Deadlift Against Pins At Sticking Point: Bar x 5 seconds -- Rest 2 minutes
Speed Deadlift: 77.5% x 2 reps
-- Follow these up with 3-4 accessory back exercises such as dumbbell rows, pull-ups, lat pulldowns etc.
Week 6:
Deadlift: 1 set @ 97.5% x 2 reps -- Rest 3-5 minutes
Isometric Deadlift Against Pins At Sticking Point: Bar x 5 seconds -- Rest 2 minutes
Speed Deadlift: 80% x 2 reps -- Rest 2 minutes
Isometric Deadlift Against Pins At Sticking Point: Bar x 5 seconds -- Rest 2 minutes
Speed Deadlift: 80% x 2 reps -- Rest 2 minutes
Isometric Deadlift Against Pins At Sticking Point: Bar x 5 seconds -- Rest 2 minutes
Speed Deadlift: 80% x 2 reps
-- Follow these up with 2-3 accessory back exercises such as dumbbell rows, pull-ups, lat pulldowns etc.
Week 7:
Speed Deadlift: 65% x 2 reps x 5 sets -- 90 seconds rest between sets.
-- Follow these up with 2 accessory back exercises such as dumbbell rows, pull-ups, lat pulldowns etc.
Week 8: Work up to a new deadlift personal record!
Hopefully at the end of the 8 week program you will have a new deadlift PR to show for all of your hard work. Make sure during this program you are getting plenty of rest and that your nutrition is on point. Add in some of the high quality supplements in our House Of Muscle sports nutrition supplement line to enhance recovery and repair along the way as well. If you have any questions or comments about this program, please email info@houseofmuscle.com and we would be glad to help! If you happen to try the program out, get a video of your new deadlift PR and post it online. Let us know and we will share it!
Thanks for your continued support of House Of Muscle. As always,
Train Hard!
Nick
