Just bought BTS3, excited to start with it! I have a question about deadlifts.
@renegadenate talked about replacing squats with deadlifts. What do you think about still doing squats and replacing one of the pulls with deadlift as a heavy pull (with using the listed exercises in the manual as medium and light pulls)?
I would rather stick with weighted pull-ups, but you could probably could get away with that for your heavy pull exercise.
Only way to know for sure is to try it for at least four weeks on the Regular schedule.
The only issue that may arise is having both a heavy Squat and Heavy Deadlift session each week in addition to your other medium and light leg exercises.
You'll have one session where you Deadlift heavy, push medium, and perform your light leg exercise on the same day.
I found that Double Kettlebell Front Squats are BRUTAL as my Medium exercise because of the volume. I'm going to use a lighter weight in my third phase.
However, Deadlifts absolutely work for your heavy leg exercise for two reasons:
1.) The reps are low (1-5)
2.) The volume is very low
In fact, I would say that the volume for all the heavy lifts is too low to provide hypertrophy and are merely there for strength purposes.
According to PlanStrong guidelines, a volume of 10-20 lifts (total reps) is considered low volume.
With BuiltStrong Minimalist, you'll only reach 15 number of lifts (total reps) if you use the Tough schedule (and only one time in 8 weeks).
The total number of lifts for the heavy exercises ranges from 5-15. This makes for very low volume.
I've found the Deadlift to be perfect for my heavy leg exercise and will be using it again in my third phase of BuiltStrong Minimalist.
