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Realistic expectations

deadliftenthusiast

Level 1 Valued Member
Hello all,

I finally hit 600 on the deadlift last month after following the daily dose deadlift program. It actually moved pretty smoothly and I think I maybe had 10 more lbs in the tank. My bench press did not move while I was following this program. I do not think I was doing enough volume. Anyways, I was going to run through daily doss deadlifts again, but my job is getting very busy and will stay like this for a while. My question is, is it possible to progress my deadlift and my bench press while only being able to train 1-2 times a week? Or should I just go into maintenance mode. My bench press is at 300 lbs for more context.

Thanks for the help everyone
 
Maybe. Probably not. How old are you? How many years have you been training? How many years have you been training "seriously"? How many times a week did you train to get where you are now?
 
Boris Bachmann said:
Maybe. Probably not. How old are you? How many years have you been training? How many years have you been training "seriously"? How many times a week did you train to get where you are now?
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24. I have been lifting weights since I was 19. Lifting with barbells for strength since I was about 20. Took my deadlift from 500-585 in about 2 years by pulling roughly 2-3 times a week and then I plateaued doing that and the program that set me over the edge to 600 was daily dose deadlifts. Bench press went from 250-300 in roughly the same time period by benching 3-4 times a week. I don’t really do accessories because I feel like I don’t get much out of them. Not saying that they are useless, but my deadlift and bench only go up if I practice them often. My thought process was if I can only train 1-2 times a week just to do a crazy amount of volume and intensity on that one day and have a week to recover. For example, I pull 455 lbs every day for 3-5 singles. That is roughly 21-35 singles every week. Maybe I could do a deadlift workout once a week where I pull 465 for 20 singles which is roughly the same workload that I am doing currently. Not sure if that is a good idea or not
 
Antti said:
1-2 times a week can cery well work. Some people or their methods work better with lower frequency.
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Thank you for the reply. After doing more research I am finding that it could be possible if I can account for total tonnage. After looking at my training journal my average weekly deadlift tonnage was roughly the following, (5 days a week of training)*(5 singles per session)*(430 lbs)=10,750 lbs. If I am able to find a way to sustain or possible increase this weekly tonnage over two days of training(without sacrificing practice with heavier weights) I think I will be able to add lbs on my deadlift. I don't think tonnage calculations are perfect but they give me a pretty good estimate of what level of work that needs to be done to improve. An idea for a program was pulling on saturday and sunday. On Saturday, I would pull 10*1@450 and on sunday I would pull 20*1@315 for speed. This would increase my total weekly tonnage to 10,800 while preserving strength specificity because on saturday I would be pulling weights at 75 percent. I would run through this for about 8 weeks and test my max to see if it works. This was my idea for programming on deadlifts. I am open to any critiques. I still have no idea what to do for my bench though....
 
deadliftenthusiast said:
Thank you for the reply. After doing more research I am finding that it could be possible if I can account for total tonnage. After looking at my training journal my average weekly deadlift tonnage was roughly the following, (5 days a week of training)*(5 singles per session)*(430 lbs)=10,750 lbs. If I am able to find a way to sustain or possible increase this weekly tonnage over two days of training(without sacrificing practice with heavier weights) I think I will be able to add lbs on my deadlift. I don't think tonnage calculations are perfect but they give me a pretty good estimate of what level of work that needs to be done to improve. An idea for a program was pulling on saturday and sunday. On Saturday, I would pull 10*1@450 and on sunday I would pull 20*1@315 for speed. This would increase my total weekly tonnage to 10,800 while preserving strength specificity because on saturday I would be pulling weights at 75 percent. I would run through this for about 8 weeks and test my max to see if it works. This was my idea for programming on deadlifts. I am open to any critiques. I still have no idea what to do for my bench though....
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I think having separate speed and strength days is a great idea.

I would far prefer to have the speed day as Saturday in this example. It would be lighter, so you have more energy for Sunday. Maybe the speed day will even prime you for the strength day. Done the other way you may not be so fast on sundays. Of course, there may be more variables that influence the order.

I would wave the load for the strength day. I don’t think it's that important for the speed. I would also play with rep ranges on both days, from one to three.

The total tonnage and how you split it sounds good but I wouldn't be too hung on it as a metric, and I would incude some variety.

I think a similar system for bench should work wonders but I would do mostly sets of three to five reps and less singles.
 
deadliftenthusiast said:
Hello all,

I finally hit 600 on the deadlift last month after following the daily dose deadlift program. It actually moved pretty smoothly and I think I maybe had 10 more lbs in the tank. My bench press did not move while I was following this program. I do not think I was doing enough volume. Anyways, I was going to run through daily doss deadlifts again, but my job is getting very busy and will stay like this for a while. My question is, is it possible to progress my deadlift and my bench press while only being able to train 1-2 times a week? Or should I just go into maintenance mode. My bench press is at 300 lbs for more context.
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You've hit a peak - congratulations! I wouldn't worry about maintaining your peak performance since that impossible in most cases, anyway. Just keep doing something and when your life slows down, do another peaking program.

-S-
 
I would say if you can only train 1 time per week, not likely. If you can do 2 days per week, yes it's very possible and I'm proof. I have been training 2 days per week full body since August of last year and have still make great progress. Just as much as when I was training 3 days per week. Just alternate the days you do deadlift/squat and then bench/OH press work and you'll be fine. Personally I had to up my volume a bit on my bench day to keep progressing so went with a 5x5 program on that. I've managed to add ~30lbs on my deadlift and 20lb on my bench (and 45lbs on my squat) training this way since then, and I'm no beginner.
 
deadliftenthusiast said:
Hello all,

I finally hit 600 on the deadlift last month after following the daily dose deadlift program. It actually moved pretty smoothly and I think I maybe had 10 more lbs in the tank. My bench press did not move while I was following this program. I do not think I was doing enough volume. Anyways, I was going to run through daily doss deadlifts again, but my job is getting very busy and will stay like this for a while. My question is, is it possible to progress my deadlift and my bench press while only being able to train 1-2 times a week? Or should I just go into maintenance mode. My bench press is at 300 lbs for more context.

Thanks for the help everyone
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You could probably maintain your deadlift over 500 while improving substantially your bench.
 
Rygor the Swoleman said:
I would say if you can only train 1 time per week, not likely. If you can do 2 days per week, yes it's very possible and I'm proof. I have been training 2 days per week full body since August of last year and have still make great progress. Just as much as when I was training 3 days per week. Just alternate the days you do deadlift/squat and then bench/OH press work and you'll be fine. Personally I had to up my volume a bit on my bench day to keep progressing so went with a 5x5 program on that. I've managed to add ~30lbs on my deadlift and 20lb on my bench (and 45lbs on my squat) training this way since then, and I'm no beginner.
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Just trying to work on my bench and deadlift currently. I think I have it figured out for the deadlift and will try to progress it on 2 days a week of training. What is a good strength progression for bench press that is 2 times a week.
 
deadliftenthusiast said:
Just trying to work on my bench and deadlift currently. I think I have it figured out for the deadlift and will try to progress it on 2 days a week of training. What is a good strength progression for bench press that is 2 times a week.
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I personally do one higher volume day of bench only, then on my other day of the week I do barbell OHP and I'll mix in one or two bench accessory movements. I usually switch between incline bench, DB floor presses, or close grip bench and I focus on speed and form, so I don't often go higher than 60-70% of my 1RM.
 
Rygor the Swoleman said:
I personally do one higher volume day of bench only, then on my other day of the week I do barbell OHP and I'll mix in one or two bench accessory movements. I usually switch between incline bench, DB floor presses, or close grip bench and I focus on speed and form, so I don't often go higher than 60-70% of my 1RM.
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Thank you for the help! I think I will try to increase my incline bench for a while so I can improve on something rather than trying to hang on to bench press gains. Final program written below. I really want to keep it as minimalist as possible. Any critique is welcome. I'll call this program Weekend Strength.

Heavy day
Deadlift, 10*1@75%
Incline Bench, top set of 10, 2*10@80% of top set

Light day
Deadlift, 20*1@50%
Incline Bench, 3*10@70% of top set

*I will run this for 8 weeks or 16 total sessions
*Goal 1: 610 deadlift
*Goal 2: 205*10 on the incline bench
 
deadliftenthusiast said:
Thank you for the help! I think I will try to increase my incline bench for a while so I can improve on something rather than trying to hang on to bench press gains. Final program written below. I really want to keep it as minimalist as possible. Any critique is welcome. I'll call this program Weekend Strength.

Heavy day
Deadlift, 10*1@75%
Incline Bench, top set of 10, 2*10@80% of top set

Light day
Deadlift, 20*1@50%
Incline Bench, 3*10@70% of top set

*I will run this for 8 weeks or 16 total sessions
*Goal 1: 610 deadlift
*Goal 2: 205*10 on the incline bench
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I'm curious as to why singles on deadlift and tens on the incline bench? Why the discrepancy?

Like discussed simultaneously in the other thread on this subject, I agree that the training should be somewhat dissimilar, but by how much?

Second, you haven't really written anything about progression.
 
Antti said:
I'm curious as to why singles on deadlift and tens on the incline bench? Why the discrepancy?

Like discussed simultaneously in the other thread on this subject, I agree that the training should be somewhat dissimilar, but by how much?

Second, you haven't really written anything about progression.
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I want to increase my one rep max on the deadlift and I want to deprioritize the bench press so I am going to just do 10s and try to improve that rep range. As for progression, I am going to do the same workout for 8 weeks and get very strong at these weights and then try a 1 rep max. It worked for me on daily dose deadlifts.
 
Personally I don't think you're doing enough training of heavier weights to bring up your deadlift much doing that routine. I think there should be some days incorporated where you at least go 85% of max. The incline bench seems more suited for bodybuilding, because that's going to be a fair amount of volume and the weight is not that heavy. That might be okay if trying to de-load a little bit before jumping back into straight up strength training, but I don't think it's going to help you reach your bench goals any sooner.

By the way, my deadlift goal is also 610 (hit 600 about 15 years ago as an all-time PR, so would love to surpass it). I'm doing a modified 5-3-1 program on deads and it's helped me bring it up from about 515 a year ago to about 565 now.

On my DL days I do:
5s week
Warmups up to about 65% of 1RM for a few reps
70% of 1RM x 5
75% of 1RM x 5
80% of 1RM x 5+ (AMRAP)

3s week
Warmups up to about 72.5% of 1RM for a few reps
75% of 1RM x 3
80% of 1RM x 3
85% of 1RM x 3+ (AMRAP)

5-3-1 week
Warmups up to about 75% of 1RM for a few reps
80% of 1RM x 5
85% of 1RM x 3
90% of 1RM x 1+ (AMRAP)

De-load week
Only go up to about 65% on DL for 5-8 reps

On my squat days I'll do DL accessory work. That can include some relatively light sumo DL, RDLs, narrow width leg press, Glute Ham Raises, Reverse Hypers, Rows, etc I generally don't go too heavy on it and try to do a weight I can do for 8-12 reps for a few sets.
 
I agree with the swole man ;) , you need to be moving heavier weights especially if you're only training once a week. I mean that's 5 or 6 days to recover, so personally I'd obliterate myself on the one or two days of training
 
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