My weakness off the floor

K

Karky

2
I got a real weakness off the floor in my DL. Now as I'm going heavy on power shrugs, I feel limited by my off the floor weakness. with DLs and power shrugs I'm now lifting heavy off the floor 2 times a week.
However, I was wondering if it could be too much? I was thinking about starting to do the power cleans from hang, or simply switching to hang power snatches (haven't done power snatches in a long time).
 
Kark: I'm not a fan of deadlifting more than once a week, I'm sure that's open to debate, but I find that a movement as large and powerful as a deadlift is really most effective performed once a week.

What you could try to increase your off the floor power: Drop the weight at the top. Some experts have espoused that the negative deadlift is not an essential portion of the movement. I'm not sure I agree with them in totality, but I tend to think it's a nice way to change up your deadlift, and hopefully secure some gains.
 
yeah, I don't like DLing more than once a week either. In the beginning the power shrugs were not a problem like that, since they were not all that heavy. But as they got heavier I started having troubble.

I don't drop the weight, but I don't go slow either. I dunno if the gym people would be too happy if I dropped the weight :p
 
Yeah once a week sounds about right to me, especially if you're pushing yourself and not just going for high frequency. As for the floor weakness, I'd maybe look into DLing on a bit of a platform. Or, I don't know if you do ATG squats but those really helped me with my initial hip explosion on the DL.
 
yeah, sucks I'm not back into squats yet.
I've long been thinking about alternating Dls with DLs of a platform. The way I do it now I work my way up, adding weight every week until it stops. Then lower the weight and start adding again, busting through the place it previously stopped. Maybe if instead of lowering the weight, I'll do DLs off a platform instead.
Now I'm doing 2x3 1x2 1x1 1x2 1x3. Do you think I should use a different approach to the DLs off the box?
 
Kark

Maybe you're doing too much? With the power shrugs, cleans, and deadlifts. I'm not necessarily saying it's true, just positing a possibility.
 
You might try snatch grip deadlifts and you also might try higher reps (5-8) with less weight for a few weeks or even alternating every other deadlift session. I agree with some of the others that once a week is enough of heavy deadlift frequency, especially if you are doing some heavy ATG squats and/or some other rear chain dominant movement another time during the week. For example if you do ATG sqauts and good mornings one lower session during the week and maybe deadlifts and leg press the other lower session of the week, I have found that to be plenty of lower stimulation for the week. And doing them in that order, so one session starts with a quad dominant movement and the other session with a rear chain dominant movement, and you might want do low reps/high weight (1-5) on the first movement and higher reps/lower weight (8-12) on the second movement
 
yeah that's what I said, and why I thought I should start doing the power shrugs from hang. Or did you mean in general CNS wise? If so, I doubt it.
 
GM's brought my DL up without me having to DL at all. However, they still stim similar muscles so the pulling frequency can still bother you. However, I don't think it's a big deal. You might be more tired than normal but I doubt it's detrimental, namely because the your body isn't under all that much stress since you're not pulling 30000x bodyweight every go
 
I am doing GMs. They haven't helped that much really. Progress is still as slow as before I started doing them.
 
That could be a form issue. All I know is, my weakness was also off the floor. Doing good mornings however Iw as doing them brought my DL up without me having to do much else.
 
What kind of form issue do you suppose? I mean, I've progressed on the GMs, it just didn't carry over much to my DL.
 
Maybe you need to arch your back harder and keep your legs from bending excessively, so you feel a good stretch in your hams. Maybe you might be doing all that right but just need to go lower.

My GM's are really weak but I try to get the most hip extension out of them, which is probably why they've helped me so much on the deads. The torso is atleast parallel with the floor. Sometimes I go a little deeper.
 
I go as deep as I can without flexing my lower back. And yeah, I feel the stretch in my hams. My guess is that it's just an individual thing. Not all exercises helps for all people.
 
Yeah true. What may work for an average 5'11" guy like me won't nessecarily work for a gigantic 6'15" monster like yourself :p

All I can say is for the average guy like me, snatch grip dl's and elevated deads didn't do anything close to what gm's did.
 
I think you deadlift too much. No reason to do it every week. I come back to it about every 3 - 6 weeks. Mixing in all sorts of different lifts. From high pulls, power shrugs, sometimes off the floor, sometimes off blocks, using different bars, off of pins, good mornings, zerchers, zercher RDL, RDL.

Each of the above exercises can be used as a "main" exercise as opposed to just deadlifts. You will also find out which of these lifts is your weakest. Whatever that is, you should do it more.

The rotations will also keep you from stagnating on the deadlift, while strengthening everything you need for it.

I know my training partners only like to hit regular deadlifts every couple months or so. (Cyborg does them about 4X per year)

Just some food for thought about adding a lot more variety to your workout.
 
yeah. I could mix some stuff. Should I do like, 3 weeks deads, 3 weeks RDLs 3 weeks dls off a box. or mix it up every session, working up to a heavy single each time? any tips?
 
yeah. I could mix some stuff. Should I do like, 3 weeks deads, 3 weeks RDLs 3 weeks dls off a box. or mix it up every session
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I would change every week. No need to do an exercise more than 2X (as far as a Monday to Monday workout would go) in a row.

It might look like.

RDL, RDL, Off pins, Power Shrugs, Power Shrugs Off Blocks, High Pulls, High Pulls Off Blocks, Zercher Lifts, Zercher RDL, Deadlift, Sumo Deadlift, Deads off of a box, Deads Standing on a plate.

Rotating the lifts will force your body to continually adapt, in the sense of motor recruitment and coordination.

working up to a heavy single each time? any tips?
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Using 1 - 3 reps is a good idea. Go based off of feel. If you feel good, hit like 10 sets of singles, if you are struggling go up to one or two sets of 2 or 3. Sometimes you will feel like you can do 6 sets of 3, at a heavy weight. Really push yourself on each lift.

In the past few months we have.

Worked up to singles, then did one heavy set of 10.

Worked sets of 3, then took a single at the end.

Worked up to a single, then a set of medium weight for max reps. (25 for me)

We have done sets of 3 high pulls until the weight was too heavy, then sets of 3 power shrugs until the weight was too heavy, then sets of three deadlifts until the weight was to heavy.

Worked up to a 3RM. Then dropped the weight 10lbs - 20lbs and did sets of three until we could do no more.

Each of the above things are good methods.

All that being said, it will take some time for you to really get the rotating exercise thing going well. The goal is to set records in many different lifts, using many different methods. When you come back to those lifts and methods, you will have the goal of breaking the previous record.

It is great from a mental standpoint because you are always breaking records, instead of making baby steps with just one lift.
 
I like the idea of rotating. I don't like the idea of doing high pulls, and things off blocks. Don't know why (I'm not saying it wouldn't work) I just don't like the sound of it. As you know I do power shrugs on a different day than DLs. So is it nessecary to have them in the rotation when I already do them once a week?
Hey, what an idea, I could rotate the pulls there to (damn, I'm a genious, just like you! :D) Doing explosive pulling rotation on one day, like high pulls, hang power shrugs, etc. Then DL stuff the other day like DLs, RDLs GMs etc.
Think it's a good idea, or is it too much heavy pulling from the floor?
If I do hang variations of the pulls on my explosive day, then I won't overdo the off the floor thing (atleast on the heavy stuff like power shrugs.)
I really don't know, I'm just throwing out ideas that I really like the sound of here.

And about RDLs. I'm not flexible enough to put the bar all the way down on the floor. My legs are really long compared to my upper body, so it's a long way down :p Maybe some days I can start with the bar on some plates or blocks to get it into a position where I can pull it from a dead position? I've done that before, and I've found that RDLs from the top are kinda different than RDLs from the bottom.

Maybe this is my first step to training like you do ,G! Now you just gotta tell me where I can find one of those yellow t-shirts :D
 
I don't like the idea of doing high pulls, and things off blocks. Don't know why (I'm not saying it wouldn't work) I just don't like the sound of it.
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It does not matter if you do not like the idea. Start doing them.

Hey, what an idea, I could rotate the pulls there to (damn, I'm a genious, just like you! ) Doing explosive pulling rotation on one day, like high pulls, hang power shrugs, etc. Then DL stuff the other day like DLs, RDLs GMs etc.
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Now you're starting to put things together. :cool:

Think it's a good idea, or is it too much heavy pulling from the floor?
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Not if you are pulling off of blocks or pins some of the time. ;)

I'm not flexible enough to put the bar all the way down on the floor. Maybe some days I can start with the bar on some plates or blocks to get it into a position where I can pull it from a dead position? I've found that RDLs from the top are kinda different than RDLs from the bottom.
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GOOOD. Now your are seeing that there are more than one kind of RDL.

Sometimes do them from the top, keep your back tight, and lean till you get a MAD hamstring stretch. Other times you can do the pulls off of blocks.

For every exercise you can think of, there are at least 4 or 5 variations. Allowing you to train each exercise in a manner which will be most beneficial for you.
 
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