cosmo

Hello, so I guess you know me pretty well already!

I have both some experience and knowledge, but I can't seem to improve my deadlift.

I'm 5'6" and I weigh 137 pounds. My PRs at the moment are:

Squat: 205 pounds
Sumo deadlift: 225 pounds
Military Press: 110 pounds
Bench Press: 155 pounds

So as you see, my other lifts are pretty strong, but I feel like I seriously lack power in deadlift.

What may be the cause here? I've tried different methods: classic/sumo, high reps/low reps and many supportive exercises to increase my back strength.

I don't feel like I lack in legs as my squat is pretty strong and my back isn't that weak as well.

I will add that I have stronger sumo than classic actually by a little bit - 10 pounds to be exact.

Maybe the problem lies in technique? Just the thing is that, while doing sumo deadlift, it's rather hard to mess up the technique, so I'm leaning more towards weak muscles.

Anyone has any ideas? I would love to improve this lift

cherryjuice

Well, I don't see that much difference between your other lifts as you are implying to have.

Maybe just deadlift is just not your strong side? Alternatively, there may be something wrong with how you do your deadlift, but I doubt it.

What plan do you currently follow? Maybe you don't have enough volume to improve this lift?

cosmo

I've tried different volumes on both high and low reps. Nothing seems to work.

cherryjuice

Well, what's your goal here? There doesn't seem to be much difference, if you ask me, so maybe just by working out as usual it will balance itself out? What part are you lacking at the most?

Deadlift is extremely complex exercise, so it may be easier to just narrow it down to the part, which you feel the weakest at.

I could recommend adding exercises like: farmer walks or pull ups.

I actually found pull ups to increase my back strength the most, so you may be interested in that

cosmo

I feel like I have the biggest problem with overcoming the last part. Like I can't straighten up entirely.

I have basically zero problems with detaching the barbell from the ground.

I could try pull ups though as they were out of my routine for a while.

Thanks

Strawberry

Well, two months ago my boyfriend has finally hit 500 pounds in deadlift and he had trouble with last part as well, so I asked him for advice. He did a lot of deficit deadlifts and even a bit on power rack.

He told me that after 3 months of those, he didn't have any problems with straightening up in last phase of deadlift anymore.

Don't forget to do squats though as you may have problem with detaching barbell from the ground later

neomeena

Great advice Strawberry! I can vouch for deficit deadlifts being a great idea in this case

Pull-up is a solid exercise as well. I actually think, it had the biggest impact on improving my back's strength.

Except for deadlift - but when deadlift doesn't want to go forward, then you have to strengthen your back with different methods

cosmo

Wow, thanks for this Strawberry! How could I not think about it, haha.

Thank you all for your suggestions

I will make sure to add pull-ups as well as it was one of my favorite exercises, that I seem to have forgotten about.

Katyaa

Hi! I've read everything that you wrote here. I can suggest to also try strengthening your hamstring, even though you have no problem with detaching the barbell from the ground they are usually the most common reason for differences between squats and deadlifts.

People usually focus on quads and they tend to neglect their hamstrings - I was doing it for quite a while as well.