Deadlift fatigue becoming unmanageable

[kanis999]

I know, an actual weightlifting discussion, weird. But the damn workout program forum is taken over by China.

I was at my strongest in 2014, then I took many years off. In the past 3 months, I rebuilt all of my former strength, and am finally looking at becoming the strongest I've ever been.

My routine is a hybrid strength and bodybuilding routine focused around bench, squat, and deadlift. It is double progression, i.e. hit X number of reps consistently for 2 or 3 sets, depending on the exercise, and only then increase weight. It is a bro split, high intensity, moderate volume, because these parameters are by far the best I've had from about 4 years total experience.

So deadlift happens once per week on 'back day'. I keep it as far from squat day as possible to let my core and cns recover. I just do 2 sets of 5, increasing weight when I can do 2 sets of 5 reps. So far I've never failed to hit the target reps, so weight increases every week.

The last 3 deadlift workouts have completely destroyed my soul. Especially the one I just did. At 405x5 for 2 sets, my vision actually sorta went blind on the last rep. It then took me, zero exaggeration, 15 fkn minutes to catch my breath after set 2. 15 minutes of panting and unable to hold a conversation. Absolutely ridiculous fatigue. I had to cancel the pulldowns and rows I had planned for the rest of the workout bc there was no way those were going to be quality. I'll do those exercises later today instead.

So I'm starting to get worried about my heart. I don't do any cardio and my blood pressure and triglycerides are bad. 15 minutes of panting from ~30 seconds of lifting seems dangerous. What do?

Technically, I hit my goal reps yet again, so I'm supposed to go up to 415x5 next week. How tf am I supposed to do that? It's going to fatigue me so much that I'm going to be bed ridden.

I guess the question is how abnormal is it to feel this devastated from just 2 sets of deadlifts, and how do I fix my routine in such a way that I can continue to climb in strength without having to stop workouts midway? I suppose a big part of it is choosing a goal - do I care about strength or back size more? If strength, continue to prioritize deadlift. If size, maybe consider other exercises with a better stimulus to fatigue ratio. But my problem is I haven't made the choice between strength and size. I really want both... It's worth noting that I'm fat, not at all like my profile pic anymore, that's from 2014.

[GaryRidgway]

Try just doing one set for a little while. You also don't have to up the weight every time you hit your rep targets. You can redo the same weight and reps but just do it better the next week sometimes.

[SirFapsAIot]

No offense, but you can't deadlift when you're dead, retard. Do something about your blood pressure and triglycerides and see a fukking doctor. lmfao at asking misc.

[HateLiberals]

Cardio would help with all of your issues, BP and triglycerides

[SmithMachineGuy]

Get your cardio up! If you already have high blood pressure, get that heart stronger. This should be the priority.


Deadlifts are good for getting stronger at deadlifts. If that is a priority for you then continue to deadlift. Otherwise, the total overall fatigue they cause is not always worth the trade-off.


Also, you say you are fat. Get the cardio up, slim down, and your stamina will improve for doing the deadlifts.

[kanis999]

Yeah I'm seeing doc tomorrow. He'll shame me on my diet and then hopefully we'll discuss drugs that'll help.

[DeadlyStriker]

Well let's start here...your health is much more important than arbitrary numbers. So I think the obvious recommendation here is to fix your BP and triglycerides before you start putting that much stress and force through your body. This is clearly a dietary thing.

Is this only with deadlifting? If it is, then just don't deadlift for a while so you can fix the issues where this is probably stemming from. I used to get major equilibrium problems years ago from deadlifting and squatting. I found out it was because I had thoracic outlet syndrome (caused by my scoliosis). That was fixed through neck exercises and stretching. I also read David Goggins book and realized I too had extremely tight psoas. Fixed that.

So I would start cutting out anything that is affecting you that way, start introducing a better diet to fix the dietary concerns, then introduce more cardio. If you're really worried then go to the doctor or get another blood test, ekg, or anything you might suspect may be a more serious issue causing this.

Edit: The two diets where I had the best blood pressure markers were from the vertical diet and keto. If you do keto, you can just do 3 months pretty strict and you will feel much better and cut some fat. Make sure to keep your electrolytes higher (salt/potassium.). If you do vertical diet, which will be better for performance, make sure you do it strict for the most benefit. There are a ton of videos on it on YT from stan efferding.

[bsrkoacar2]

I deadlift once a week. I go all out as hard as I can on my good days. If I'm feeling like chit and not getting pop off the floor I'll cut the volume back a bit. I go by feel and have been consistently progressing.

[kanis999]

I deadlift once a week. I go all out as hard as I can on my good days. If I'm feeling like chit and not getting pop off the floor I'll cut the volume back a bit. I go by feel and have been consistently progressing.

670x3 is damn good, props for that.

[bsrkoacar2]

Sometimes I'll puke. I'll take like a 20 min rest, drink some pickle juice for the cramps and try to hydrate. Then I'll finish the rest of my workout.

[crupiea]

You dont have to always add more weight to the bar and hit a new pr. every workout.

Back off some and add reps. Like do some sets with like 50 lbs less for 8 reps.

What I do is heavy day which is 1 set of five for more weight than the last heavy day.

Next workout I do about 70% if that for 3 sets of 8 reps.

Next workout about 80-90% for 3 sets of 6 reps.

Next set go 1 set of 5 heavy again adding about 5-10 lbs from the previous heavy day.

This gives me more time to recover and keep making progress.

What will happen is you simply start losing interest in the lifts and then start overthinking it and getting scared if every time its heavier and heavier. When it starts becoming more mental like that then its time to back off some like above.

[AdvancedDreamer]

Lol @ deadliftcels. Supersets/drop sets for cardio+muscle gains.

[Archangel_Lost]

Get your bp under control. Natural is better since you don’t have to worry about sides. Cut any excessive bodyfat, do some intense cardio. They are not kidding when they say bp is a silent killer, it will wreck all your organs if you let it go unchecked.
If you don’t want to do lifestyle changes for it for whatever reason, I would still suggest going to the doctor asap and getting a script for some bp meds, they will hand it out like candy since this is a serious issue.

DL and OHP started giving me similar issues when my bp pretty much shot up in my mid-thirties. Went on lisonipril for a short while but started doing cycling for cardio and have it down to relatively normal levels now without meds.

[kimm4]

You're running a bro split, how many days a week do you train? Do you run scheduled deloads? If your last 3 deadlift sessions were that bad...your body is telling you something. If you need a break take a break. If you're struggling/trying to bust through some plateaus look into wave loading when you're feeling better.

You need to take a closer look at your entire program and adjust.

[ralphlaurenbrah]

Don't fuk with high blood pressure. It literally ruins every single organ in your entire body if you don't control it (SRS). I see it every single day at work. People on dialysis with ruined kidneys, ruined heart, ruined blood vessels, strokes, etc from unmanaged blood pressure. DON'T fuk around with it. It does MASSIVE damage to your body over time.


Also no taking 15 mins to recover is not normal at all. You're pushing yourself way too hard.