The deadlift is one of the most exhilarating lifts you can do. Performing a deadlift is one of the most animalistic movements we can perform. The brute strength required to hoist a heavy weight from the ground to the waist is unrivaled and provides an unparalleled feeling.

When things are going great in training, the deadlift is awesome, but what about when strength stalls, 1-RMs won’t budge, and you feel like you’re at a complete loss with your progression. Insert what could be a deadlift plateau. Plateaus can be a gift and a curse. Although they may be frustrating, setbacks are a blessing in disguise because they motivate you to try new things and improve your skills.

We will discuss what a plateau is and methods to try based on where your deadlift is stuck.

Did You Really Hit a Deadlift Plateau?

Its time to face a harsh reality A couple of bad days lifting weights is not necessarily indicative of a true plateau.

New lifters often think something is wrong when they have a bad training day, then change the course of their training. It is not abnormal to have days where you do better or worse in the gym, and people who use self-regulatory practices like RPE to track their progress can easily see this through their intensity trends.

A plateau in deadlifting could be caused by a lift that has not increased over a few weeks or even months, or a lift that is slowly getting weaker over time. When you first started lifting weights, you probably had to overcome the mental hurdle of lifting heavier and heavier weights. This is because lifting heavier weights is a difficult feat that requires both mental and physical strength.

You're thinking you may have hit a plateau in your progress and you've looked at where you're missing the most. What should you do?

Acute Phase Considerations: Did you just injure your hamstring, or is it currently painful? 

The first step in rehabilitating injured muscle tissue is to find ways to use this muscle without causing further injury. An isometric exercise is one in which the muscle doesn't get shorter or longer. The muscle is tense but not moving. An example of an isometric exercise would be showing off your arm muscles or flexing your abs as hard as you possibly can. Isometrics are exercises where you contract your muscles without moving your joints. These exercises have been shown to help with pain and are an effective initial way to start exercising after injury. A good place to start exercises for the hamstring muscles is the bridge position.

Isometrics for Analgesia: Direct Load Progressions for a Hamstring Strain 

There are many ways to use isometrics to improve strength and aid in rehabilitation. Dynamic stretches are a good way to warm up your muscles and prepare them for activity. They can also help reduce pain and sensitivity after an injury. An isometric contraction is when the muscle tension changes but the muscle length stays the same. This allows the athlete to recruit more muscle fibers and make the nervous system more efficient for muscular contraction. A process often called “activating” muscles is generally done before lifting something heavy. Isometric strength training not only activates muscles, but also develops strength that is specific to the range of motion being trained. This can be helpful in training weak points. For example, isometric exercises like holding a squat or deadlift at a certain point can help break through plateaus.

Other benefits of isometrics include the reduction of pain, improved muscle recruitment, and the ability to use isometrics for strength training. They are also helpful for teaching exercise progression and introducing new movements. In the bridge progression chart below, you must isometrically hold each new challenging position before you do it for reps.

During rehabilitation, there might be a session where you do the dynamic movement of one position, and then hold the next most challenging position isometrically. You can slowly advance the difficulty of rehab by doing this. Isometrics help us to explore new ranges of motion. They are helpful for lifting because they allow you to see your form and how your body moves. They help us to not push ourselves too much and instead take a step back if needed. This is not, however, the beginning of the end for your strength-training progress. Isometrics help build strength and comfort in new range of motion, but it is not the end of strength training progress.

Bridge Progression Chart

• Phase 0: 2 feet on the box and flat ground → begin to experiment with single leg holds
• 1st Phase: single leg bridge marching and holds on the box and flat ground
• 2nd Phase: begin to increase bridging distance. Bridge walk-outs start here. Moving the feet further away makes the bridge more hamstring intensive.
• 3rd Phase: bridging on a swiss ball, sliders, slide board, or sorinex roller, 2 feet
• 4th Phase: able to do all single-leg slider bridges with no pain

Modifying Bridges for Pain

If the bridge exercise is painful with your hamstring strain, you can try modifying the exercise or experiment with different movement to find something that doesn't cause pain. Range of motion can be decreased to decrease the intensity of the contraction. Adding additional isometric resistance in other planes of movement can help target different muscles and change the way pain is felt. Additionally, there are ways to position your pelvis and core that can help you find movement that doesn't cause pain. A position with a posteriorly tilted pelvis and flexed spine can effectively shorten the length of the hamstrings and increase contraction strength. One way to reduce sensitivity early on and prepare your core for later on is to position yourself under load.

Are you stretching your hamstrings too much, too soon?

People often think that tight feeling muscles need to be stretched. Even though muscles can feel tight for many reasons, it is not always best to stretch that muscle. Sometimes, it can even be detrimental to its recovery. Most muscle injuries involve slightly torn fibers or microscopic cells. In some cases, where the bleeding is excessive, you may see bruising, swelling and tissue that is very sensitive and painful to the touch. Tissue that has been insulted (injured) responds better to gentle exercise and movement than it does to vigorous stretching. You will be in for a big surprise if you have been using this method to relieve pain or heal a hamstring injury.

When you stretch a muscle, it temporarily inhibits the muscle fibers, causing the muscle to relax and increasing range of motion. Muscle length is constantly changing based on the nervous system and muscle fibers. If you have extremely stiff hamstrings after a workout, their fibers and cells are highly sensitive and do not want to be stretched. The reason you can't touch your toes is because your nervous system is protecting you from overstretching. Your muscles didn't suddenly get shorter overnight, and if you work them back into their normal range of motion, they'll go back to their comfortable resting length once the soreness goes away.

Is stretching always wrong?

There are a few different stretches and mobility exercises that can help with a hamstring injury. These exercises are gentle and focus on the hamstrings and the muscles in the back. Avoid strenuous activity and focus on basic movements that won't aggravate your injury. For many people, a lunge or single leg deadlift is a movement that improves their mobility. Make single-leg strength training the priority, not just stretching.

The following is a video of some gentle stretching techniques that can be used. Hip rotation during stretches helps to ensure that all parts of the hamstring muscle group are stretched evenly.

Deadlift Plateau Techniques

Overall Deadlift Plateau

The typical problems with at-home workouts are that they can become stale, certain muscle groups can lag behind in development, and there can be technical issues with equipment. Another problem is that people often don't have the foundational strength to do some of the exercises correctly.

1. Avoid the Barbell

If you want to improve your barbell deadlift, then don't use it for a while in your training. Giving yourself a break from an exercise that isn't progressing can actually help you make progress indirectly. A break from the barbell deadlift may help you relax and refocus, which can help you overcome a plateau.

The following are some alternative exercises to the barbell deadlift.

• Trap Bar Deadlift
• A Second Squat Day
• Barbell Rows
• Good Mornings
• Leg Press

Each of the options mentioned above provide a different training experience, but they're all effective in their own way. These options let you work out with high intensity while targeting multiple muscle groups at the same time. All of the aforementioned exercises have the potential to improve your deadlift based on how you program them.

2. Tempo Deadlifts

Tempo deadlifts are a great way to improve your lifting technique. This exercise helps to improve your deadlift by correcting any imbalances or compensations you may have. I had a hip shift during my sumo pulls that I wasn't acknowledging until I did a mesocycle with tempo deadlifts.

If you want to add tempo deadlifts to your workout routine, try the following:

1. Drop intensities by 10-25%
2. Perform normal sets with:
   • 3-second concentric
   • 1-second hold at the top
   • 3-second eccentric
   • 1-second hold at the bottom

I used tempo deadlifts as an example of how to use tempo training. Change the intensity and amount of your workout according to your current fitness goals. A good general guideline is to keep the intensity at a level that would enable you to do 2 additional repetitions after each set. The goal of this workout is to improve your technique and to be aware of your body, not to lift the heaviest weights possible.

3. Squat More

A strong squat can have a lot of carryover to how well you deadlift. This method may not work for elite level powerlifters as they have most likely reached the limit of their foundational strength and need more specific training to progress. However, squatting more is a great tool for novice and intermediate athletes.

Rather than deadlifting, try squatting during your next training cycle (front, high-bar, low-bar, safety bar squats, etc.). Deadlifts can be improved by doing squats because they work the same muscles.

4. Train the Opposing Deadlift

If you're struggling to finish a deadlift, try doing the opposite variation of the exercise to give yourself a break. One way to work around a weightlifting plateau is to train your weaker pulls, as this can often improve your preferred deadlift style. This method will be most useful for beginners who want to learn more about deadlift options.

Missing Off the Floor

If your lats are not engaged, your bar path will shift away from your body. This can cause problems with bracing and stabilizing the weight.

5. Mid-Shin Pauses

If you're struggling to hit the floor with your mid-shin, then adding mid-shin pauses to your training can be an excellent way to build strength in that posture and to teach patience. A skill that will also be improved with this deadlift variation is the ability to keep tension on the bar. If you're not strict, meaning you don't use your muscles to move the bar, your position could be the issue.