Awful First Rep on Deadlift

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hey guys,

I’m currently working through Powerlifting I, on Week 7. This got updated after I’d started, so I’d decided to run it as is, and move to the updated version next run through. Anyway, last week was my first round of heavy singles in the main lifts. Most went well, with the exception of my deadlift.

Week 5 looked like this:
270x6 @6
280x6 @7
290x6 @8
290x6 @8
290x6 @8.5
290x6 @9

The estimator put my e1RM around 370 and a single at RPE8 of 340. I sure wasn’t super confident warming up for 340, but I couldn’t even get it to my knees. I tried it twice, then dropped the weight back to 300 and did the prescribed 6 reps at RPE9. The issue I seem to have is that for this set at 300, my first rep moves the slowest of all the reps in the set. Second rep goes faster. Third rep looks the best, then they start to slow down again. The 6th still looks better than the first.

Is this a common problem? This happened a lot on my NLP, but was less obvious once I started your template and wasn’t doing limit sets all the time. On my NLP, I’d basically know I could do 5 if I managed to do 1. Is my set up just bad? Any advice appreciated.

Cheers,
Alistair

2

Yes it is common to see folks whose bar speed improves on rep 2 of a set. There is nothing egregiously inefficient with your setup or the start of your pull.

But if I’m understanding your post, it sounds like this is your first time ever starting to train singles? If that’s the case, it’s unsurprising that you underperformed relative to your rep PRs, since recruiting everything needed for a heavier, single-rep effort is a skill that takes practice and time to develop.

I would continue training and avoid relying on the calculator to “predict” your numbers, particularly for tasks you have not yet practiced like singles.

1 Like
3

Thanks for the response. You’re correct that this is the first time I’ve trained singles. I’ll adjust my expectations accordingly.

Cheers