Accepted assumption: “hard sets” at 65%+ intensity are most useful for hypertrophy/strength
I’ve lately been considering switching to flat back deadlift during my training (or as flat as my kyphotic self can do). The issue lies in the big gap in ability of doing flatback vs rounded. I’ve got a long torso, so I think the rounding helps that much more for me vs the average lifter.
So if I’m doing flat back sets, I assume I have to base everything around how much I can do flat backed (rpe based on how many more flat backed I can do and % intensity based on my flat back max). Well if I am doing work sets at 75% of my flat back max, thats pretty dang light compared to my competition deadlift. I’m afraid there will be no carry over and I will basically stall on my competition deadlift (where I am ok with rounding) for a very long time. Or atleast until my Flatback adds 60+ LB.
Any way to mitigate this? Flat back deadlifts feel alot less taxing on my back, so I can probably do a more volume. Would you compensate by doing even more volume?
I probably would increase the training volume, yes.
I’d also consider where you tend to round during the deadlift. If it’s some upper back rounding that doesn’t substantially increase the difficulty of your lockout, the tradeoff here may not be worthwhile. If it’s mid/lower back rounding, the tradeoff may be worth it … OR you could try pulling sumo to see if you can hold your back position better.
Unfortunately it’s my mid back. I did just try something different today and discovered something.
if I do touch and go deadlifts I can use the same weight and keep everything flatter. If I had to guess why it’s because I can set my back at the top and it’s easier to keep everything straight under load than it is to straighten against tight hamstrings. That’s just my best guess, but all I know is I have tried everything to be straight from the bottom (saw Santana in person to diagnose issue in the past).
I know you guys arent too big of fans of touch and go’s and I get why. What is your opinion of them for my volume work considering considering this trade off though. I’m thinking their disadvantages are worth bearing to keep a straighter back with the same weight.
If you’re not aggressively bouncing the bar off the floor, I don’t have a huge problem with it as a compromise in this situation. Give it a shot as a short- to medium-term intervention, to see if you can teach yourself how to hold the position better. You may find that over time you can transition back to dead stop pulls and hold a better position. If not, you’ll just have to live with the tradeoff of a bit less specificity to a dead-stop 1RM pull (… or try sumo )
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