Overload Deadlift - Weight vs. Tension

Training Q&A [Moderated]
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Hi Dr. Feigenbaum & Dr. Baraki. Working through Powerlifting II and loving it so far. Apologies in advance as this is a long-winded question on training with bands, specifically deadlift (or squat)… When you program the overload variant with “mini” bands, how do you think about actual bar weight vs. band tension? I’ve historically thought about it as what’s the overall “weight” working against me at lockout, but in your templates I wasn’t sure how you play around with the amount of tension used in the overload variant. As background on my training, lockout hasn’t historically been an issue for me, so I’ve typically focused on deficit variants vs accommodating resistance. To provide a concrete example, if I can deadlift 415 x4 @ 7 with no accommodating resistance consistently, should I be dropping the weight slightly and then adding a 25lbs or 50lbs band such that the overall “weight” I’m pulling at lockout is slightly above what I could pull without any band tension? I’ve been thinking about it such that I’m adding 10-15% overload at lockout using the bands, and playing with the bar weight to arrive at that, but wasn’t sure how exactly to think about it (similar to how I use the slingshot I guess). Again, I apologize for the long-winded question, and thank you guys for all of the great content!

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Mr. Jiggs,

Thanks for the post.

As far as how I think about bar weight vs band tension- I don’t really think about this much at all. We prefer some sort of overload throughout the entire lift. We also recommend using ~ 20% of your 1RM in additional load.

I don’t think that doing deadlifts + bands (or chains) is uniquely beneficial for lockout work. Rather, I think it trains the whole movement a little heavier than you otherwise would be able to handle.

-Jordan

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Question on overloading with chains: when you recommend using 20% of 1rm, is this the correct way to understand it: take 20% of 1rm in chains and add plates to thi

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Question on overloading with chains: when you recommend using 20% of 1rm, is this the correct way to understand it: take 20% of 1rm in chains and add plates to this to get the prescribed RPE. ?