If you have been training seriously for some time, you can pull an impressive deadlift PR in 5 weeks with a right peaking plan.
Classically, your lifting periods alternate between “training” and “peaking.”
The former is day to day training dedicated to making you stronger in the long term.
The latter is a short-time tactic aimed to “spike” your performance temporarily and to post a personal best.
To use an analogy, if your goal is to have a lot of energy during the day, sleep is your “training” and coffee is your “peaking.” The latter cannot replace the former, but it can provide a temporary boost when you need it.
Strength training consists of many sets of 3-5 reps with moderately heavy weights.
Peaking, in contrast, demands lifting near-maximal weights for singles or doubles while significantly reducing the volume.
Timing the peak—which, by definition, cannot be sustained—takes some skill. Scientists and lifters figured out that once you cross the 90% 1RM threshold, your nervous system gets mobilized and your strength will climb rapidly for 3 weeks (longer for beginners, but they have no business peaking)—and then will tank.
A few years back we wrote a simple and effective 5-week deadlift peaking plan and now is the perfect time to pull it out of the drawer so you can PR at the upcoming May 7 Tactical Strength Challenge.
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| | Tactical Strength Challenge™ May 7, Worldwide |
| The plan is built around a progressively heavier single each Saturday—four Saturdays before the TSC:
- 85% 1RM
- 88%
- 91%
- 94%
- TSC: Max
In addition to a heavy single rep, the first three weeks of the plan feature an all-out back-off set with a lighter weight.
It is done for two reasons.
First, to maintain muscle mass. When you switch to singles and reduce the training volume, you start losing your hard earned muscle. A back-off set is a classic powerlifting tactic to prevent it from happening.
Second, to prepare you psychologically to “grind” a record weight through the sticking point on the competition day.
StrongFirst’s standard operating procedure of terminating a set as soon as the reps start slowing down does not apply here. Not to be abused over a long term, this combination of a heavy single and a hard back-off set of 6-10 reps is a very powerful short-term tactic for a lifter with good technique.
There are a few more nuts and bolts to the above deadlift peaking plan, read about them in this article by Pavel.
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| | on April 30-May (Sign up before the price increase)
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