Whether you are looking to improve strength, become a competitive powerlifter or are training for health and longevity. The question “when is the best time to deadlift turns more into – how do I plan my workouts. Let’s explore!
Best time to deadlift
The best time to deadlift will depend on your training goals, workout schedule and volume for the week.
There is no real right or wrong answer but you have to make sure that it makes sense for your training goals.
We can further break this question down into when should I deadlift during my workout session, when should I deadlift during the week, and how many times should I deadlift in my mesocycle.
When Should I deadlift during my workout?
If you are a powerlifter and your main goals are strength training deadlift first. A basic rule of thumb when programming is to do the exercise that activates more muscles first. Deadlifts work the majority of muscles in your posterior chain. So if you go and do a leg and back workout and leave deadlifts for the end you will be very fatigued by the time you get to deadlifts and it can compromise your deadlift performance.
On the other hand, you will see some bodybuilders that will use pre exhaustion by working isolation exercises first before moving onto the big compound movements. Unless there is a specific reason to do so. Do the exercise that recruits the most muscle units first.
In this case you will always be doing deadlifts at the start of your workout!
When Should I Deadlift during the week?
The answer to this question really depends. If you struggle with programming I would recommend getting a strength coach to help or looking into workout templates
New to deadlifts? Take a look at the deadlift comprehensive guide!
How Many times should I deadlift a week
- Recomended 1-2
If you are new to strength training or deadlifting 1/week will be enough. Furthermore, if you are an advanced lifter that is seeing a decline in performance increasing to 2 times a week could be beneficial.
The main rule of thumb is if you are seeing results don’t break what isn’t broken. If you start to plateau then an another option would be increase the volume and add a second deadlift day to your week.
Please note it is very important to manage the intensities if you are deadlifting twice a weak because deadlifts can be very taxing on your central nervous system and you do not want to overdo it!
Before you result to adding an extra deadlift day assess your current form and sticking points and see what form changes or exercises can help get past your deadlift sticking points.
