Fed up with my deadlift

[Rollerbird]

Have been doing a strength cycle and it was 2 rep max day on deadlift today.
Previous 2 rep was 92kg.so hoping for 95.
I couldn't even lift the 90..
I got to 85 for 4 a d that was it.
Any tips?
Are defecit deadlifts the key?
It's definitely the breaking off the floor that's the worst bit.

Oh yeah. That moment when you're testing whether you can lift it. I know the feeling. I'm getting back to heavy DLs after lockdown, when the most I lifted for 2 months was 50kg.

My one rep max is 87.5kg. The other day (with my trainer's beady eye on me) I did 3 sets of 2 reps at 80kg. By the 3rd set, I was tired and only managed with good form by re-setting each time, rather than touching down & lifting straight up. I then went down to sets of 5 reps at 75kg. We're aiming for me to lift 100kg as my body loves DLs, but I'm just over 60, so it's taking a long time.

I'm finding that technique is the key. I still use my back too much when I get tired, instead of pushing my butt back and then squeezing up. And I'm aware when my back curves rather than staying flat (not a huge amount but enough to be noticed)

It takes time ... and little micro-conditions. I lose power as I tire. I'm a lark so best to lift heavy in the morning, but if I didn't have good sleep the night before, I feel it earlier & tire more easily than if I've had a good night.

Go back to get perfect technique. Try sets at maybe 75kg or 80kg which is heavy, but not too heavy, if your max 1rep is 92. and get the strength and the technique perfect. I tend to train at 70kg which is enough for it to feel heavy but not too heavy that I can't also concentrate on form.

The other thing is that it's a mind game. My trainer sets up the weights and I don't count the weight until after we've finished, and he doesn't tell me, because we both know I psyche myself out if I know it's really heavy. I'm coming to see why elite athletes all use sports psychologists!

I try not to count up the weight too! 😁
I will try dialling it back to 80 with more reps for a few weeks.
How many reps and sets do you tend to do?
Also I'm not sure about building up.
Today I started at 45kg,did 6@45, 4@65, 3@75, 2@85,then failed.

I do what my PT tells me to do!

If I do DLs in my training independently of him, I tend to do 5 x sets of 5, at around 60 to 65kg. Warm up at 50kg for a set of 12. But I get a bit scared of going heavy on my own. I should be able to train at 70kg pretty consistently now. I think the rest between sets is super-important. Before I started with this PT, I was an aerobics gym bunny & thought I just had to go, go go. I'm finding it interesting to feel how I recover and the effect of a rest break on the next set.

I really enjoyed doing the DLs at 80 the other day - it was - for me - a weight that was doable, but as I tired became a challenge. But not so much of a challenge that I thought "Agh, I can't get that first half centimetre" It IS that first centimetre off the floor that's the hardest, isn't it? Once I've got it up, it's easy enough to hold it.

I know, it's silly. I should do more as we tend to DL only once a fortnight. I spasmed my back during lockdown (not enough stretching or walking, I think) and so I've been very cautious. Not back to back squats except just with an unweighted barbell. Got to start putting some weight on there for back squats - I was up to 65kg for a 1RM at the end of last year.

I did 65 in February
Looking at testing shoulder press tomorrow and back squat Thursday
I hope to get 70 back squat and don't think shoulder press will go well. I find it hard. Previous max is 35.possilby I can get 37.5. But it's tough!

You're way above me! Although I do a lot of thruster squats with dumb bells at about 12kg each. I've tried overhead squats - now those feel weird.

Have you tried static, so instead of seeing how many reps you can do see if you can do 1 and hold it for say ten seconds and then slowly as you can return the weight to the floor. This can have the same or similar effect or tearing down and rebuilding muscles fibres as doing several reps. The practice is similar to forced reps, which are hard to do in areas like deadlifts unless you’ve got a couple of dedicated spotters, holding a slowly replacing the weight is much easier to do if you train alone or without the help of a trainer or spotter.

@lillygolightly I will certainly give it a try!!
Thanks

@Lillygolightly that's an interesting approach. Thanks! It sounds a bit like doing negatives in training for press ups and pull ups.

I'm still doing negatives on pull ups, but trained a lot doing negative press ups ie going down really slowly, face-planting then pushing up any way I can. I can now almost do a proper full body press up.

Today we did 5 deadlifts every other minute alternated with 20 hollow rocks for the other minute. Building weight.
I did 65,65,75,75,85,85
So it's frustrating that I can't get up my max.

Sumo deadlifts are much easier off the floor but to improve your specific issue I'd say yes deficit and pause deadlifts are good.

Best deadlift advice I can give is super straight back, look straight ahead, then instead of concentrating on lifting, imagine you're pushing your feet into the floor as hard as you can! It's how I first broke the 100kg mark, just that passing bit of advice from someone in the gym!