Programming Stiff Leg Deads & Barbell Rows (a simple strategy)

Two exercises I love programming for my clients are Stiff Leg Deadlifts and Barbell Rows.

I’ve talked before about having a “reliability test” for your supplemental / assistance lifts, which basically means – how predictable is an increase on the parent / competition lift (in this case the Deadlift) if you have an increase in a given assistance exercise?

For my money, the Stiff Leg Deadlift is one of those exercises.  In my experience it is one of the most reliable / predictable of any assistance exercise for producing an increase in Deadlift strength.  Make a legit increase here, and the Deadlift goes up.

So, I like Stiff Legs in the program.  But there is a downside.  Mainly it’s that they can fatigue the living hell out of your lower back, even with perfect form.  This is especially true if you’re continuing to Deadlift, Low Bar Squat, etc with regularity.

The same is true with Barbell Rows, especially with how I coach them, which involves not resetting the bar on the ground each rep.  Instead I prefer the bodybuilding style row where the torso is kept closer to 45 degrees and the lumbar muscles must be able to hold a fairly long isometric contraction while the lifter rows a heavy barbell – usually for sets of 8-10 reps on average.  Now, if you do them right and you set up correctly, there shouldn’t be THAT much stress on the lower back, but this is an exercise where most people struggle with the set up, especially when just learning.  So sometimes we have to really account for low back fatigue when doing heavy barbell rowing.

Now in the long run, I think it’s worth it to learn the row because over time it will absolutely blow up your back with more size. And as it actually starts to get heavy you can see and feel it start to have some impact on the deadlift.

But incorporating all of these things into the weekly training plan can be a bit much over time – Squat, Deadlifts, Stiff Leg Deadlifts, and Barbell Rows are all taking a toll on the lower back.  And for any of you who have really felt the effects of beating the shit out of your low back for too long you know it can take a while to get yourself recovered and in the meantime your lifts can really suffer.

So here is one of the strategies I’ve been using lately with many of my clients to keep them progressing and feeling fresh.

It should be noted that this strategy is one that I might use for a client who is generally consolidating all of his/her high stress deadlifts and deadlift accessories to just one time per week.  You might do some light deadlifts later in the week after you squat heavy, but in general this protocol is not ideal if you’re a trainee who likes to deadlift with a lot of frequency.

This method is stupidly simple but I like the results I’m seeing from my clients.

The Method……

For the first 3 weeks, we focus on building up to a peak in the Stiff Leg Deadlift.  Starting with lower intensity and relatively high volume we do a simple wave that looks like this:

• Week 1:  3 x 8-10 (straight sets)
• Week 2:  3 x 6 (add 5-10% from week 1 and drop the reps to 6)
• Week 3:  1 x 4-8 (add 5-10% from week 2 and go for an all out maximum set).  Sometimes I follow this with a lighter back off set of 8-12 reps, sometimes not.

During this 3 week wave, we don’t do any Barbell Rows.  We still row, but we select from other rowing variations.  We might do a different one each week or stay with one variation for the whole 3 week wave.  The only two rules that apply are (1) the variation you choose doesn’t beat up the lower back (2) you are able to establish a good mind muscle connection with the variation you choose.  Good options are chest supported t-bars, chest supported seated row machines (there are dozens of models), cable rows, and even dumbbell rows.

Reps are generally in the 8-12 range.   We do these rows after the Stiff Leg Deadlifts.

So our workouts for the first cycle might look like this:

Week 1 – 3

• Light Squat 3 x 8
• Heavy Deadlift 3 x 8 / 3 x 5 / 3 x 2
• Stiff Leg Deadlift 3 x 8-10 / 3 x 6 / 1 x 4 – 8
• Chest Supported Row or Dumbbell Row 3 x 8-12
• Lat Pulldowns 3 x 10-12

After 3 weeks we drop the Stiff Leg Deadlifts, and substitute them with the Barbell Row for another 3 week wave.  With the rows I don’t have an exact set and rep scheme that I use for everyone.  Some people are really good at heavy barbell rows and some are not so there is plenty of room here for individual variability, but in general we follow a pattern of starting lighter with higher reps and tapering down to heavier with less reps.  That might mean starting at sets of 12, down to sets of 10 in week 2, and down to sets of 8 in week 3.  Or you might start with sets of 10 and taper down to sets of 6 in week 3.

But honestly……don’t stress about this too much.   Actually, don’t stress about this at all. Programming barbell rows is not nearly as hard as doing them correctly.  The main thing is that you are doing a whole bunch of quality reps and the weight is slowly going up over time.  Keep the reps between 6-12 and keep driving the weight up and perfecting your form and you’ll be good.  That’s it.

At the end of today’s Deadlift workout, we’re going to still hit some work on the lower back and hamstrings, but we’re going to use movements that are far lower stress than a stiff leg deadlift.  Our main goal here is to keep these muscles conditioned to lots of work, so that when we go back to the Stiff Legs in 3 weeks we haven’t lost all our conditioning to them.  My 3 favorites are 45 degree back extension, 90 degree back extensions, and reverse hypers.
So Week’s 4-6:

• Light Squat 3 x 8
• Heavy Deadlift 3 x 8 / 3 x 5 / 3 x 2
• Barbell Rows  3 x 10 / 3 x 8 / 3 x 6
• Lat Pulldowns 3 x 10-12
• 45 Degree Back Extension 3 x 15

After Week 6 we simply start back over with the cycle we ran in weeks’ 1-3, dropping the BB Rows and getting back into the Stiff Legs.

Every time you start a new cycle, look back at your training log and see what you did last time and try to beat your performances.

So if in the first cycle (weeks 1-3) you did this:

• Week 1:  SLDL 3 x 8-10 x 315
• Week 2:  SLDL  3 x 6 x 330
• Week 3:  SLDL 350 x 7 (rep max)

In the next cycle (weeks 7-9) you would do something like this:

• Week 7:  SLDL 3 x 8-10 x 325
• Week 8: SLDL 3 x 6 x 340
• Week 9:  SLDL  355 x 7 (rep max)

We would do the same thing with the Barbell Rows.  In the first cycle with your Barbell Rows (weeks 4-6) you might do this:

• Week 4:  Barbell Row 3 x 10 x 185
• Week 5:  Barbell Row 3 x 8 x 205
• Week 6:  Barbell Row 3 x 6 x 225

Then we’d drop the BB Rows for 3 weeks, cycle back to SLDLs but in weeks’ 10, 11, 12 we’d cycle back to rows like this:

• Week 10:  Barbell Row 3 x 10 x 195
• Week 11:  Barbell Row 3 x 8 x 215
• Week 12:  Barbell Row 3 x 6 x 235

If your Deadlift is not where you want it to be you might consider something like this.  Bouncing back and forth in these 3 week mini cycles for about 6 months or so should take your Deadlift PRs to a whole new level.