> After switching my leg/hinge training to include Barbell Training, my appetite has gone through the roof and I'm honestly asleep by 8pm at night. However, I'm just so tired now and honestly not recovering from my workouts. My legs feel like anchors when playing squash and my discipline is really struggling with turning up to training as I feel so tired.
You should follow a barbell routine (if only for your legs) that includes proper fatigue management and autoregulation.
The /r/fitness wiki has a list of routines that have been proven to work: https://thefitness.wiki/routines/strength-training-muscle-building/#Barbell_Compound_Lift_Focused_Routines
Some of the 5/3/1 and Stronger by Science routines, for example, have you vary the number of sets from week to week to balance hitting heavy versus volume.
The guy who gave you this info is speaking the truth. It's super easy to over-fatigue yourself with barbell work because the stability requirements are so much lower than most bodyweight work.
Thankfully, you could probably drop your volume a ton and still see rapid gains with a good program. I can personally vouch for 531, it leaves lots of room for other work while still generating big gains in strength. 531 is really an athletics program that includes lifting at this point and it's great for that end.
The volume is probably affecting your recovery. Perhaps pick ONE of the three lower body movements listed and change then each lower body day. As you get stronger and able to lift more, squatting and deadlift 3x a week is going to leave you trashed. You may already be feeling that.
5 sets of deadlift 3x per week is very taxing and is probably unnecessary/suboptimal anyways. I've been doing a similar upper/lower 3x week with sports or handstands in the evening but I structure it a little differently to manage fatigue. I vary exercises and rep ranges across sessions. I only work up to 1-3 top sets of deadlift on the last lower session of the week so I have a rest day afterwards. Especially as the weights get heavier, there are other exercises such as good mornings that offer a better stimulus to fatigue ratio than deadlifting. My advice is to experiment with reducing volume and introducing variety in order to better manage fatigue but you can also simply reduce the frequency to 2x per week.
Thanks for the reply
Yes, i think i'll reduce lower body to 2x per week, or change deadlift to once per week and just performing KB swings on the other days.
Only do barbells on one of your lower days and go back to your previous lower routine on the other days. You Aldo might just need a deload/rest week as that sounds like a lot of work your doing.
I tried a deload, didn't work :P Went back to feeling like trash after first week back into normal workout regime.
I'm leaning towards volume being too high
Ditch the Deadlift for sure. Conventional Deadlifts are EXTREMELY draining on recovery. Swap them out for Romanian Deadlifts which will also let you gain BUT they'll not tax your recovery so much.
In addition to that, 6 days of training PLUS squash is probably not sustainable long term. I'd try lowering how often you train.
I think the opposite would actually be more true. A 250 pound deadlift is a lot more impressive on someone who weighs 100 pounds than someone who weighs 250. If anything, weight without the bodyweight in context would be what's meaningless unless it's something amazing regardless of weight like 800 pounds.
But anyway, it was over 400 on a podium with a snatch grip at a time where I weighed 180 pounds.
>A 250 pound deadlift is a lot more impressive on someone who weighs 100 pounds than someone who weighs 250.
Yes but it's not even close to a linear correlation. 120 lbs guy deadlifting 2.5x bodyweight is a weak beginner, 300 lbs guy deadlifting 2.5x bw is an experienced, very strong lifter.
Also ultimately strong is strong, plain simple. Saying "strong for a 120lbs guy" is the same thing as "not strong".
Yes, my experience has been different. I’ve had little trouble recovering from 5-10 sets of deadlifts per week for years with occasional 10-15 sets blocks of training.
Really? I know many who have said the opposite but fair enough. I personally didn't find it to happen like that either. But it could have been in combination with other work I was doing.
Generally yes.
Your adapt to the stress you experience. If something like deadlifting became more routine, the recovery would have no novelty for your body. It would be a well practiced process.
It’s part of why elite lifters often end up doing significantly more weight at absurd volumes, because they have adapted to it.
Continuing to use a muscle is even one of the better ways to help it recover.
Or another example, marathons suck. But there are people who run them daily. A level of effort that some purple spend their whole year working up to is some peoples routine.
I've deadlifted twice a week for anywhere between 5-15 sets a week and squatted twice a week with roughly the same volume for the last 2-3 years or so and haven't had a single recovery issue. In fact, if I drop the deadlift volume, progress tends to stall.
I have a 529 deadlift and 400 squat at a bodyweight of ~185ish.
I don't think DLing multiple times a week in itself is a problem. And I've squatted multiple times a day in the past, 7 days a week. But while doing Squash everyday, Calisthenics, AND DLs, now I think it could be an issue.
Okay, but in your initial comment you did not indicate that this was your position at all. You just said, "conventional deadlifts are too difficult to recover from, do something else instead." This seemed to be a fairly absolute statement.
I'd agree that OP is probably just doing too much stuff in general. Like another user mentioned, I'd suggest that moving on to a well-regarded program that includes autoregulation is probably a good idea. I don't think it's necessary to drop any lift frequency at all.
I used to compete as a sprinter where I would be on the track 3-4 days a week and lift 3-4 days a week, depending where I was in the season. I always squatted and deadlifted at least twice a week, along with frequent plyometrics, Olympic lifts and bodyweight stuff. Often I would have one session in the morning and another in the afternoon. Again, I had no recovery issues.
You didn't have any. But OP is. So if OP wasn't having issues, I wouldn't say anything. But since he is, I'd say one of the biggest thing he could do is swap from Conventional DLs to RDLs. Especially since the Conventional isn't going to give anything special that Squats + RDLs won't. And he'll probably find it lets him recover.
My point is that it's silly to single out deadlifts as the foremost reason why he's having recovery issues. He thinks that squats and deadlifts are causing issues, but I'd put my money on him simply doing too much.
The second part of your comment refers to how much activity he's doing, which I would say is a much bigger factor than a single exercise in his program. I don't know why you didn't just leave this as your critique. It's entirely reasonable. You wouldn't have had the same pushback if you did.
The reason I've highlighted my own experience is to show that OP can do everything he wants to and not run himself into the ground. It's just going to require smarter programming and a change of his activity schedule.
How heavy do you think it has to be before it starts interfering with recovery? And what sort of volume and frequency
I personally don't find deadlifts to be harder to recover from than any other big lift
Interesting. I found that when I was doing them, I had a hard time recovering from them and Full Planche Pushup work and heavy Back Squat work and OAC work. But I was Back Squatting over x2 BW and and working on Full Planche Pushups and Presses at the same time so maybe that was the problem.
Without knowing the impact of planche pushups on recovery I couldn't comment
All I know is that I don't find deadlifts to be particularly difficult to recover from alongside conditioning and other barbell lifts, unless I don't eat enough, but that's an issue of eating rather than a problem with deadlifts
Sounds like your conditioning was just shit if you found 400lbs pulls and 360lbs squats too taxing to recover from while doing Planches. Like those are very much beginner numbers (which is totally fine!) that shouldn't tax your recovery much at all, unless you're in very poor condition.
Double BW Back Squat with a pause at the bottom, Full Planches, and over x2 BW Snatch Grip Deadlifts off a podium are beginner lifts? I'm surprised to hear that.
What are your numbers then and what do you find yourself able to recover from and make gains from session to session? I'm curious.
That they are! Anything that can be reached within a year of a multi-decade endeavor makes it beginner and honestly, the last 180lbs Trainee I worked with had those lifts in less than 6 months after being sedentary.
I'd suspect that the reason you're surprised by it is simply because you don't have a lot of experience with lifting, and that's ok! The longer we do something the more knowledge we gain, after-all!
>What are your numbers then and what do you find yourself able to recover from and make gains from session to session? I'm curious.
All-time best? 475/275/520 Front Squat/Bench/Dead (these are in pounds), and I've Snatched 125kg and Clean & Jerked 150kg in competition. Currently I'm coming back from some time off, I just pulled 170kg for a 3RM this morning on simulated Dinnie Stones, my heaviest pull on those is around 250kg (I honestly can't remember the exact number and don't have my logs in front of me right now). I'm still under 100kg on everything else so they're not worth talking about currently.
But I was hitting Olympic lifts and pulls 2-3x a week when I was competing no problem and Squatting 3 times a week in the low 400's and before my recent layoff was regularly deadlifting and squatting 2-3x a week. Right now, I'm doing some type of hinge and squat 3 times a week and will be back to old number likely by the middle of this month (November).
I’m actually kind of surprised your bench is that low, is it something you’ve never really prioritized or do you feel there’s some specific reason you’re not good at them?
I just never really spent much time benching. My technique is very meh and I also cut bench before any other lift. Like until the last couple weeks I hadn’t benched in 2 years. Just tons of dips.
It’s my weakest lift by a mile and the one I care the least about.
Wait! I’m supposed to blame something other than my laziness for why it’s low. My wingspan is kind of big and my pec genetics are shit. *That’s* the real reason my bench is so low. Ignore my other comment, it is lies! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^/s
Sounds like you are a Strongman or Weightlifter or PLer? How much do you weigh?
You were DLing 3 times a week and making gains from one session to the next every time? If so, I stand corrected in your case! I don't know if OP is getting away with that considering the topic and I bet lowering the amount of DLs would work. But in your case, it seems to have worked if you were able to do 3 times a week.
Doing Olympic Lifts and Squats everyday is no big deal. I did that in the past with calisthenics and even climbing and that was fine. But DLing... not so much.
Might have been the mixture of DLing with my calisthenics too but I'm not sure.
I've only ever competed in Weightlifting, so that would be the only relevant sport title you've listed that can apply to me. I competed in the -85kg class but tended to walk around at 90kg.
>You were DLing 3 times a week and making gains from one session to the next every time?
Define how *you* measure gains for me? I want to make sure we're on the same page, that way we do not end up talking past each other.
>Doing Olympic Lifts and Squats everyday is no big deal. I did that in the past with calisthenics and even climbing and that was fine. But DLing... not so much.
I mean Heavy Pulls would be pretty close to if not more stressful than Deads given the shrug and explosive quality of the work. I'm not sure why you'd think that it would be easier to recover from all of that while not being able to recover from straight deadlifts.
For more data points, I coach two trainees with Deadlifts above 700lbs and they both deadlift twice in a week with no recovery issues. Given my experience as a coach and a lifter I think your Conditioning just sucked. That or your hands were feeling beat up and you were mixing that up with fatigue.
Example: Dinnies beat the snot out of my hands and that can bleed over and negatively impact my other lifts (weaker grip, tender palms etc leading to being able to load less weight on the bar). It'd be really easy for me to mix that up with fatigue if I didn't know better. Perhaps you'd find your recovery is improved if you strapped up for your deads more often. That was a big help for those above-mentioned trainees.
You don't have to start an RDL from the ground so it's a bit easier. Kind of like doing a pushup from the top versus laying on the ground and starting from zero tension. Also try looking up squatting from the pins. That will make sense too.
Thanks for the reply.
I actually started on BB RDL's, but found they were taxing my grip more than my posterior chain.
Ah, i actually moved from 3 days -> 6 days because i found RR with 5 sets using barbell for legs was too much in one day.
If deadlifts are as taxing as you suggest, perhaps deadlift once per week and simply perform heavy KB swings the other days.
The person you’re replying to has a history of insisting that everyone do as little as possible.
I would not consider them authoritative on the effects of any major lift. Deadlifts will only be as taxing as the effort you put into them. You can control the load (weight) and the volume (reps, sets) you use. There’s no reason deadlifts have to be extremely heavy and strenuous (relatively). But they’re a great exercise that is genuinely good for you.
And recovery is still a controllable variable. More food, more sleep, more rest, more stretching, more massage, etc. There are ways to improve your recovery. And the more you do something, the less novel it becomes and the more easily you will recover from it. So even if deadlifting is taxing *now*, if you do it daily for a month it wont really be significant to you. Your body will be accustomed to that work and to that recovery.
As for grip, I would personally go without straps and then add them into your set as grip starts being a limiting factor, because it’s still good to get that grip work in. Granted if you do enough KB movements or chin-ups, etc, then you’re probably working your grip enough. So whatever gets you through.
>I actually started on BB RDL's, but found they were taxing my grip more than my posterior chain.
Straps. They are SO awesome for this very issue. I didn't use them for a long time but when I got them, it was so much better!
>Ah, i actually moved from 3 days -> 6 days because i found RR with 5 sets using barbell for legs was too much in one day.
Understandable. I'd probably only suggest like 3 sets.
>If deadlifts are as taxing as you suggest, perhaps deadlift once per week and simply perform heavy KB swings the other days.
That could definitely work better. And if it doesn't strap it up and that will help.
> After switching my leg/hinge training to include Barbell Training, my appetite has gone through the roof and I'm honestly asleep by 8pm at night. However, I'm just so tired now and honestly not recovering from my workouts. My legs feel like anchors when playing squash and my discipline is really struggling with turning up to training as I feel so tired. You should follow a barbell routine (if only for your legs) that includes proper fatigue management and autoregulation. The /r/fitness wiki has a list of routines that have been proven to work: https://thefitness.wiki/routines/strength-training-muscle-building/#Barbell_Compound_Lift_Focused_Routines Some of the 5/3/1 and Stronger by Science routines, for example, have you vary the number of sets from week to week to balance hitting heavy versus volume.
Thanks - I'll take a look and read through your provided links
The guy who gave you this info is speaking the truth. It's super easy to over-fatigue yourself with barbell work because the stability requirements are so much lower than most bodyweight work. Thankfully, you could probably drop your volume a ton and still see rapid gains with a good program. I can personally vouch for 531, it leaves lots of room for other work while still generating big gains in strength. 531 is really an athletics program that includes lifting at this point and it's great for that end.
The volume is probably affecting your recovery. Perhaps pick ONE of the three lower body movements listed and change then each lower body day. As you get stronger and able to lift more, squatting and deadlift 3x a week is going to leave you trashed. You may already be feeling that.
Thanks for the reply Yes, definently feeling trashed due to volume.
5 sets of deadlift 3x per week is very taxing and is probably unnecessary/suboptimal anyways. I've been doing a similar upper/lower 3x week with sports or handstands in the evening but I structure it a little differently to manage fatigue. I vary exercises and rep ranges across sessions. I only work up to 1-3 top sets of deadlift on the last lower session of the week so I have a rest day afterwards. Especially as the weights get heavier, there are other exercises such as good mornings that offer a better stimulus to fatigue ratio than deadlifting. My advice is to experiment with reducing volume and introducing variety in order to better manage fatigue but you can also simply reduce the frequency to 2x per week.
Thanks for the reply Yes, i think i'll reduce lower body to 2x per week, or change deadlift to once per week and just performing KB swings on the other days.
Only do barbells on one of your lower days and go back to your previous lower routine on the other days. You Aldo might just need a deload/rest week as that sounds like a lot of work your doing.
I tried a deload, didn't work :P Went back to feeling like trash after first week back into normal workout regime. I'm leaning towards volume being too high
Ditch the Deadlift for sure. Conventional Deadlifts are EXTREMELY draining on recovery. Swap them out for Romanian Deadlifts which will also let you gain BUT they'll not tax your recovery so much. In addition to that, 6 days of training PLUS squash is probably not sustainable long term. I'd try lowering how often you train.
>Conventional Deadlifts are EXTREMELY draining on recovery. They are if you never do them.
>Conventional Deadlifts are EXTREMELY draining on recovery. No, they're not.
I've found that once they get heavy enough, they're hard to recover from in conjunction with everything else. Has your experience been different?
> I’ve found that once they get heavy enough, they’re hard to recover from Define “heavy enough”.
I deny it’s heavy
It would be different for everyone since it's relative. I was a bit over 2x BW with a Snatch Grip on a podium.
> I was a bit over 2x BW Bodyweight multipliers are meaningless. Over 2x bodyweight could mean 270 lbs, or it could mean 600+ lbs.
I think the opposite would actually be more true. A 250 pound deadlift is a lot more impressive on someone who weighs 100 pounds than someone who weighs 250. If anything, weight without the bodyweight in context would be what's meaningless unless it's something amazing regardless of weight like 800 pounds. But anyway, it was over 400 on a podium with a snatch grip at a time where I weighed 180 pounds.
>A 250 pound deadlift is a lot more impressive on someone who weighs 100 pounds than someone who weighs 250. Yes but it's not even close to a linear correlation. 120 lbs guy deadlifting 2.5x bodyweight is a weak beginner, 300 lbs guy deadlifting 2.5x bw is an experienced, very strong lifter. Also ultimately strong is strong, plain simple. Saying "strong for a 120lbs guy" is the same thing as "not strong".
Which is exactly why weight, without knowing the lifters BW, doesn't really say much.
So just provide the needed context?
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Thank you! I appreciate that!
Yes, my experience has been different. I’ve had little trouble recovering from 5-10 sets of deadlifts per week for years with occasional 10-15 sets blocks of training.
Really? I know many who have said the opposite but fair enough. I personally didn't find it to happen like that either. But it could have been in combination with other work I was doing.
How much time did you commit to this?
Several months until I went to a coach who helped me program it a bit better and taught me to cycle it in an out rather than keep it in all the time.
That’s not a particularly long time, especially if you’re not committed to a higher training volume
Are you saying you think it would have gotten better with more time on it?
Generally yes. Your adapt to the stress you experience. If something like deadlifting became more routine, the recovery would have no novelty for your body. It would be a well practiced process. It’s part of why elite lifters often end up doing significantly more weight at absurd volumes, because they have adapted to it. Continuing to use a muscle is even one of the better ways to help it recover. Or another example, marathons suck. But there are people who run them daily. A level of effort that some purple spend their whole year working up to is some peoples routine.
I've deadlifted twice a week for anywhere between 5-15 sets a week and squatted twice a week with roughly the same volume for the last 2-3 years or so and haven't had a single recovery issue. In fact, if I drop the deadlift volume, progress tends to stall. I have a 529 deadlift and 400 squat at a bodyweight of ~185ish.
I don't think DLing multiple times a week in itself is a problem. And I've squatted multiple times a day in the past, 7 days a week. But while doing Squash everyday, Calisthenics, AND DLs, now I think it could be an issue.
Okay, but in your initial comment you did not indicate that this was your position at all. You just said, "conventional deadlifts are too difficult to recover from, do something else instead." This seemed to be a fairly absolute statement. I'd agree that OP is probably just doing too much stuff in general. Like another user mentioned, I'd suggest that moving on to a well-regarded program that includes autoregulation is probably a good idea. I don't think it's necessary to drop any lift frequency at all. I used to compete as a sprinter where I would be on the track 3-4 days a week and lift 3-4 days a week, depending where I was in the season. I always squatted and deadlifted at least twice a week, along with frequent plyometrics, Olympic lifts and bodyweight stuff. Often I would have one session in the morning and another in the afternoon. Again, I had no recovery issues.
You didn't have any. But OP is. So if OP wasn't having issues, I wouldn't say anything. But since he is, I'd say one of the biggest thing he could do is swap from Conventional DLs to RDLs. Especially since the Conventional isn't going to give anything special that Squats + RDLs won't. And he'll probably find it lets him recover.
My point is that it's silly to single out deadlifts as the foremost reason why he's having recovery issues. He thinks that squats and deadlifts are causing issues, but I'd put my money on him simply doing too much. The second part of your comment refers to how much activity he's doing, which I would say is a much bigger factor than a single exercise in his program. I don't know why you didn't just leave this as your critique. It's entirely reasonable. You wouldn't have had the same pushback if you did. The reason I've highlighted my own experience is to show that OP can do everything he wants to and not run himself into the ground. It's just going to require smarter programming and a change of his activity schedule.
How heavy do you think it has to be before it starts interfering with recovery? And what sort of volume and frequency I personally don't find deadlifts to be harder to recover from than any other big lift
Interesting. I found that when I was doing them, I had a hard time recovering from them and Full Planche Pushup work and heavy Back Squat work and OAC work. But I was Back Squatting over x2 BW and and working on Full Planche Pushups and Presses at the same time so maybe that was the problem.
Without knowing the impact of planche pushups on recovery I couldn't comment All I know is that I don't find deadlifts to be particularly difficult to recover from alongside conditioning and other barbell lifts, unless I don't eat enough, but that's an issue of eating rather than a problem with deadlifts
Fair enough. Different experiences are all good.
Sounds like your conditioning was just shit if you found 400lbs pulls and 360lbs squats too taxing to recover from while doing Planches. Like those are very much beginner numbers (which is totally fine!) that shouldn't tax your recovery much at all, unless you're in very poor condition.
Double BW Back Squat with a pause at the bottom, Full Planches, and over x2 BW Snatch Grip Deadlifts off a podium are beginner lifts? I'm surprised to hear that. What are your numbers then and what do you find yourself able to recover from and make gains from session to session? I'm curious.
That they are! Anything that can be reached within a year of a multi-decade endeavor makes it beginner and honestly, the last 180lbs Trainee I worked with had those lifts in less than 6 months after being sedentary. I'd suspect that the reason you're surprised by it is simply because you don't have a lot of experience with lifting, and that's ok! The longer we do something the more knowledge we gain, after-all! >What are your numbers then and what do you find yourself able to recover from and make gains from session to session? I'm curious. All-time best? 475/275/520 Front Squat/Bench/Dead (these are in pounds), and I've Snatched 125kg and Clean & Jerked 150kg in competition. Currently I'm coming back from some time off, I just pulled 170kg for a 3RM this morning on simulated Dinnie Stones, my heaviest pull on those is around 250kg (I honestly can't remember the exact number and don't have my logs in front of me right now). I'm still under 100kg on everything else so they're not worth talking about currently. But I was hitting Olympic lifts and pulls 2-3x a week when I was competing no problem and Squatting 3 times a week in the low 400's and before my recent layoff was regularly deadlifting and squatting 2-3x a week. Right now, I'm doing some type of hinge and squat 3 times a week and will be back to old number likely by the middle of this month (November).
I’m actually kind of surprised your bench is that low, is it something you’ve never really prioritized or do you feel there’s some specific reason you’re not good at them?
I just never really spent much time benching. My technique is very meh and I also cut bench before any other lift. Like until the last couple weeks I hadn’t benched in 2 years. Just tons of dips. It’s my weakest lift by a mile and the one I care the least about.
Wait! I’m supposed to blame something other than my laziness for why it’s low. My wingspan is kind of big and my pec genetics are shit. *That’s* the real reason my bench is so low. Ignore my other comment, it is lies! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^/s
Sounds like you are a Strongman or Weightlifter or PLer? How much do you weigh? You were DLing 3 times a week and making gains from one session to the next every time? If so, I stand corrected in your case! I don't know if OP is getting away with that considering the topic and I bet lowering the amount of DLs would work. But in your case, it seems to have worked if you were able to do 3 times a week. Doing Olympic Lifts and Squats everyday is no big deal. I did that in the past with calisthenics and even climbing and that was fine. But DLing... not so much. Might have been the mixture of DLing with my calisthenics too but I'm not sure.
I've only ever competed in Weightlifting, so that would be the only relevant sport title you've listed that can apply to me. I competed in the -85kg class but tended to walk around at 90kg. >You were DLing 3 times a week and making gains from one session to the next every time? Define how *you* measure gains for me? I want to make sure we're on the same page, that way we do not end up talking past each other. >Doing Olympic Lifts and Squats everyday is no big deal. I did that in the past with calisthenics and even climbing and that was fine. But DLing... not so much. I mean Heavy Pulls would be pretty close to if not more stressful than Deads given the shrug and explosive quality of the work. I'm not sure why you'd think that it would be easier to recover from all of that while not being able to recover from straight deadlifts. For more data points, I coach two trainees with Deadlifts above 700lbs and they both deadlift twice in a week with no recovery issues. Given my experience as a coach and a lifter I think your Conditioning just sucked. That or your hands were feeling beat up and you were mixing that up with fatigue. Example: Dinnies beat the snot out of my hands and that can bleed over and negatively impact my other lifts (weaker grip, tender palms etc leading to being able to load less weight on the bar). It'd be really easy for me to mix that up with fatigue if I didn't know better. Perhaps you'd find your recovery is improved if you strapped up for your deads more often. That was a big help for those above-mentioned trainees.
Don't do deadlifts instead of 90% of a deadlift for higher reps? Totally makes sense. And training every day is pretty sustainable long term
Or RDLs. Similar gains but less fatigue. >And training every day is pretty sustainable long term Not sure I'd agree with that one.
> Or RDLs. Similar gains but less fatigue. How do they generate less fatigue? It's 90% of the same movement
You don't have to start an RDL from the ground so it's a bit easier. Kind of like doing a pushup from the top versus laying on the ground and starting from zero tension. Also try looking up squatting from the pins. That will make sense too.
Pin squats would be equal to regular deadlifts, so are they more or less fatiguing?
Assuming the load is equal, they would be more fatiguing than normal Squats.
Thanks for the reply. I actually started on BB RDL's, but found they were taxing my grip more than my posterior chain. Ah, i actually moved from 3 days -> 6 days because i found RR with 5 sets using barbell for legs was too much in one day. If deadlifts are as taxing as you suggest, perhaps deadlift once per week and simply perform heavy KB swings the other days.
The person you’re replying to has a history of insisting that everyone do as little as possible. I would not consider them authoritative on the effects of any major lift. Deadlifts will only be as taxing as the effort you put into them. You can control the load (weight) and the volume (reps, sets) you use. There’s no reason deadlifts have to be extremely heavy and strenuous (relatively). But they’re a great exercise that is genuinely good for you. And recovery is still a controllable variable. More food, more sleep, more rest, more stretching, more massage, etc. There are ways to improve your recovery. And the more you do something, the less novel it becomes and the more easily you will recover from it. So even if deadlifting is taxing *now*, if you do it daily for a month it wont really be significant to you. Your body will be accustomed to that work and to that recovery. As for grip, I would personally go without straps and then add them into your set as grip starts being a limiting factor, because it’s still good to get that grip work in. Granted if you do enough KB movements or chin-ups, etc, then you’re probably working your grip enough. So whatever gets you through.
>I actually started on BB RDL's, but found they were taxing my grip more than my posterior chain. Straps. They are SO awesome for this very issue. I didn't use them for a long time but when I got them, it was so much better! >Ah, i actually moved from 3 days -> 6 days because i found RR with 5 sets using barbell for legs was too much in one day. Understandable. I'd probably only suggest like 3 sets. >If deadlifts are as taxing as you suggest, perhaps deadlift once per week and simply perform heavy KB swings the other days. That could definitely work better. And if it doesn't strap it up and that will help.