Band Waves for the Deadlift
By Joshua Miller
12/30/2022
My training partner, Doran and I’s recent very successful 3 week wave of banded deadlifts prompted me to write this article.
Week 1 I pulled 220lbs bands+585 bar weight for 805 at the top and 625 at the bottom.
Week 3 I pulled 480lbs bands + 585 bar weight for 1065 at the top and 705-715 at the bottom. In both of these examples, the bands had a lot of tension right off the floor.
Doran started out with around 775 at the top and 565 from the bottom. He ended up with 935 at the top and 565 from the bottom.
The difference in work for that repetition throughout the ROM is HUGE, and the rate of force development required each week was significantly higher each time.
Doran and I structured out 3 week training block differently, with me having a total of 5 sessions, two of which were heavy, and him having a total of 3 sessions, all of which were heavy. The end result for both of us was a GREAT training response. Doran utilized one max effort session (ME) per week for 3 weeks. I used a twice per week frequency consisting of a max effort day, 3 dynamic effort (DE) days, and special strength day (GM), and then a second max effort day at the end of the 3 week wave.
Doran’s progression was solely in the amount of bands used weekly to alter the strength curve. Simple and effective, almost like a short linear peak.
My progression was primarily focused on the dynamic effort work, progressing through the 3 dynamic effort sessions in a faster progression you would typically see in a 3 week DE progression, performed in 1.5 weeks. Week 1 set the tone for the next 3 DE sessions, and then a deload special strength day to allow for a supercompensation, and then a heavy day at the end.
As you can see, we both had a great response although the methods we used were quite different. Bands are a great tool to use, but how should you go about using them on deadlift?
There are several ways. We will cover DE effort applications, ME applications, tempo work, putting it together into a training cycle, and how long can it last, where training goes from here, and brief considerations of bands with other lifts.
DE Effort applications focus on maximal bar speed and typically submaximal weights. Recovery requirements are lower, but you should be treating each rep like a PR attempt, so you should still be producing near maximal force. These can be worked in longterm as one session a week paired with a second day each week that consists of either a max effort or volume day depending on the needs of the lifter. There are often misconceptions in the application of this method, and to make its application a valuable investment of your time it should be focused on technique work, and maximal intent every rep. Some would call this CAT, compensatory acceleration training, and the method has proven successful in powerlifting camps from Westside Barbell to Fred Hatfield, and Josh Bryant’s crew of monsters. Regardless of what you call it, it is effective if done properly, and of course, ineffective if done improperly. CAT/DE training should be performed either as it’s own day with that focus, or following a heavier movement of the same movement pattern as a contrast. For example, one could perform a day where both squats and deadlifts are performed as DE movements, or one could perform a heavy squat variation contrasted with an explosive squat variation and/or jump on one day. Likewise you could contrast ME deadlifts with DE deadlifts vs bands, Dimel Deadlifts, Kettlebell Swings, and/or a jump variation–or even an olympic movement if the lifter has the requisite skills. Another way to organize DE work is to put DE squats before ME deadlifts as a primer on one day, and then on a second day each week perform DE deadlifts after ME squats as a contrast. For powerlifting sport specificity, this works really well to balance prioritization of lifts throughout the week in a simplistic way. Frequency on dynamic effort work can range from 1 to 3 times per week depending on the organization of training, however 1-2 times per week is the most typical. There are so many ways of organizing this in order to properly prioritize the needs of a lifter, but the three basic structures described above are the most typical, and are a good place to start and build from.
Applying bands to DE deadlifts must be done thoughtfully with the needs of the lifter in mind. Not every lifter needs lots of bands on deadlift, and as a general rule of thumb, band setups that are very tight off the floor work best for sumo, and bands for conventional have a lot more flexibility in application to get good carryover. For sumo, you want bands to be tight off the ground and ramp up fast so that the bottom portion of the lift where you are weakest still has sufficient cueing to accelerate! One of the biggest benefits of bands is the external cueing to perform the rep as a CAT rep, so the nature of the movement must be considered with the setup of the bands. Likewise, having the bands kick hard from the knees up on sumo often is just a way to stroke your ego. Even if you miss at lockout on sumo, it is probably because of something you are doing before the bar passes your knee, so keep that in mind and set your bands up to pull aggressively from the start. On conventional, you want the bands to still have some tension off the floor, however you want it to really kick in from the knees up as lockout is often hard on conventional. For dynamic effort deadlifts, keep the band tension to around 25-30% of your 1RM.
Max effort means that a near maximal top set is reached, RPE 8-10. Some think you should push to failure, I think you should push close and periodize RPE (or bar speed). I tend to organize ME movements in 3 week waves with an RPE 8, 9, 10 week 1,2,3 respectively. This generally refers to one upper and one lower body max effort movement per week, but not necessarily every movement weekly, although as described above, sometimes both ME deadlifts and squats can be performed in the same week, depending on how it is organized. In the case of deadlifts, I typically do not do max effort work weekly. Typically once every 3 weeks, however during this heavy banded wave, deadlifts were a primary focus so max effort work was performed every other week, and as you can see above, this is determined by the load tolerance and needs of a lifter.
For applying bands to max effort deadlifts, typically I have had the most success with HEAVY band tension compared to other lifts. On other lifts a wide range of 15-50% depending on specific needs can be effectively utilized, whereas on deadlift most of my case studies examining myself and many clients over the last 10 years suggests that loads from 35-55% are very effective. Sometimes more than that, up to 70% on rare occasions. This seems to be true for both piling weight on the bar, and for improving power and explosiveness on barbell and athletic movements. In addition to improving strength and power, bands can also be used to enhance the effectiveness of technique drills and movements that crossover between targeting weak points and being a technique drill.
Utilizing bands on tempo work and pause variations provides a few benefits and makes use of band tension from as low as 5% to as high as 30%. On all lifts, you see an improved cueing for intent and stability provided by the “constant sensation” of the tension. It seems to make coordinated movement easier in beginner populations, partially because they brace for the full load they feel at the top of many movements. Especially on tempo related work. This is also true on deadlifts with a prescribed eccentric tempo. The bands improve the technique cue and often improve the skill of the lifter even faster on tempo movements.
The same is true on pause movements, also for the aforementioned reasons, particularly the cueing for intent, both the entire time and after overcoming the pause. This unique stimulus is also quite similar to the static overcome by dynamic that is brutally effective at improving strength and force production. Although the isometric on a pause is not a maximal isometric, the length of the pause can be pushed to make it near maximal, and to thereafter make the rep near maximal the entire ROM from point of greatest mechanical disadvantage to the top!
The application of bands to tempo and pause variations is very flexible, and novel stimuli can be created to fit the needs of a lifter. Which brings us to the next logical question–how does one put this together into a training cycle?
There are literally thousands of ways that a training cycle could be designed based off a lifter’s needs, so I will discuss a few systems of organization that are good starting points to build from as you need. You can also copy these exactly to start if you have no clue how to adapt them for you, and then make changes based off your observations over time.
For a heavy banded training cycle, I would advise one of two systems of organization.
The first would be weekly ramping the bands up as Doran did. Doran went with 220lbs of band tension, 320lbs band tension and then 480lbs band tension the final week, and went max effort each time. This works out to 30%, 45%, and then 68% for doran.
Doran had a squat day, a bench day, an overhead press day and a deadlift day each week. The deadlift day is our focus, and for him it was a heavy single each max effort day 3 weeks in a row. The simple linear approach was massively effective and he was handling 180lbs more at the top and the same off the ground the last week compared to the first. This approach works really well for intermediate and intermediate-advanced lifters.
Relative to Doran, my load tolerance is slightly higher, and my training age is a little older. In response to the first characteristic mentioned, the cumulative loading across the block is greater, and in response to both considerations mentioned the frequency is higher but the average intensity is lower. The result was
Week x: Day 1; Day 2
Week 1: Max effort deadlift vs 220lbs (25%) bands; Speed deadlifts vs 100lbs (11%) bands
Week 2: Speed deadlifts vs 220lbs (25%) bands; Speed Deadlifts vs 220lbs (25%) bands
Week 3: Good mornings; Deadlift vs 480lbs (55%) bands
Heavy banded deadlift cycles are best short and intense with 3 weeks being the sweet spot for me, and 3-6 weeks being the normal range.
Dynamic effort applications using lower band tensions (25-30%) can be used for longer periods of time for sure, typically 6-12 weeks. Although most of my training was in this range, this would typically be performed once per week for deadlift and once per week for squat, whereas during the block outlined above DE deadlifts were performed every 72 hours basically, and the block was capped off with a heavy deadlift day with lots of bands. A more typical DE progression would be setup one of two ways.
Organization 1-
Week x: Day 1; Day 2
Week 1: ME Squat variation, assistance work (potentially including DL variation and/or secondary squat; DE Squat 10x2 at 75% combined weight (with or without 25% bands), DE Deadlift 8 x 1 75% combined weight (with or without 15% band tension), Assistance work.
Week 2: ME Sq, Asst. work; DE Squat 12 x 2 80% combined weight (with or without 30% bands), DE Deadlift 10 x 1 with 80% combined weight (with or without 20% bands), Asst. work
Week 3: ME DL, Asst. work; DE Squat 8 x 2 85% combined weight (with or without 35% bands), DE Deadlift 6 x 1 (with or without 25% bands), Asst. work
Organization 2-
Week x: Day 1; Day 2
Week 1: ME Squat variation, DE DL 8 x 1 75% combined weight (with or without 15% band tension), Asst. work; DE Sq 10x2 at 75% combined weight (with or without 25% bands), ME DL, Asst. work
Week 2: ME Squat variation, DE DL 10 x 1 with 80% combined weight (with or without 20% bands), Asst. work; DE Sq 12 x 2 80% combined weight (with or without 30% bands), ME DL, Asst. work
Week 3: ME Squat variation, DE DL 6 x 1 with 85% combined weight (with or without 25% bands), Asst. work; DE Sq 8 x 2 85% combined weight (with or without 35% bands), ME DL, Asst. work
Organization 2 works best for beginner and intermediate lifters, and advanced lifters with a high enough load tolerance to handle two max effort days per week. Organization 1 works well for everyone else. These waves can repeat in the same pattern, adding 1-3% to each week per wave until a new max is set on a competition variation. These can repeat 2-4 times without any significant structural changes. It was necessary to touch on the organization as a big picture, and how the squat programming would generally coordinate with deadlift training, even though methods of applying bands to deadlift remain the focus of the article.
Tempo work and pause work can be utilized to improve a lifter’s skill at a movement and typically a three week block of that is sufficient as a movement block. For banded deadlifts this could look like
Week 1: Two pause (just off the floor and at the knee) deadlift with a 3s eccentric each rep for 3 x 5 at 50% + 10% in bands.
Week 2: Pause Deadlift with a 5s eccentric each rep for 6 x 3 with 55% + 20% in bands
Week 3: Pause Deadlift with 3s eccentric each rep for 8-10 x 1 with 65%+25% in bands
If one was to want to replicate the sensation and stimuli of a static dynamic rep you would want to utilize a wave like
Week 1: 3s Pause Deadlift to RPE 8 with 20% band weight
Week 2: 5s Pause Deadlift to RPE 8 with 25% band weight
Week 3: 5-8s Pause Deadlift to RPE 10 with same weight as week 2, but pushing the pause to make it an RPE 10.
This wave could be repeated a second time back to back before moving onto a different progression.
For sumo pullers, you want the pause as close to just off the floor as possible, and for conventional pullers you want the pause to be mid shin where the quad drive starts to run out. Both of these positions should be the hardest position, however if you have a different sticking point then try and pause just before the sticking point. If this is right off the floor, you can even use a .25-.5 inch deficit and pause as close to the floor as possible to make sure to put that point right in the middle of the 15 degree range benefited from isometrics. If you do not have a way to perform deficits, as close to the floor as possible will still work because isometrics strengthen within 15 degrees of the position that is held.
This covers the basics of using band on deadlift, however bands are a valuable tool for many lifts. Check out the article “Accomodating Resistance- A discussion of common modalities and general application of accommodating resistance to achieve variable resistance” to learn more about using bands in general, and stay tuned for more articles in 2023 covering the practical application of bands more in depth for various lifts!
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