Case Study: Breaking a 2-year deadlift plateau

Chad first deadlifted 500 lbs in January of 2023. Since then he has now competed in 3 powerlifting meets in the British Columbia Powerlifting Federation and in spite of his training numbers going up (and pulling 500+ on nearly 15 separate occasions now), he had been plagued by a deadlift “curse” in meets where he just wouldn’t be able to pull 500 consistently enough to make it count at a meet.

Last weekend on February 8th, 2025 he broke the curse and smoked it as his second attempt which made for a 10kg/22lb meet PR on his deadlift with lots in the tank. (see the 2nd slide of the post linked in the photo below).

Here’s how we broke the curse.

In early 2023, Chad’s training followed a very “standard” structure of ~2 months of each block type: accumulation, strength and peaking. And to his credit, this had taken him from around a 315 lb deadlift to his then-PR of 500 lbs. The problem he began to run into as we got into those upper 400s and eventually cracked 500 lbs on his deadlift was that the fatigue management became VERY challenging and he needed to have something of a “perfect” day in order to successfully pull a new heavier top set at the end of his training blocks.

When it came to his powerlifting meet performances in late 2023 and mid-2024, this meant that even though his blocks had gone well and his all-out PR had increased a further 15 lbs in the gym it did not translate to the platform, in part due to the training stress of peaking for the meet (pushing his squat and bench) making showing up on meet day a hit or miss situation, in spite of using the peaking protocol that had historically worked for him.

In training, we would see some blocks go well in the early phases, but others he would just feel stale for nearly a month at a time, even with deloads, reductions in volume, etc.

So, we had to radically shift his training approach with the deadlift and make 2 key changes:

1. Only pulling competition deadlifts in the final month before his meet
2. Using a “conjugate-inspired” approach and training movements that attacked his weak points, training them as maximal effort movements where we worked to push his 1-3RM up aggressively.

You can see in the video below, in spite of this being a successful pull, he is very slow to pass his knees in spite of being a flat backed puller (which is generally conducive to being slow off the floor but fast to lock out).

We have him 4 primary deadlift sessions every 2 blocks. In a 5 month prep, we broke his focus on max effort movements down into 3 phases:

• Phase 1 (5 months out, 4 months out): take 4 sessions to build to a max set of high handle trap bar deadlifts.
  • This was aimed at starting his body position just below where his sticking point is in his sumo deadlift. Similar to how you would program a block pull, but I am a fan of pulling in a conventional stance for sumo deadlifters when they are far out from a meet because it builds the back more.
    
    Chad has had issues in the past with pushing conventionals hard, so we elected to do a trap bar deadlift to work around this while getting most of the benefits.

• Phase 2 (3 months out, 2 months out): take 4 sessions to build to a max set of deficit sumo deadlifts vs 100lbs of bands (measured at lockout).
  • I am not a huge fan of accommodating resistance for most raw lifters, but the modified strength curve that these offered allowed for constant effort through a very large range of motion. Typically deficit deadlifts for sumo pullers are very hard off the floor and then they will coast on momentum to the lockout.
    
    With Chad’s specific deceleration point being below the knees, the bands allowed us to train both strength/speed off the floor due to the deficit while also forcing him to pull HARDER as he approached lockout. 2 birds, one stone. This allowed him to handle circa-max loads near lockout more frequently while learning to build speed out of the bottom. That increased momentum meant less effort to lock out the same weights as they passed his knees.

• Phase 3 (1 month out) take 4 sessions to built to a peak on the deadlift with an undulating structure (all %s based off of target weight for the meet)
  • week 1: 435 (85%) for 6 singles. Get back in the groove of competition deadlift
  • Week 2: 490-495 (95%) for a top single followed by some backdown sets of 2 @ 85%
  • Week 3: no deadlifting
  • Week 4: 415 (~80%) for 6 singles: just keeping a technical groove. Active recovery.
  • Week 5: Meet week. Out attempt structure was opening conservative @ ~470 lbs, second attempt at 501 lbs then going for a big PR after the 500 lb lift was secured.

As you can see below, 501 was a breeze for Chad

I hope this case study inspires you to try a new approach with pushing your weak point movements hard and gifts you with your next PR.

PS – here’s 2 ways I can help you prepare for your first powerlifting meet:

1. Follow me on Instagram (@strongeryoupt) for free lifting advice, programs and more powerlifting content. You can DM me the word “GUIDE” and I’ll get you a copy of “Your First Powerlifting Meet” – my guide that shows you strength standards and how to compete in powerlifting.

OR

2. Apply to join my “Platform-Ready Blueprint” and become a case study. We’ll work with you 1-on-1 to show you how to add up to 200 lbs to your total and compete in your first meet with less than 5 hours per week in the gym.

It takes less than 60 seconds to apply HERE in order to find out more information and see if you’d be a good fit.