5 Powerlifting Deadlift Programs: Get Stronger & Break Thru Plateaus

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If you are looking for the perfect deadlift program, you won’t find one because there are many, many ways to train your deadlift and get great results! What you can absolutely find are programs built on sound principles of strength and muscle development specific to different stages of your lifting career. 

That’s the way I have written programs for myself and for the lifters I coach. Everyone has different preferences, a different number of days they can train each week, and different needs in their training. You can leverage these tested and proven programming principles to create a program that fits your specific needs.

My goal today is to share 5 different deadlift programs, ranging from 8-12 weeks in length, that you can apply to your broader workout program to improve your deadlift!

• Deadlift Program for Beginners
• Deadlift Program for Intermediates
• Deadlift Program for Strength Development
• Deadlift Program for Hypertrophy
• Deadlift Program for High-Frequency Training

Remember: these programs are not a catch-all or magic bullet. You may have a preferred training split (how you break up your lifts and workouts each week) or frequency, you may prefer more training days with fewer rest days, or you may prefer fewer training days with more rest days.

Use these programs as a starting point to adapt to your preferences! 

Powerlifting Deadlift Program for Beginners

For a beginner deadlift program, I’ll assume they are focused on improving a one-rep max (1RM) at the end of the program, whether that is to compete in a strongman competition or powerlifting meet or just to test their max on their own in the gym. 

To do that, you’ll spend 12 weeks, broken up into 3 blocks:

• 4 weeks of a hypertrophy block to build some new muscle and build the lifter’s endurance
• 4 weeks of a strength block to develop strength and focus on lower rep ranges and heavier weight
• A peaking block to focus on heavy single reps and allow the lifter to recover from the fatigue of the last 8 weeks of intense training as they prepare to max out 

A beginner can recover and adapt quickly due to a phenomenon commonly called newbie gains. As such, this program includes two deadlift days each week.

The first deadlift workout of the week will be focused on heavier sets. The second one is designed to give the lifter added training volume (more sets and reps) with lighter weight. It’s less intense but will allow the lifter to keep the deadlift frequency up.  

In this deadlifting for beginners program, I am only detailing what you should do with your deadlift exercises on your deadlift days. This program does not outline other lifts like the squat or bench press and how those would fold in.

If you’re unsure what accessory lifts you should do, you’ll find my other article on what else to do on deadlift days helpful.

Workout Structure

Each workout starts with your main deadlift as your top sets, or the sets you want to have the most focus and energy for. This comes after a deadlift warm-up, of course – whatever you need to work up to your working weights and do these sets well. 

Then you move to a deadlift variation such as paused reps, deficit deadlifts, block deadlifts, or alternate stance deadlifts (doing sumo deadlifts when you normally pull conventional or vice versa) for 3-5 sets of 2-5 reps each.

All of these are good options for a beginner, and the lifter should use these sets to get acquainted with different deadlift variations and the specific things they train them for. If the beginner struggles with a specific area (getting the bar off the floor, locking out the deadlift, or keeping their upper back straight, for example), select a variation that addresses that weakness. 

After these sets, add 2 more exercises that isolate muscles used in the deadlift, like your upper back, lower back, traps, hamstrings, glutes, or quads. You save these for the end, as they are generally safer to do even when you are fatigued, and you can do them for higher reps with lighter weight. This reduces the risk of injury while continuing to add volume. 

So overall, you start with your primary focus — good, standard deadlifts — then move to a variation to address a weakness, then move to isolated muscle exercises used in the deadlift to get some added work in. The more you fatigue, the less complicated our exercise selection becomes, and the higher number of reps you can perform. 

Let’s dive into what that actually looks like!

Beginners’ Deadlift Workout Routine

Week 1

Workout 1

• Deadlift – 75% of 1RM, 5 sets of 5 reps
• Deadlift Variation (paused deadlift, deficit deadlift, etc) – 3-5 sets
• Isolation Exercise #1 – 3-4 sets, 8-12 reps (muscle used in the deadlift – hamstrings, upper back, lower back, quads)
• Isolation Exercise #2 – 3-4 sets, 8-12 reps

Workout 2

• Deadlift – 70% of 1RM, 5 sets of 5 reps
• Isolation Exercise #1 – 3-4 sets, 8-12 reps (muscle used in the deadlift – hamstrings, upper back, lower back, quads)
• Isolation Exercise #2 – 3-4 sets, 8-12 reps

Week 2

Workout 1

• Deadlift – 75% of 1RM, 6 sets of 5 reps
• Deadlift Variation (paused deadlift, deficit deadlift) – 3-5 sets
• Isolation Exercise #1 – 3-4 sets, 8-12 reps (muscle used in the deadlift – hamstrings, upper back, lower back, quads)
• Isolation Exercise #2 – 3-4 sets, 8-12 reps

Workout 2

• Deadlift – 70% of 1RM, 5 sets of 5 reps
• Isolation Exercise #1 – 3-4 sets, 8-12 reps (muscle used in the deadlift – hamstrings, upper back, lower back, quads)
• Isolation Exercise #2 – 3-4 sets, 8-12 reps

Now that we’ve established the format, check out the full program below. You can save a copy of the file and edit it by clicking File > Make a Copy:

The biggest things to note are that the reps per set gradually decrease over this 12-week powerlifting program as the weight steadily increases.

You also remove the variation sets in the final 4 weeks to allow the lifter time for their body to recover from the accumulated fatigue and focus on heavy single-rep sets as they peak into their max attempts at the end of the block. 

Finally, week 12 is a deload week, designed to provide only 2-3 very lightweight workouts to keep the lifter moving and limber without exerting intense effort. Max attempts should be taken at the end of the deload or the following week.   

How to Progress the Program

This format is flexible enough that you can repeat it over and over. Because you are working off percentages, simply calculate your percentages based on your new 1RM of your deadlift and proceed again!

You would also want to select deadlift variations that address new weaknesses you discover. For example, if you find that you struggle to keep your upper back straight with the added weight after your first 12 weeks, use deadlift variations that address that new challenge this time around. 

Powerlifting Deadlift Program for Intermediates

After following a powerlifting program for beginners for some time, your progress will likely stall. Once you’ve been lifting for 6 months to a year, you may want to move on to an intermediate deadlift workout plan.

You can also use the deadlift strength standards below to determine when to move on from a beginner to an intermediate program:

For an intermediate program, I’ll make the same assumption that an improved 1RM is the goal and that the lifter is working toward setting that new 1RM in a powerlifting or strongman competition. 

You’ll follow the same 12 weeks/3 blocks flow. The program will include a hypertrophy block to build new muscle and adapt the lifter to an intense workload, a strength block to decrease the reps as they increase the weight and intensity, and a peaking block to focus on heavy single reps and give the lifter reduced volume to recover and be fresh for their meet or PR attempt. 

You’ll notice I keep the weight percentage and sets/reps progression exactly the same as the beginner program on our first deadlift day of the week. This volume progression works well for intermediate lifters as well as beginners. The bigger difference comes in our second deadlift workout each week. 

An intermediate lifter needs more volume than a beginner to keep seeing progress. You’ll keep a second deadlift day each week but modify it to add diversity to the program.

The first 4 weeks call for the lifter to deadlift with their opposite stance (if they pull conventional normally,  they'll do sumo deadlift and vice versa). The second four weeks will introduce dynamic effort reps with their preferred stance. 

You can read more about dynamic effort lifting here. Put simply, these reps are designed to train the lifter’s ability to accelerate the weight and not just move heavy weight. This is usually done with some kind of accommodating resistance (AR), like elastic bands or chains on the barbell. 

The final block adjusts the second deadlift day back to pulling their preferred stance at 70% for just 3 reps per set.

As with the previous program, I am not specifying squat or bench details, nor am I prescribing specific exercise selection for the deadlift variations or isolated exercises to pair with the main deadlift work. These can be added and selected at your discretion. 

Workout Structure

Each workout starts with top sets of your preferred deadlift stance. You hit these sets after a warm-up, so you are fresh and focused for these most intense sets. 

As in the beginner's deadlift program, you follow it with a deadlift variation, usually selected to address a current weakness for the lifter (for example, bottom-end strength, lockout, form and technique, or grip). These are done for 3-5 sets of 2-5 reps. 

The final two exercises are isolated muscle exercises for muscles used in the deadlift. Again, these should be selected based on the lifter’s needs (upper back, grip strength, lower back, hamstrings, or quads). They can also be on a rotation to simply give all these included muscles extra volume week over week. 

Start with the heavy, intense compound movement, address weaknesses and improvements with the variation, then get added volume on the muscles included in the deadlift with isolated exercises you can do for higher reps, even when fatigued at the end of your workout. 

Let’s dive into what that actually looks like!

Intermediate Deadlift Workout Routine

Week 1

Workout 1

• Deadlift – 75% of 1RM, 5 sets of 5 reps
• Deadlift Variation (paused deadlift, deficit deadlift) – 3-5 sets
• Isolation Exercise #1 – 3-4 sets, 8-12 reps (muscle used in the deadlift – hamstrings, upper back, lower back, quads)
• Isolation Exercise #2 – 3-4 sets, 8-12 reps

Workout 2

• Opposite Stance Deadlift – 70% of 1RM, 5 sets of 5 reps
• Isolation Exercise #1 – 3-4 sets, 8-12 reps (muscle used in the deadlift – hamstrings, upper back, lower back, quads)
• Isolation Exercise #2 – 3-4 sets, 8-12 rep

Week 2

Workout 1

• Deadlift – 75% of 1RM, 6 sets of 5 reps
• Deadlift Variation (paused deadlift, deficit deadlift) – 3-5 sets
• Isolation Exercise #1 – 3-4 sets, 8-12 reps (muscle used in the deadlift – hamstrings, upper back, lower back, quads)
• Isolation Exercise #2 – 3-4 sets, 8-12 reps

Workout 2

1. Opposite Stance Deadlift – 70% of 1RM, 5 sets of 5 reps
2. Isolation Exercise #1 – 3-4 sets, 8-12 reps (muscle used in the deadlift – hamstrings, upper back, lower back, quads)
3. Isolation Exercise #2 – 3-4 sets, 8-12 rep

You can view the full 12-week progression in the Google sheet below. To make an editable file, go to File > Make a Copy

As with the beginner deadlift powerlifting program, the weight steadily increases week over week as the sets and reps decrease, priming the lifter to perform single rep attempts with maximal effort by the end. 

New max effort attempts should be taken at the end of the deload week (week 12) or during week 13.   

How to Progress the Program

Like the beginner program, this program is flexible enough that you can run it back-to-back for multiple 12-week cycles. Calculate your percentages based on your new deadlift 1RM and proceed again!

For an intermediate lifter, it’s all the more important to be intentional and thoughtful about your variation and isolated exercise selection to address specific weaknesses or recent failures in your form or strength during a maximal-effort deadlift attempt. 

Looking for a full powerlifting program you can do 4 days per week? Check out my guidelines for creating a 4-day powerlifting split.

Powerlifting Deadlift Program for Strength Development

If you’re interested in strengthening your deadlift but not necessarily prepping to attempt a new max, you can take some of the principles discussed above and apply them to an 8-week progression. In this deadlift strength program, you extend the strength block seen in the beginner and intermediate programs.  

In this sample, the lifter will follow 8 weeks of a block that stays in the 3-5 rep range with weights ranging from 80-90% in their first deadlift workout of the week and goes down to the 70-75% range on the second deadlift day each week. 

You’ll keep the second deadlift day to ensure deadlift muscles are trained twice a week since research has shown the best progress comes with this frequency). The second day will show reduced intensity so the lifter can accumulate additional volume without becoming overly fatigued and burning out. 

This second day will include opposite stance deadlift work to give the lifter a well-rounded program to develop every aspect of the deadlift, even those that are emphasized or de-emphasized in their preferred stance. 

Say what you will about whether the sumo or conventional deadlift stance is better — the best lifters train both and can do both well, even if they don’t max it out. 

In the final four weeks, you’ll remove those opposite stance sets (unless you want to do them with lower weight/intensity as a variation at your discretion) and make your top sets match your preferred stance.

However, the load and intensity will be reduced so you can keep the volume up throughout the block. 

For this sample, I’ll only detail the deadlifting elements so you can add them to any other programming you have for bench presses, squats, or other muscle groups or lifts each week. 

Workout Structure

You’ll spend the first four weeks on a higher end of the rep range, with 5-rep sets in the first 3 weeks and 4-rep sets with weights ranging from 80-82.5% of your 1RM in the final week of the block. In the last four weeks, you will do 3 rep sets and eventually move to 2-rep sets with 85-90% of your 1RM.

You may want to apply the same structure of including a deadlift variation exercise and isolated muscle exercises targeting muscles in the deadlift, but this is at your discretion.  

Strength Deadlift Workout Routine

Week 1

Workout 1

• Deadlift – 80% of 1RM, 4 sets of 5 reps
• Other exercises at your discretion

Workout 2

• Opposite Stance Deadlift – 70% of 1RM, 5 sets of 5 reps
• Other exercises at your discretion

Week 2

Workout 1

• Deadlift – 80% of 1RM, 5 sets of 5 reps
• Other exercises at your discretion

Workout 2

• Opposite Stance Deadlift – 70% of 1RM, 5 sets of 5 reps
• Other exercises at your discretion

Get the full workout program by downloading the file below. To make it editable, click File > Make a Copy.

As with any good program, you’ll increase the load as you decrease the sets and reps, all while sustaining or even steadily increasing the intensity. 

How to Progress the Program

There is no peak in this deadlift program for strength, which means there is no decrease in volume to let you recover from the accumulated fatigue. This expanded 8 weeks should be pretty taxing, so you would definitely want some kind of a deload or decreased volume for a week before repeating it with new percentages. 

That said, you should be good to repeat this cycle several times and see progress before making further adjustments. 

A deadlift pyramid is another great way to increase deadlift strength while accumulating more training volume. Learn more in my article Deadlift Pyramid: What Is It? How To Do It? Common Mistakes.

Powerlifting Deadlift Program for Hypertrophy

A hypertrophy-focused deadlift program is interesting because there is a point of diminishing returns when doing deadlifts for higher reps. They are so taxing and all-encompassing that the energy you expend to do so many reps can be more costly than the gains you get from them. 

In plain terms, you can work really hard but still not build that much new muscle. 

For that reason, you’ll do some high-rep sets with the deadlift with a reduced load. However, you’ll also include more isolated muscle exercises as follow–up sets in each workout to keep working those deadlift muscles without doing the more exhausting deadlifts themselves.  

These isolated exercises should be done for 3-5 sets of 8-12 reps to increase the time under tension the muscle experiences. 

It’s also worth noting that any hypertrophy program should be accompanied by a caloric surplus in your diet to ensure you have enough food to expend energy and build new muscle. 

Workout Structure

In this 8-week progression, your main deadlifts will be your top sets after completing a warm-up. You want to be fresh and focused to perform these high-rep deadlift sets. 

After these sets are done, the rest of the workout will comprise isolated muscle exercises targeting muscles used in the deadlift (think hamstrings, lower back, upper back, traps, forearms, glutes, and quads) to keep working the muscles without overly exhausting your energy. 

You’ll increase the load and decrease the rep ranges to keep the intensity up so that your body has new, challenging stimuli to adapt to week over week. 

Since volume is so important for muscle growth, you’ll keep a second deadlift day in the program but focus on your opposite stance.

Since you are focused on hypertrophy, doing both deadlift stances give you more volume and variety to grow those deadlift muscles, no matter which stance you’ll use to max out later in your lifting pursuits. 

Hypertrophy Deadlift Workout Routine

Week 1

Workout 1

• Deadlift – 65% of 1RM, 4 sets of 8 reps
• Isolation 1
• Isolation 2
• Isolation 3

Workout 2

• Opposite Stance Deadlift – 65% of 1RM, 4 sets of 8 reps
• Isolation 1
• Isolation 2
• Isolation 3

Week 2

Workout 1

• Deadlift – 65% of 1RM, 3 sets of 10 reps
• Isolation 1
• Isolation 2
• Isolation 3

Workout 2

• Opposite Stance Deadlift – 65% of 1RM, 3 sets of 10 reps
• Isolation 1
• Isolation 2
• Isolation 3

To get the full program, download the Google sheet below. Make sure to click File > Make a Copy to create an editable file.

How to Progress the Program

You will likely be toasted by the end of this 8-week program, so definitely give yourself a deload for a week before jumping back into an overly intense block like this one. 

You should be able to do the program again and again, so long as you are getting enough time to recover before repeating the block. Simply add your new estimated max to update your percentages and repeat!

Powerlifting Deadlift Program for High-Frequency Training

For a high-frequency deadlift program, where you want to really focus on the deadlift and train it three times a week, you need to add more variety so that each of the three training days is productive and valuable without burning you out too fast. 

To do that, I’ve structured this program to rotate through a max effort (ME), dynamic effort (DE), and repetitive effort (RE) day, so that you are training a different aspect of deadlift strength development each day of the week you train deadlifts. 

This also means you get more volume across 3 workouts and don’t need to spend as much or any time doing additional deadlift work in a single deadlift workout. This way, you increase the frequency of your workouts but generally normalize your total volume instead of crudely making a 50% increase by adding a full third deadlift workout. 

Here’s a breakdown of the different focuses for each of the three deadlift workouts:

• ME days will focus on moving heavy weight for low reps with, well, maximal effort
• DE days will focus on accelerating a lighter load as fast as you can for just a few reps
• RE days will focus on 5-10 rep ranges with moderate to light weights 

I give each of these styles a dedicated training day in this model. However, you may notice other programs that mix these in, so you get some of these styles in a single workout (for example, ME deadlifts followed by RE sets/reps or DE deadlifts followed by RE sets/reps). 

As with any good program, you’ll see the load steadily progress in each training style, and the rep ranges and total sets fluctuate to keep the intensity steady or growing throughout the 8-week progression. 

Workout Structure

Since you have the luxury of training deadlifts 3 days a week, you’ll focus on doing your top sets with full focus and intensity, making for shorter workouts. But you’ll still end up with the same volume at the end of the week. 

So your ME day will call for heavy deadlifts for sets of 2-5 reps, and that’ll be it. You would leave and come back a day or two later rested and recovered, to do DE deadlifts. You’ll then leave and come back ready to do RE work at the end of the week. 

This way, you aren’t exhausting yourself in one or two deadlift days but spreading your workload out to make each workout more manageable. 

Your ME work will range from 4-5 rep sets at 80% of your 1RM initially and conclude with single rep sets of 90% of 1RM by the end.

DE days will start with 40% of your 1RM and consistently call for just 2-3 reps per set. You’ll see the load on the bar change and adjustments to the accommodating resistance (bands, chains, or other means for the load to change dynamically during the lift).

Changing the AR could be as simple as using a heavier band, adding an additional chain, or even modifying the setup of the chains to load/unload more or less weight in the movement. 

Your RE work will steadily progress from 50-60% of your 1RM, with reps ranging from 8-10 throughout the progression. I am less concerned with pushing the intensity on these, as they are primarily added to keep your volume and training frequency up.  

As I’ve stated several times, this is just a model. It’s flexible enough for you to insert your own supplements, like adding deadlift variation work to the ME day or putting your RE work after your ME or DE sets. You can also just add more isolated muscle exercises to your RE days.

There are too many variations for me to detail, so feel free to make those adjustments yourself as you need for your own goals, preferences, and interests. 

High-Frequency Deadlift Workout Routine

Week 1

Workout 1

• ME Deadlift – 80% of 1RM, 5 sets of 4 reps

Workout 2

• DE Deadlift – 40% of 1RM, 8 sets of 2 reps

Workout 3

• RE Deadlift – 50% of 1RM, 3 sets of 8 reps
• Other exercises at your discretion

Week 2

Workout 1

• ME Deadlift – 80% of 1RM, 5 sets of 5 reps

Workout 2

• DE Deadlift – 40% of 1RM, 10 sets of 2 reps

Workout 3

• RE Deadlift – 50% of 1RM, 3 sets of 10 reps
• Other exercises at your discretion

Get the full program in the spreadsheet below. If you want to edit it, save a copy by clicking File > Make a Copy.

This sample may seem silly since there is so little work to do each day because ME, DE, and RE all have their own days. 

In a full powerlifting program that showed squats, bench presses, and other lifts or muscle groups in the full training split, you’d likely combine this deadlift work with another lift.

For example, your ME deadlift work might be followed by DE bench press work, and your DE deadlift day might come after ME bench press work or before RE squat work. 

It’s just another way to get all your training in by breaking up which muscles and lifts you train each day, so you still have some energy and freshness in your other muscles to give them a good workout, too.   

How to Progress the Program

This is the type of program that can be repeated again and again because it encompasses all areas of training for strength and size. I’d definitely recommend a deload week before initiating the cycle again to give your body a chance to recover. 

What To Do If You Hit a Deadlift Plateau

With each of these programs, you’ll eventually hit a plateau. It’s just the nature of things. In most cases, you can overcome plateaus by increasing your volume and/or intensity. 

In some cases, you just need to give your body a new stimulus to adapt to. So if you’ve been trying to increase your deadlift by 100 pounds and progressing your strength block over and over and hit a plateau, it’s likely time to do a hypertrophy block. This way, you have more muscle to leverage the next time you do a strength block. 

If you’re training hypertrophy for size and not seeing any growth, try jumping into a 12-week block to test a new max before going back into a hypertrophy block. Oftentimes, the added intensity shows what you need to bring to your hypertrophy work to get those next-level gains. 

In other cases, you don’t need to change much.

Just remember that your body is adapting to the stress stimulus you put on it. If you are in a plateau, one of the likely reasons is that you have become strong enough or adapted enough for your body to meet that stimulus without making new changes. 

That’s when it’s time to increase that stress stimulus, so your body gets the message it needs to grow and adapt to meet the new challenge. You can do that by following my recommendations above or talking with a coach to get a training program for powerlifting tailored to you and your goals. 

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About The Author

Adam Gardner is a proud resident of Utah, where he lives with his wife and two kids. He has been competing in powerlifting since 2016 in both the USPA and the APF. For the past three years, he and his wife, Merrili, have coached beginning lifters to learn the fundamentals of powerlifting and compete in their first powerlifting competitions.