Deads. first or last?

indianballer

indianballer

Member
hey guys just a quick question. Hoping to get some good opinions. Do you guys put your deads at the beginning of back day or as the finishing exercise? I've always done them first as they require so much energy, but I was reading an article on Phil Heath and aparently he saves them for last. Anybody else do this?
 
indianballer said:
hey guys just a quick question. Hoping to get some good opinions. Do you guys put your deads at the beginning of back day or as the finishing exercise? I've always done them first as they require so much energy, but I was reading an article on Phil Heath and aparently he saves them for last. Anybody else do this?
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Today I did Tbar, bb rows, deads, and lat pulldowns. pretty much saved em towards the end, but not the absolute last
 
I'm not sure why you would do them last if you are doing a "back" day. With that type of split I would always do them first. They require more mental focus and attention to technique than any rowing or pull-ups type movements. If I'm tired and lose a bit of technique I'm much less likely to be injured doing pull-ups than deadlifts.
On the other hand, many powerlifters do them after they SQ. This is what I usually do. Mostly because it mimics meet conditions where you have to pull at the end of the day after you've already squatted and benched.
 
That would fall under as a back thickness exercise and I try and do all those last because I'm usually drained afterwards. It also falls under my style of training (DC).
 
i go last
 
Completely depends on your goals, %1RM you aim to lift, and conditioning. If you are lifting PL style (i.e. low reps high %) then first, or after squats. If bodybuilding (i.e. high reps low %) then maybe towards the middle/end of a workout. Saying that though, you might want to do SLDL's at the start of a leg day - it all depends on you.
I always adhered to the principle that you worked the multijoint lifts first that worked the largest amount of muscle are then worked my way down to the smaller lifts when i trained in a bodybuilding style. For me it reduced the likelihood of injury.
 
indianballer said:
hey guys just a quick question. Hoping to get some good opinions. Do you guys put your deads at the beginning of back day or as the finishing exercise? I've always done them first as they require so much energy, but I was reading an article on Phil Heath and aparently he saves them for last. Anybody else do this?
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As SemiBulimic said, it really depends on your goals. The general rule is to complete all compound movements FIRST in a session, but there's nothing wrong with finishing with them either. I've done it both ways (although, on a Back-specific day, I always do my Pull-Ups first) - just depends on the rest of the session, your goals and needs.
 
SemiBulimic said:
Completely depends on your goals, %1RM you aim to lift, and conditioning. If you are lifting PL style (i.e. low reps high %) then first, or after squats. If bodybuilding (i.e. high reps low %) then maybe towards the middle/end of a workout. Saying that though, you might want to do SLDL's at the start of a leg day - it all depends on you.
I always adhered to the principle that you worked the multijoint lifts first that worked the largest amount of muscle are then worked my way down to the smaller lifts when i trained in a bodybuilding style. For me it reduced the likelihood of injury.
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well said! x 2:box:
 
First. Heavy compounds are always first and then whittle down to isolation exercises to really fatigue the muscle. At least that's how I do.
 
No matter what the goal. Always deadlift first the whole body especially the back gets a lot out of it. I would drop a few sets of other back movements if I had to in favor of heavy deads. Heavy deads= big muscle.
 
Thanks a ton for all the responses. My back day is tomorrow and I still haven't decided what I'm going to do yet lol. I'm striving more for strength and mass right now, and deads are the main exercise by which I guage my strength gains, so I guess I'm gonna just keep them first for now and through winter. I might revisit the idea again in the spring when I do a little recomp or cut depending on how much BF I gain by then. Thanks again for all the input it's definately eye-opening to see so many people who do them towards the middle or end.
 
last because i feel when i do them first the rest of my workout suffers, especially anything standing, my legs shake and all that
 
First, because if all i do is deads on back day whatever, at least i got the most important exercise out of the way, while I had the most energy... who cares if I set a PR on lat pull down if I have to shave 50lbs off my deadlift cuz I was tired.... ?????
 
Tone said:
First, because if all i do is deads on back day whatever, at least i got the most important exercise out of the way, while I had the most energy... who cares if I set a PR on lat pull down if I have to shave 50lbs off my deadlift cuz I was tired.... ?????
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This is the opinion that makes the most sense to me, but I definately don't want to write off the other theories. Different strokes for different folks.
 
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