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Deadlifts - Touch and Go vs. Pause

Mike Singletary

Mike Singletary

Member
Sep 8, 2010
92
29
My gym at home is very hardcore. We have several PL'ers and Strongmen.

While deadlifting, I noticed that they are pretty much evenly split between deadlift technique. Some touch and go, while others drop the weight, and simply pick it back up from a stand still.

Is this based solely on personal preferance?? I'm somewhat new to powerlifting. I just assumed that the "pause technique" (I don't even know what it's actually called) would be better overall because it allows you to get the initial pull (which for me is the hardest at meets).

What do you guys do and why?
 
jdjack

jdjack

MuscleHead
Sep 22, 2010
568
33
If its hard for you, then KEEP doing it. Listen to your body though and don't keep doing something if there's joint pain. Also the negative will greatly help your strength, as more muscle fibers are torn during it then the positive. Just remember to stretch afterwards to keep the flexibility in your body.

And IMO it doesn't matter what anyone else does. Learn what YOU need. Not that anyone answering your question would be a problem though.
 
HisAngriness

HisAngriness

Fancypants VIP
Mar 23, 2011
2,193
604
i touch and go for my warmup sets but when the weight starts to get heavy i'll pause and take a couple breaths in between reps just to pound out a couple more
 
S

soinkid

Senior Member
Mar 14, 2011
231
8
I never drop it unless I have to...I love the negative though, and I only pause when I'm goin for bonus reps. I enjoy doin different variations, pull from different pins, floor, shin level, knee level, and so on...it kills. Box deads are great too, that extra stretch really helps me
 
Growinboy

Growinboy

MuscleHead
Sep 25, 2010
502
44
Well, in comp you CANT drop it, so dont do that if you compete... i alternate... On my high volume days I touch and go, on the 5/3/1 or 6/4/2 heavy days I do each rep as a single... Mike Tucherer did an article on that a couple months ago..
 
AllTheWay

AllTheWay

TID Lady Member
Mar 17, 2011
4,240
411
i am like HA, i touch and go on warm up but i try to stop and pause and reset on the working sets. it is too easy to get going and lose form and potentially hurting yourself. deads are a whole body workout and when i touch and go i forget many of the body parts that are to be working :D
 
Fish77

Fish77

VIP Member
Dec 24, 2010
314
28
I only drop it when my hands fail on me, never on purpose. I do not touch and go either though. My though is deads are a one lift workout. So while I do many of them, I treat each lift as a single. Meaning I put the weight down, let go of it and stand back up. Then I do the next rep as though it was my first. Out of habit I still break these up into sets, and count how many reps I can do on my heavy set. Not quite a normal set though.

Reason I do this is so I do not get hurt by rushing my form. And so I do not get the elastic effect of the touch and go.
 
W

Wolf

MuscleHead
Dec 25, 2010
274
45
It depends on what you are aiming for. What it comes down to is really the way you are performing on the negative portion of the lift. If you have a controlled drop the actual benefit from doing the touch and go, which can be a few inches of extra momentum, will dissipate. A lifter who basically just lets a couple of hundred pounds go at a certain level will receive a few extra inches of bounce from the bar itself.

The guys I've trained I have them pause simply because they tend to roll the bar forward, drop their hips, crank their neck back, basically they don't go back into proper starting position.

I did some more searching around on it. The problem is really when it comes to the guys that bounce the bar. It can cause a muscle weakness to develop in the lower back. So what ends up being the most important is the actual pause of the bar, however minute it is. As long as the bar itself comes to a complete stop at the bottom and there is no bounce, it's not that huge of a difference save for a couple of seconds of rest.
 
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SFGiants

SFGiants

MuscleHead
Apr 20, 2011
1,091
129
I touch and go for stiff legged but don't bounce.

Now for pulling regular I always pause but the pause is because I'm resetting my body for the lift to be in proper form.

Guys that pull ass high meaning almost stiff legged tend to touch and go but if you start low like I do you must reset or you'll end up starting higher and higher with each rep.

This is based off conventional pulling.
 
SFGiants

SFGiants

MuscleHead
Apr 20, 2011
1,091
129
It depends on what you are aiming for. What it comes down to is really the way you are performing on the negative portion of the lift. If you have a controlled drop the actual benefit from doing the touch and go, which can be a few inches of extra momentum, will dissipate. A lifter who basically just lets a couple of hundred pounds go at a certain level will receive a few extra inches of bounce from the bar itself.

The guys I've trained I have them pause simply because they tend to roll the bar forward, drop their hips, crank their neck back, basically they don't go back into proper starting position.

I did some more searching around on it. The problem is really when it comes to the guys that bounce the bar. It can cause a muscle weakness to develop in the lower back. So what ends up being the most important is the actual pause of the bar, however minute it is. As long as the bar itself comes to a complete stop at the bottom and there is no bounce, it's not that huge of a difference save for a couple of seconds of rest.

Very Very Good post bro this is all that need to be said right here!
 
loftearmen

loftearmen

New Member
Oct 29, 2011
8
2
I took the advice of Dave Tate and started stopping completely, standing up and resetting for every single rep I performed on deads about 3 weeks ago and I just set a 30lb PR. When you break the set up into 5 singles instead of 5 continuous repetitions you are forced to pull from the first set up position every time which is slightly different than the position you get jammed into when you lower 600lbs to the ground. Also, if the weight isn't at a DEAD stop then it is not a DEADlift. If you bounce the bar you may as well just do Romanian Deadlifts since you're utilizing the stretch reflex.
 
MightyMouse719

MightyMouse719

National Champion & VIP Member
Jul 8, 2011
1,045
103
I took the advice of Dave Tate and started stopping completely, standing up and resetting for every single rep I performed on deads about 3 weeks ago and I just set a 30lb PR. When you break the set up into 5 singles instead of 5 continuous repetitions you are forced to pull from the first set up position every time which is slightly different than the position you get jammed into when you lower 600lbs to the ground. Also, if the weight isn't at a DEAD stop then it is not a DEADlift. If you bounce the bar you may as well just do Romanian Deadlifts since you're utilizing the stretch reflex.
/\/\This. I have done touch and go reps, but I can't do that with 300 lbs. At least not yet. Doing full reset right now with 80-100% 1RM on DLs.
 
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