Deadlifts/Squats and Push/Pull

Deadlifts are a pull. They also work your upper back and lats so you can cut down on some of the upper back work.

If that's your plan, then I recommend that you do squats before your pushing and deadlifts before the rest of your pulling. IMO it's better and probably safer to be fresh on those two exercises above upper body push/pull.

Here is a basic template you can play with for alternating push/pull days.  I did a variation of this split for about a month recently.  Worked pretty well, but my husband was having issues with his grip when all the pull exercises were back to back.

DMW- Tell your husband to work on his hand strength...

Exercise suggestions (I experienced tremendous improvements from this):  hold dumbells on fingertip by your side as you stand or sit and curl dumbbell to make a fist <squeeze>.  Start with low weight and work your way up. (minimum 20 reps)

I guarantee this will work....let me know if he and you find this excercise beneficial.

Mike is right on, DL's are a pulling exercise.

There are two ways to work things together. Like already mentioned(adding DL's to your pulling day) and squats to your pushing day or you can do squats and deads together on the same day. Squatting first, then deads. Fred Hatfield(very successful powerlifter) has a program setup like this. Since you are essentially using the same muscles for both exercises. We have used this in the past and it works pretty well, since you are good and warmed up from squatting for the deads.

@DJS-

If I were to do both in one workout, would I do that on the pull day because of the deadlift?

I was going to suggest Squats followed by DL's as well, which is exactly what I am doing right now, but since he plans a push and pull day, I wasn't sure how he'd work it out with only two days devoted to strength training.

To TS, you may want to reduce the overall # of exercises (and/or sets/reps) in order to fit it all in. When I shift to tri training I nearly eliminate lower body strength training. I'm not sure if that's ideal, but I just know that I don't want to have to skip a run/bike session because I'm too sore if I have a race coming up.

That, or you could do squat/DL on Day 1 and push/pull on Day 2. The way I see it, it comes down to:

1 - time management
2 - CNS (central nervous system) recovery
3 - DOMS, muscle recovery
4 - Injury prevention (especially trying to balance it with SBR)

Squats and DLs together is pretty taxing on the CNS.

Scoop has some good points to ponder with regards to CNS, recovery, time, etc.

To answer your question, yes, I would do them on your pull day but cut way back on the workload, compared to what you are doing now. Squatting and deadlifting in the same session is alot of work so you won't need more than 2-3 other exercises to go with it.

Do yo need to squat and DL every week? 

Will you be able to recover from DL and Squating every week once you start running/biking?

If you are working these lifts hard, then the answer is most likely no to the above questions.

Suggestion for a split:
Week 1
Day 1 - DL, something else like dips or curls
Day 2 - OHP, Pullups

Week 2
Day 1 - Squat, hang cleans
Day 2 - Bench, Rows

I agree. For in-season training, you can get away with doing either DL or squats once a week. Any more than this and your legs will not be happy at all.



Those aren't bad workouts. Here's a program that will cover your pulling, pushing, and squatting very simply and efficiently:

A: Power clean + bar overhead: Do only if you know how to power clean somewhat efficiently. The "bar overhead" portion can be a strict press, push press, or jerk. Just get the bar to lockout with hurting yourself.

B: Squats

Sets/reps are to taste, but you can't go wrong with 5x5.

I came up with this program years ago back when I knew very little about weight training and was just getting back into it. I did it 3x week. Each time I would work up to a heavy single, but not an all out max. I made some of my best gains ever. So good, in fact, that I've now gone back to a similar simple and basic program.

Great program Mike! I love the simplicity and the fact that it efficiently covers everything.