The Pull: 8-Week Deadlift Block

The Pull is a single-lift specialization block for a deadlift that has stopped moving. The competition-stance pull is trained heavy once a week and a variant — deficit first, then snatch-grip — is trained submaximally a second time, while the squat and the bench press are held at an explicitly stated maintenance dose: two working sets each, load fixed at the week-1 reference, no upward autoregulation. That maintenance rule is the program's identity: a block only brings one lift up if the other two are genuinely parked.

Built for intermediate and advanced lifters with a competent, repeatable deadlift and no meet on the calendar — including the very large group whose squat has passed their deadlift. It needs a barbell, plates and a rack, and nothing else — a flat bench is optional and the press days carry a named floor-press substitution for anyone without one. Skip it if you cannot hold position across five hard sets of four in week 1 — run a novice linear progression and come back. Skip it if you want balanced whole-body progress right now, or if you are inside six weeks of a meet, where a peaking block fits better.

The arc follows our Periodization framework as true block periodization on one lift. Weeks 1-3 accumulate at 72%, 75% and 77% for five sets of four. Weeks 4-6 intensify: a top single at RPE 8, then back-off volume priced off that day's single rather than a stale max, so the block autoregulates daily. Week 7 halves the volume and caps the top set at RPE 7. Week 8 tests — a true max only if the block earned it, otherwise a heavy single at RPE 9 and an estimated max. Expect a measurably stronger deadlift with the squat and bench held flat, then return to a balanced split.