Originally Posted by Eric3237

Why don't you explain what you've been doing for the deloads because I'm not exactly sure what is going on.

Yeah, hooks suck. Any basic cotton straps should do the job for you. What kind of grip are you using now. You know Sleazy was talking about deads at 5x5 but you're only doing 1x5 so you might be able to keep up with that with a little extra grip work. But I've noticed that a lot of people use an over-under grip all the time. So if you try your best to use a double overhand that will strengthen your grip.

Running a deload, as in just a recovery phase, without a "peaking" phase, imo, defeats the purpose of using extended loading blocks. You really should always try to not just deload but have a period where you try to do put weight on the bar with a much lower volume...i.e. the 3x3. Otherwise, when you begin loading again you may fail to keep some of those gains because of the build up period. What's happening is you're "deloading" then you're building back up with submaximal weights so some of that is still "deloading". Doing a peaking can help you cement some of the gains.