Briefly
My deadlift is great and my squat sucks. I want to continue squatting 3x5 more and more weight while I keep my deadlift where it is. What's the best way to maintain my deadlift strength with a minimum of training time and recovery resources so I can focus efforts on my squat?
Details
I'm male, 5'10'' tall, and weigh approximately 170-175 pounds, though I'm working on moving up to 180 or 185. I keep pretty good food quality but occasionally under-eat at lunch.
I recently PR'd my deadlift at 385x2, and can hit a hard set of 5 in the mid-300s. My front squat is primary: I am not currently working on my back squat because of form issues and because I think it's not necessary, but for background I can back squat 225 for reps, probably 240 or so for a max. My front squat has progressed nicely from ~165 to 215 by doing 3 sets of 5, increasing weight every other workout. Once or twice I've been forced to do a 3x3 workout before graduating to 3x5. Those misses were due to poor recovery combined with foolishly adding weight as scheduled.
I lift two or three times a week, with two to four days a week of judo, moderate hiking and swimming, sprints, or Ultimate. Lifting sessions currently go as follows:
- Front squat, starting at 45 or 95 and taking steps of ~50lbs up to 3x5 at the work weight
- Deadlift, starting at 145 or 215 and taking steps of ~70lbs up to a set of five in the 315-350 range or a double or triple in the 350-380 range
- One-arm overhead kettlebell presses, 50 pounds, 3x5 or 5x5
- Other stuff that varies and isn't too strenuous
What I'm looking for is a program, preferably with references or an explanation, that describes maintaining the deadlift or other major barbell exercise at a given level while working on other lifts. My goal is the minimum amount of deadlifting in order to still lift in the upper 300s, so that my body can use more recovery resources towards squat strength. However, I'm asking this because I think that maintaining my deadlift as-is will make it easier to improve my squat. If I'm wrong on that, tell me, and tell me what to fix instead.