With measures I've tried so far, for me personally, what seems to work is to focus mainly on squatting and DL sparingly. Pulling with any kind of frequency/volume seems to result in going no where for me. Note:
- DL is easily my best lift - 192.5 or more recently an easy 180 x 3 @77.5kg 5"11" and my 140kg (really ~135 with good speed and upright position) olympic squat sucks in comparison, even though I spend far more time on it.
- I'm built more for pulling, lanky build 5"11" with longish arms.
- I'm slow to recover from DLs, even when going no where near max or repping out. Could be a technique issue, I feel it's solid, but will get it checked out.
- I've previously herniated my L4-L5 and lift with no belt (soon to be recitified).
Maybe try pulling less and squatting more, if you are looking for a different measure to try. Can't offer much of an opinion on deficit pulls or hackies since I've never done with significant frequency or duration.