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How are Deadlifts Different...

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FitFossil

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How are regular deadlifts (the old-fashioned kind - not stiff-legged or Romanian type) so different from other leg exercises?

I just did them for the first time this AM and didn't even go all out with it being a new exercise for me. Now my legs feel like rubber. I can barely walk. (Mind you I am NOT complaining!)

My legs have never felt this SPENT, even when I absolutely murder them doing every other exercise imaginable. So, what's so special about deadlifts?

Anybody else do these kind of deadlifts? I've always done the stiff-leg and/or Romainians, which are great for the butt and hams, but these have me quivering all over! I'll definitely be doing them again! :D
 
They are extremely taxing and demanding on the whole body. Think about it, you're probably using 60-70% of your beef to pull that bar up. The first time I do any exercise, the target muscle turns into noodles :D . The first time I deadlifted, I was couldn't walk normally for about 5 days. What's interesting though, is that I took on stiff-leg deads recently to bring up my hams and they were sore for 6 days!! (and that was with active recovery). One way there are different is movement at the knee. Both of these are excellent movemets and I believe every routine should have at least one of them.
 
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Deadlifts are awesome. Only downside is they tend to thicken the lower back and obliques which is not a problem but if want to bring down your waist or you got narrow hips I wouldn't do them more than once (at most twice) per month.
 
really? i did not know that.....ive been doing stiffs for hams and deads for back primarily each week........

hmmmmm is this a bad thing if i want symmetry
 
Nope...

Not a bad thing at all... Contnue to deadlift, bent leg on back day and stiff legged on leg day...Works wonders for symmetry!:fro:
 
OK I go VERY heavy......and once a week for each. Now im confused......please discuss those who know. THX guys :)
 
WarLobo said:
Why are they so special?!?! I can sum it up in one word: BECAUSE.

That 's just the way things are. Sort of like asking why is water wet.... :D

Did you do the wide stance, or traditional? Opposing grip, or both palms facing in?
Click to expand...

We have this weird apparatus that looks like a metal rectangle with posts on the two short sides for the weights. It has handles above the weight posts that make your palms face inward. You stand inside the rectangle and can vary your foot placement. I guess the reason for this design is you don't bang your shins. Works well for lots of exercises - deads, sl deads, even shrugs.
 
Triple V..

No offense but if you were going VERY heavy (in relation to your body weight) every week on Stiff and deads you would be experiencing SEVERE joint seperation in your elbows and wrists after about 2 months.

To give an example. A female BBer I train at 148lbs does deads at 250lbs-325lbs for her working sets. Stiffs at 225-250lbs and squats 225-315lbs.

Unless your doing just powerlifting singles. Doing Heavy deads and stiffs on top of the rest of your BBing work load every week is detrimental to growth for 99.9% of people. Worse yet if you include squats on top of that workload.

What I do is alternate my compound movements on weeks I do squats I skip deads. Do deads..skip squats.
 
no offence taken.......but just to tell ya what i do.....

stiff legged deads with 100 lb dumbells
deads with bbell....225

i wear straps and yes my wrist do hurt..but i deal with it....and my forearms are looking like popeye these days.

for 10-12 reps for 4 sets each per week.

and i am 5'6" and 154-6 lbs
 
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Iron God said:

Unless your doing just powerlifting singles. Doing Heavy deads and stiffs on top of the rest of your BBing work load every week is detrimental to growth for 99.9% of people. Worse yet if you include squats on top of that workload.

What I do is alternate my compound movements on weeks I do squats I skip deads. Do deads..skip squats.
Click to expand...

Iron God...you are obviously a trainer...I am curious as to why you would say that? Why Heavy Deads and Stiff be detrimental to growth? I mean you have no idea what workload she is operating at...so why would compound movements such as this slow growth down. Obviously they are some of the most taxing exercises to the system...but you body can handle alot more than most people give it credit for.

And you also say that do EITHER Deads or Squats but not both...WHY? Is it because they work beasically the same muscles...well so do standing calf raises and donkey calf raises. And if it is because it is too great of a workload...that depends on your level of fitness. It is very easy to raise you work capacity if you know what you are doing. Squatting 3 times a week is no problem if you are in shape.

BTW...dont take this as a flame...just a healthy debate. And while you are replying...I am curious as to whether of not you are an advocate of training a bodypart only once a week. Alot of trainers seem to follow that philosophy now...its a wonder their clientel cant handle Squats and Deads in the same week...very low GPP (General Physical Preparedness)

Strength and Honor
 
Thanks to W6.. AGAIN..lol

Here is something he posted about Romanian Deadlifts awhile back...Hope this helps


If you're doing the RDLs correctly, you'll really feel a stretch in the hamstrings. The key is to keep the back in a neutral position, perhaps a slight arch with shoulders back and chin up. The first thing that moves is your hips back with the bar dropping straight down as you bend at the waist. Then the knees bend slightly near the bottom of the movement. The bar should be very close to the legs at all times. If the bar is over your toes or farther, your ass is not back far enough. The bar should stay in a line from your shoulders through the arch of your foot. To teach my clients how to do this, I have them stand about 8-10" back from a wall and have them push their ass backwards to the wall as they bend at the hips. In the bottom position, their ass should be touching the wall and back flat and parallel (no deeper) to the floor. Most of my female clients use 135 - 185 for 8-12 reps. The guys up to 315. One or two working sets is plenty, everyother week. We use back extensions and the Louie Simmons reverse back extension on alternate weeks. If you don't feel the stretch in the hams, you're not doing them correctly.
 
WarLobo said:

Hannibal, one of the reasons for women NOT going with heavy compound movements every week is their recovery time is greater.
Click to expand...

Lobo...on paper I would agree with you. Take a man and a woman at the same fitness level and the man well recovery more rapidly from a training session. But everyone, man or woman, can increase their work capacity. The human body is capable of so much more than some people give it credit for. Unfortunatley the weakest link is usually the mind...it has to be convinced before the body can handle it.
 
I agree with a training split longer than 7 days. For me, my quads take much longer to recover from a heavy workout than the rest of my body, so I do quads whenever they're ready again. This is about 10 days after a heavy session. But my other body parts take less recovery time, so I work them more often. Because of this (or in spite of this) my legs are never the limiting factor when doing deads. Stiff-legged deads hammer my hammies and butt, sumo deads nail my whole back, so I do SLDLs on hammy/calf day and sumos on back/bicep day. Perhaps I've been doing them wrong all this time if they don't hit my quads???
 
fitfossil...I think that's called a hex bar...I just tried that out the other day, seems more like a squat to me. I like the ROM of a standard DL better, I feel a lot more emphasis on my back muscles.

tV...only you can tell if your routine is busting out your obliques too much...I do remember you saying though that they are developing inequally so maybe you've got a form thing going on? Seems like if you were to pull on a diagonal rather than straight up, you could possibly end up with wacky obliques...? Maybe. A lot of form errors pop up if you rep out with DLs and get tired and sloppy.
I also do squats and deadlifts heavy every rotation, but where I do a more BB type of routine for squats, I do a PL style routine (all singles) for deadlifts. That might help you, and I don't feel my back development is lacking in the least.

I think the ONLY reason people think in terms of 7 day cycles is because it's regular and predictable..."Monday I train legs, Wednesday I train.... " I do think this is simpler, but I can't deal with that kind of limitation...I end up with all sorts of training overlap/recovery problems.
 
Here is what I found works best for me and most of the people that train with me

Day 1 Legs (quad focus) (HEAVY SQUATS)
Day 2 Chest, Biceps ( flat bench work)
Day 3 OFF (cardio, calves,abbs)
Day 4 Back (pull ups, bent overs and heavy shrugs)
Day 5 Shoulders, Tri (standing over head press)
Day 6 OFF
Day 7 Legs (ham focus) (various machine and LIGHT stiff legs)
Day 8 Chest, biceps (incline dumbell work)
Day 9 Off (cardio ,calves, abbs)
Day 10 Back ( Dead lifts)
Day 11 off (cardio , forearms)
Day 12 off

Next leg day is no squats and Day 4 has deads again, and depending on how I feel I may or may not do squats again day 7

Each training day is built around a Core exercise I use for that muscle group. We do 2 or 3 exercises for that each body part, but the core exercise is the climax of the workout , I consider the other exercises a just build up for those 4 or 5 "balls to the wall " CORE sets.

My workouts last about 60 to 75 minutes.

Now to answer Hanibal, I have no idea what general physical preparedness is but at 5'9 and a hard 260lbs I think I'm prepared for whatever comes my way.

You can't compare a single small muscle like calves to a HUGE muscle group like back, You will easily overtrain doing too many compound movements in a certain time frame, this I guarantee. I would rather undertrain and get little growth than overtrain and get none.

I'm not and athlete nor do I care to ever become good at any exercise I do, in fact I want to my to as inefficient as possible when performing an exercise so I can get maximum muscle gain from it.

Squating 3 times a week the Iron God way is not only impossible but detrimental and dangerous.

IG
 
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