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Deadlifts work 70% of the muscles in your body, including your forearms and gripping muscles. Your best bang-for-the-buck to help your strength and get in some

Deadlifts work 70% of the muscles in your body, including your forearms and gripping muscles. Your best bang-for-the-buck to help your strength and get in some exercise is to pick heavy stuff off of the ground a few times.

cheerlessbog 7y ago
Now distinct muscles then squats do?
- acconrad 7y ago
  The total muscle mass of involvement with deadlifts is higher than squats because of the lever used by your arms (whereas you support the bar with your back in the squat, the same muscles that keep the bar close to you when deadlifting). Rather than someone interpret this as "do deadlifts over squats" I'd say "do both because they're both great for your body if executed with proper form and weight."
marble-drink 7y ago
Deadlifts are great. But people need to know what "heavy" really means. For a deadlift that means at least two times your bodyweight. Many people in the gym just don't try hard enough.
- ubercow13 7y ago
  I honestly think it doesn't really matter. I get many pains that are fixed by deadlifting and it doesn't have to be an even vaguely heavy weight to do it, eg 1x bodyweight. I can lift 2x +, but it doesn't feel necessary to keep fit.
- glangdale 7y ago
  "Heavy" means hard-for-the-person (i.e. 3-5 rep maxes). If you found 2x bodyweight a good starting weight, then congrats, but that's not a realistic standard to enforce almost everyone. I've pulled 235kg at 100kg raw (no straps or belt), which is advanced-beginner or pissweak-intermediate, but training to get there involved starting with about 140kg, not 200kg. Heavy lifting and trying hard is important, like you say, but it's a relative thing to experience, genetics, age, etc. I've seen grannies pull 1.1x bodyweight and I'd say they were lifting "heavy".
  - runamok 7y ago
    You are way off on your self-eval. You actually fall into advanced if I am understanding you lifted almost 2.5x your bodyweight... https://strengthlevel.com/strength-standards/deadlift/kg https://strengthlevel.com/strength-standards/deadlift/kg
    - marble-drink 7y ago
      Yeah, it's at least intermediate. I pulled 220kg at 80kg BW and that took more than a year of consistent training. I know it's a lot because I was lifting with people who lifted for competitions.
  - marble-drink 7y ago
    I didn't say starting weight. That's not a starting weight for anyone. But it's attainable for most people with training.
- world32 7y ago
  Horrible advice. Deadlifts are a great exercise but can go horribly horribly wrong if you try too hard to lift an amount of weight that is too heavy for you. Instead you should focus on maintaining perfect form on every lift and incrementally add weight the more you progress. If you try and "ego-lift" a huge amount of weight you are risking serious injuries to your back, dont do it. Also as to what is a heavy amount of what is a light amount - its irrelevant to an individual. You should lift the an amount that pushes you beyond what your comfortable with, but not so much that your risk injury.
  - marble-drink 7y ago
    Ugh... really? I meant to train yourself to be able to lift two times bodyweight. Nobody can do that without training. Of course I didn't mean that someone should just go into the gym and try it. You should aim for two times bodyweight. Many people just keep lifting the same low weights over and over again.

cheerlessbog 7y ago

Now distinct muscles then squats do?

acconrad 7y ago
The total muscle mass of involvement with deadlifts is higher than squats because of the lever used by your arms (whereas you support the bar with your back in the squat, the same muscles that keep the bar close to you when deadlifting). Rather than someone interpret this as "do deadlifts over squats" I'd say "do both because they're both great for your body if executed with proper form and weight."

marble-drink 7y ago

Deadlifts are great. But people need to know what "heavy" really means. For a deadlift that means at least two times your bodyweight. Many people in the gym just don't try hard enough.

ubercow13 7y ago
I honestly think it doesn't really matter. I get many pains that are fixed by deadlifting and it doesn't have to be an even vaguely heavy weight to do it, eg 1x bodyweight. I can lift 2x +, but it doesn't feel necessary to keep fit.
glangdale 7y ago
"Heavy" means hard-for-the-person (i.e. 3-5 rep maxes). If you found 2x bodyweight a good starting weight, then congrats, but that's not a realistic standard to enforce almost everyone. I've pulled 235kg at 100kg raw (no straps or belt), which is advanced-beginner or pissweak-intermediate, but training to get there involved starting with about 140kg, not 200kg. Heavy lifting and trying hard is important, like you say, but it's a relative thing to experience, genetics, age, etc. I've seen grannies pull 1.1x bodyweight and I'd say they were lifting "heavy".
- runamok 7y ago
  You are way off on your self-eval. You actually fall into advanced if I am understanding you lifted almost 2.5x your bodyweight... https://strengthlevel.com/strength-standards/deadlift/kg https://strengthlevel.com/strength-standards/deadlift/kg
  - marble-drink 7y ago
    Yeah, it's at least intermediate. I pulled 220kg at 80kg BW and that took more than a year of consistent training. I know it's a lot because I was lifting with people who lifted for competitions.
- marble-drink 7y ago
  I didn't say starting weight. That's not a starting weight for anyone. But it's attainable for most people with training.
world32 7y ago
Horrible advice. Deadlifts are a great exercise but can go horribly horribly wrong if you try too hard to lift an amount of weight that is too heavy for you. Instead you should focus on maintaining perfect form on every lift and incrementally add weight the more you progress. If you try and "ego-lift" a huge amount of weight you are risking serious injuries to your back, dont do it. Also as to what is a heavy amount of what is a light amount - its irrelevant to an individual. You should lift the an amount that pushes you beyond what your comfortable with, but not so much that your risk injury.
- marble-drink 7y ago
  Ugh... really? I meant to train yourself to be able to lift two times bodyweight. Nobody can do that without training. Of course I didn't mean that someone should just go into the gym and try it. You should aim for two times bodyweight. Many people just keep lifting the same low weights over and over again.