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Thread: squat stronger than deadlift

  1. #1
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    Default squat stronger than deadlift

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    arggh why's my squat stronger than my deadlift.. it pisses me off. I'm currently doing texas routine rite now and im on my deloading phase + I changed my form to high bar/olympic style just because it looks more impressive to squat heavy with high bar olympic depth. So.. I'm squatting 350 1x5 high bar ATG( 365 1x5 just below parellel low bar before deloading) and my deadlift 3rm is 355(after my 5rm squat on friday). It seems like I got my deadlift form down.. shoulder slightly in front of the bar/chest up/stance slightly narrower than shoulder width with toes slightly pointing out. I tend to shoot my hip down for initiating my pull which I probably shouldn't but still.. I don't think it justifies my DL number when I can squat 350 x5 ATG high bar. I mainly have problem on my initial pull(getting the weight off the floor).. feels like it takes about 3 seconds for me to get the weight above my knee when im lifting heavy while maintaining straight back. So.. I'm wondering If I should start incorporating good morning or romanian deadlift(because I feel like it's either my lower back or hamstring that's holding back my DL number or maybe just my body mechanics..?) since I think 1 set of heavy deadlift every week is not good enough to strengthen my deadlift + can't deadlift too often because it's too hard to recover from.

    some of my other lifting stats are
    Bench press(185 1x5..pretty terrible for my bw)
    military press(160 1x3)
    chin up (about 4 times)

    I'm 5'11 and weigh around 210-215lb and I've been lifting for about 14 months

  2. #2
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    Yes, your upper body strength sucks pretty bad. As far as your deadlift is concerned, either your hamstring/posterior chain is weak or you have a very short back and long legs that predispose you to quad-dominance. The PC weakness is the deal I think, and is why you really prefer to high-bar squat: we all trend away from our weaknesses.

  3. #3
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    Thank you for your feedback..exactly what I was thinking..lol. I think my posterior chain/hamstring sucks pretty bad too . But the reason I prefer to do high bar squat is because I can squat down deeper more easily and I actually often change to low bar when I think i'm going to struggle on my last set of squat since i can still move more weight with low bar even though my PC strength sucks. As far as strengthening my posterior chain, do you think it'd be a good idea to do good morning for a while instead of doing deadlift on texas method routine to strengthen my PC(something like 3x5~8 good morning instead of 1x5 deadlift)? From what I heard, I think good morning is a better exercise for strengthening PC and will probably help my DL to go up faster than doing the deadlift itselt but then i'm not too sure :/.. what do you think?

  4. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe View Post
    \The PC weakness is the deal I think, and is why you really prefer to high-bar squat: we all trend away from our weaknesses.
    Deep. (Explains why I can't get it together in the eating department while blaming it on bad genes for weight gain.)

    Still, a DL 3RM of 355 could easily translate to a 1RM of 375 or so, a little bit over the OP's best parallel squat. If indeed he is a long torso/short leg type, that would line up with his DL being just a bit over his best low bar SQ. This is not to argue with the diagnosis of lagging PC strength.

    I don't have any interpersonal relationships so I'm free to spend a lot of time online when I'm not at work or in the gym. My new hobby is finding threads where newbies claim SQ 400, BP 150, DL 200 and then telling them that they're clearly squatting embarrassingly high and to fucking read SS so in the future they can avoid posting such stupidity for the world to see.

    People with an extremely squat-favored anthropometry and who aren't geared PLers or superheavyweights or dwarves should still pull at least as much as their naturally impressive squats, often just a little bit more. People of normal proportions who "squat" twice what they pull and then blame a weak grip or fear of hurting their backs really piss me off. Their quarter squats and lies make a mockery of the efforts of those of us getting our asses down and fighting for our lives under the bar. I take it personally.

  5. #5
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    How is your power clean?

  6. #6
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    If he cleans, he'd have mentioned it. And using assistance exercises for the deadlift instead of the actual deadlift is an intermediate-level deal. Probably fine for you, but the GM is not going to be the one you use instead of the pull; it would be variations of the pull. GMs are destructive to your spinal architecture when done heavy, and you still need to pull. maybe you could do some cleans?

  7. #7
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    Please define "heavy" when speaking of Good Mornings.

  8. #8
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    Great idea. I've been neglecting cleans for a while because I still didn't feel a whole lot comfortable with it despite few weeks of practicing on my form. But I guess it's not a bright idea to neglect one of the best whole body strength exercise. I guess i'm going to replace barbell row with power cleans for monday's workout. Thank you for your feedback.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe View Post
    ...you have a very short back and long legs that predispose you to quad-dominance.
    Would you mind elaborating a bit on why this is? I would think that a short back and long legs would force you to use hips more in something like a squat since you need to lean over more to keep the bar in the right place, which would stress the PC more. Also, I've heard that short back / long legs people have much better leverage with a conventional deadlift style.

  10. #10
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    starting strength coach development program
    Quote Originally Posted by jailer345 View Post
    Please define "heavy" when speaking of Good Mornings.
    Heavy is anything over bodyweight. And given that most people are quad-dominant anyway, long-legged short-backed people who would need to squat and deadlift with a more horizontal back angle to stay in balance are more likely to be trying to lift with a back that is too vertical for their mechanics, favoring the quads even more. I realize that this is hard to visualize, but people who are built poorly for the squat complicate the issue by keeping their back too vertical, thus shoving the knees even more forward and thus favoring the quads over the hamstrings when they shouldn't be.

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