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Thread: What is the point of the deadlift?

  1. #1
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    Default What is the point of the deadlift?

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    Hello, I was just thinking today that if squats make your glutes, hamstrings, quads, and lower back stronger, and chin ups make your traps and lats stronger, and squats, presses, and chin ups make your abs stronger, what in the world is the deadlift for? Is it just used to drive up your PClean since it is specific to the PClean?

  2. #2
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    The press and bench have much overlapping musculature, too. Maybe we should just squat and press, or squat and bench?

    The truth is the answer to the question isn't as simple as my first line above suggests, but the lifts that best fit our four basic criteria:
    1. Use the most muscle mass
    2. Over the longest effective ROM
    3. In a way that uses the most weight
    4. And thus allow us to get stronger (which, I could argue, includes the reasons why we press instead of push press, for example - it needs to emphasize certain muscles/areas/joint actions in a way that allows increases in force production of those places)

    are the squat, press, deadlift, and bench press.

    We could also discuss how the DL emphasizes different areas within the broader areas that the squat also hits. For example while both cover quads, posterior chain, and low back, the DL hits the hamstrings and low back harder, whereas the squat hits the quads and adductors harder, even though both hit both pretty well.

    For a competitive olympic lifter, the DL may ultimately be an assistance lift for the clean, albeit a very important one, at least until that lifter's DL is already very strong. But for most people for whom strength is the goal, it's not an assistance lift for the clean, but important in and of itself for the reasons above.

  3. #3
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    Thank you for the reply! I now see it is more about movements than what muscle is worked in “X” exercise. Thanks!

  4. #4
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    The point of the deadlift is to hurt your feelings and crush your soul.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Campitelli View Post
    The point of the deadlift is to hurt your feelings and crush your soul.
    I thought that was the squat. Picking something up is one thing. Having it on your back, feeling it crushing you, well thats another story

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Campitelli View Post
    The point of the deadlift is to hurt your feelings and crush your soul.
    For some of us older bastards that point comes sooner rather than later...

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Campitelli View Post
    The point of the deadlift is to hurt your feelings and crush your soul.
    I cant's see why I'd need that since my weak-assed press already has that function.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Maties Hofstede View Post
    I thought that was the squat. Picking something up is one thing. Having it on your back, feeling it crushing you, well thats another story
    The squat exists to squish you, in a literal sense. The deadlift is all about breaking your spirit. If you are a glass half-full kinda fella, it an opportunity for you to perform an act of will and best gravity on a given day.

  9. #9
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    Sure as hell agree to that. Stil, picking up a deadlift is euphoric, squatting up a 1rm is “f***, thank god, damnn, lets fk rack this, gotta get out, woaaaw we made it”

  10. #10
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    I live for Deadlift Day. Deadlifts are life.

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