Squats vs. Dead Lifts

Hello,

I do different variations for my legs, I do reg Squats, Lunges, and Bulg Squats.
For Dead lifts, I just do conventional dead lifts. One question I have is that:

I Do squat variations 3x a week (4x8, 5x5, 3x10)
But I Dead lift only 1x a week (on 5x5 day)

The squat variaitons are cycle each week so each excercise gets to do every rep and set every 3 weeks. But I dead lift 1x a week. So 3x in 3 weeks.

I dont do dead lifts on my 4x8, 3x10 days because I beleive its a powerlift and should be done with LESS reps, i.e 5 or les.

IS THIS OK TO DO?
WILL I GET MUSCLE IMBALANCES?

Thanks
 
You should be fine.

If it is a concern you could work in RDL's as one of your assistance exercises. You could also use that as a higher volume deadlift assistance exercise.

Bulgarian squats can be considered a deadlift assistance exercise as well. Depending on if you keep your torso more upright or more leaning forward. Leaning forward will put more stress on your low back, hamstrings, and glutes.
 
Last edited:
dont think its a problem no. you do one lower body exercise per day? If so, then i would add RDL one of the days as a secondary lower body movement like georgen suggested. I pretty much always have 2 lower body movements in my FBWs it just makes sence, the lower body is huge :p
 
ya I do 1 except for the wednesday (5x5), where I do deadlifts and another leg excercise.

Also the thing with that is that I do HANG CLEANS on Mon and Fri, thats why I didnt add another leg excercises.
Should I still add another on? if so which ones, except for RDL?
 
I agree that deadlifts are best done once per week. Other movements that I'm sure are in your routines will provide shoulder-girdle and pelvic-girdle activation (shrugs, bulgarians etc)
 
on wednesdays I do DEAD LIFTS 5x5 no matter what, with either lunges, or bulgs, squats (only once in 3 weeks I do both on same day, gets me working.)

Mon and Fri, Cleans and a Leg excercise (lunges, squats, bulgs)
Wed (Dead lifts and lunges, bulgs, or squats)

Seems to be treating me well.

Also i have another question.
After I do my lunges or say bulgs I dont feel sore in my legs. I mean durig the excercise I am unable to perform the last reps like im supposed to but like after its done and I move on to bench press or something I dont feel sore in my legs. Is this because the legs are a big mucle? Or am I not pushing them to the limits?
 
i know i always feel it after bulg squats, but i rarly feel it after deadlifts for example. If you feel it or not has nothing to do with how good of a workout you had. Remember to stop before your resting leg knee hits the ground though, that makes them a bit harder since you have to use your muscles to stop and reverste the movement with no help from the floor.
 
i dont know about you, but after some bulgarians, my legs feel HOT and pumped full of blood like CRAZY!!! and like if i work my left leg first, then i start working my right, my left leg is screaming while i work my right! gotta love the bulgarian squats!
 
ya bulgs ill say are hard. My legs hurt and im breathing HELLA hard lol.

ANywyas I got another question:

A person at my gym, the guy is very strong seems like he knows his stuff, he told me after i did my squats that i was going below parallel. He told me that just go parallel because he said that if i go lower im taking the stress away from the legs and putting it on my knees or something.
I just said Ok ill try it, but i know that he is wrong. I have read many places that going ATG or close is better for your knees then parralel. I also didnt even know i was going that low, I thought I was going parallel lo. So thats good for me.

so the question is, SHOULD I DO WAT IM DOING or WHAT HE TOLD ME TO DO?

also he also told me that i am on my toes sometimes, how do i stay on the heels?
 
you have to keep your center of gravity balanced so that you can stay on your heels. mayb your chest is going too far forwards or something.

that guy doesnt know what hes talking about. going below parallel is FINE. if anything, it activates more muscles! it makes the lift more difficult.
lol
 
Actually stopping at or above parallel increases the stress across the patellar tendon since you are more likely to use your quads to decelerate and change direction.

Squatting bellow parallel increases the use of your hips, decreasing the stress across the patellar tendon. So it is generally better.

I have run into a lot of people who said squats gave them patellar tendentious, once I had them dropping below parallel the "tendentious" went away.

also he also told me that i am on my toes sometimes, how do i stay on the heels

There are many variations of the squat. If you are using a powerlifting style squat you will reach your hips back and push through your heels.

If you are using an Olympic style squat, you will be squatting more through your whole foot as opposed to your heels.

Placement of weight on the foot will also vary some depending upon how wide the stance you are using is or wether you are using a box or not.

The point is that you do not generally want to have all of your weight on your toes because your knees tend to shift forward, creating a quad dominated squat and placing higher stress on the knee.

At the same time, you do not have to have all of your weight on your heels. (again, depending upon what type of squat you are doing)
 
Last edited:
Depending on if you keep your torso more upright or more leaning forward. Leaning forward will put more stress on your low back, hamstrings, and glutes.

You know, I hadn't even thought about angle variations with the Bulgarian squats. I've always done them with back foot on an adjustable bench, upright, and going until knee touches the ground. I have to say, I love the extra grip work you get from this movement.
 
The point is that you do not generally want to have all of your weight on your toes because your knees tend to shift forward, creating a quad dominated squat and placing higher stress on the knee.

You betta' be ready to be on yer toes when yer throwin'.

p.s. Greg Hadley is a badass.
 
Actually stopping at or below parallel increases the stress across the patellar tendon since you are more likely to use your quads to decelerate and change direction.

Squatting bellow parallel increases the use of your hips, decreasing the stress across the patellar tendon. So it is generally better.

first you say that stopping at or below parallel increases the stress, then you say squatting below parallel decreases the stress.. did you mean stopping at or ABOVE parallel increases the stress across the patellar tendon because you use your quads more to decelerate? If so, that would make a whole lot more sence :p
 
first you say that stopping at or below parallel increases the stress, then you say squatting below parallel decreases the stress.

HA. That was a typo, I meant stopping at or above parallel. :) I changed it in my above post as well.

Thanks Kark.

You betta' be ready to be on yer toes when yer throwin'.

I know. Throwing is a lot of toesy stuff.

We were talking about squatting though. :D
 
ugh...tell me about it
 
Back
Top