T Nation

Deadlifts for Mass

Bodybuilding
#1

I pulled 455 today. That’s not really bragging weight. That’s my PR. Physically, I have never had a more difficult 2-3 seconds in my life. I’m 175. When I was 165 this summer I pulled 365. So with a 10 pound weight gain I gained 90 pounds in my Deadlift. My long term goal is to get up to 210 and be about as lean as I am now. So that’s a 30 pound difference. By observing my deadlift, I need to put 90 pounds on my deadlift for every 10 pounds I want to gain (I know that doesn’t make sense). By this logic I would need to be pulling over 700 pounds to get to my goal. From my narrow understanding of muscle growth and the human anatomy it seems like a general trend that the stronger you become, the MORE you need to lift in order to gain a pound of muscle.

So why doesn’t my logic about weight gain make sense? I know I’m wrong but I don’t know why.

#2

well if you change your statements to deadlifting muscles then your logic wouldn’t be that far off.
That means no bench pressing curling or squatting. Simply deadlifting.

#3

Because it isn’t linear. And strength and muscle/weight aren’t directly correlated (infinitely or necessarily).

Those would be my two guesses.

#4

[quote]Airtruth wrote:
well if you change your statements to deadlifting muscles then your logic wouldn’t be that far off.
That means no bench pressing curling or squatting. Simply deadlifting. [/quote]

Well the only major muscles not hit in the deadlift are the pecs and the arms. And if I stopped working the muscles not exercised in the deadlift or stopped performing exercises besides the deadlift I’d fuck up the proportions of where new muscle growth occurs in my body that I’ve got going right now.

And if all my lifts are going up in proportion and about 70% of every muscle gained goes to the deadlifting muscles and I continue to gain muscle and fat in the same proportions that I have been then my logic would still hold true.

So I’ve got to be wrong for a different reason.

#5

Proportion is true. The point is of the 10 lbs you don’t know the percentage that went to chest mass, leg mass or anything else. Just because major muscles are used when lifting doesn’t mean they need to get stronger in order to deadlift more weight. You can figure this out by taking 3 weeks off then going back to deadlifting for a few weeks then squatting or doing back or whatever muscles you think get hit by the deadlift but really aren’t.

The major muscles that are going to grow from the deadlift are the glutes and hams, secondary a little traps and lower back, tertiary forearms and biceps. If all you do is deadlift your quads aren’t going to get hit that much. Specially if your only going heavy.

Your proportion is all f’d up when you say you gained 10 lbs deadlifting. When in reality you were doing other exercises and you don’t know what amount of that 10 lbs went to making your deadlift stronger. How do you know 2lbs of your muscle didn’t go towards making a higher deadlift then 10?

Once thats jacked up you can’t say all your other lifts went up in proportion because to keep your proportion the same using your example you would have to say your bench press went up by 30% of 90 - 27 lbs in the same time period. Or whatever other exercises you were using.

#6

[quote]Airtruth wrote:

Your proportion is all f’d up when you say you gained 10 lbs deadlifting. When in reality you were doing other exercises and you don’t know what amount of that 10 lbs went to making your deadlift stronger. How do you know 2lbs of your muscle didn’t go towards making a higher deadlift then 10?

Once thats jacked up you can’t say all your other lifts went up in proportion because to keep your proportion the same using your example you would have to say your bench press went up by 30% of 90 - 27 lbs in the same time period. Or whatever other exercises you were using.[/quote]

Genius! I’d calculate that all out if I cared enough but I don’t. Still, you’ve answered my question and for that I thank you.

#7

If your diet is conducive to gaining weight, you’ll gain mass.

You’re not going to gain any weight unless you’re eating above maintenence levels.