Squat/Deadlift Form Question

Maybe I’m doing something drastically wrong here… maybe I’m just absolutely useless and have the biggest case of sucky form for both the squat and the deadlift ever… either that or something just clicked in that big empty head of mine.

When you deadlift, you arc your back, get everything tight, push your butt back so you get some stress on the old hamstrings, and then bend at the knees to get down and get the weight. You then try and keep the shoulders behind the bar, drive up through with your legs and pull your hips through.

When you squat, you arc your back, get everything tight, push your butt back so you can feel it in the hamstrings, and then decend with a tight arced back. You then drive back up while ‘spreading the floor’ with your feet, head up etc, back to the top.

They seem almost identicle apart from the angle and height of the hips, which are higher when deadlifting. Of course I’m missing the old ‘muscle beach’, and other aspects… but essentially, am I right with the form here or am I missing something? cause they both seem pretty damn similar, yet I hear people saying they’re almost completely different excersizes.

Am I right, or am I wrong?

To me the two are similar. The major differences being a higher center of gravity in the squat, and less bending required at the hips in the squat. Because you can go deeper in the squat, the front of your legs get worked harder than in the deadlift. But this is just my opinion. I would think your form is okay. Get somebody (who knows what to look for) to look at you from the side when you are doing them.

Thus training both deadlift and squat in the same workout is definately a no-go if you want to increase strength in both of these lifts - and I should do something like Bulgarian Split Squats + Deadlifts instead?

That way I work the posterier chain and also have a nice unilateral workout to boot? Sound good?

Deads are basically squats holding the bar in your hands rather than on your shoulders. The movements really shouldn’t be that different, although peoples’ builds obviously affect this. Perhaps the reason they seem so different is because many of us are squatting and/or deadlifting incorrectly. I see fewer people deadlift than squat. Very few squat correctly, and same for the deadlift.

Deadlifting and back squatting in the same session is likely too much. Put squats and deadlifts BOTH in the hip dominant category. Front squats and bulgarian squats could be your primary quad dominant moves.

Bastard!

Just remember that there is more than one way to squat; a PL squat will be a lot more hip dominant than a OL squat (the difference between sitting back and sitting down).

[quote]BFG wrote:
Deads are basically squats holding the bar in your hands rather than on your shoulders. The movements really shouldn’t be that different, although peoples’ builds obviously affect this. Perhaps the reason they seem so different is because many of us are squatting and/or deadlifting incorrectly. I see fewer people deadlift than squat. Very few squat correctly, and same for the deadlift.
[/quote]

Yes, I sometimes will do deadlifts on leg day or back day depending how strong I feel.

Something popped in my back last month when I was doing squats, so I’ve laid off them and substituted deads for a while.

On leg day, I do them at the end of my workout (when my quads are fried). On back day, I do them after killing my back on rows, pull-ups, and pull-downs.

For me, I think it nails the legs and back equally. Of course, I’m 6’3" and I like to get my butt down low at the start of the movement.

And nothing gets the blood flowing better than a few sets of deads!

I find that I get more of an back workout with DL than squats. I keep my back really tight on squats, but I’m not holding the weight with my back like I do with deads. I squat with a PL style (maybe not quite that wide), but I do a conventional DL.

When you come up from the bottom of a DL, the angle of your arms change, requiring your back to change the way it is contracted. The load changes with DL, but not with squats. The load is always in the same place with squats. The shoulder blades are static. If you are doing deadlifts correctly, then your shoulders are mobile during the lift.

Also, you don’t really get the rebound with DL, you have to start contracted. That makes it a much more demanding move. I also find that DL are more hip domainant for me.

Maybe it’s the way that I do them, but they aren’t very similar for me.

-folly

[quote]Eric Cressey wrote:
Just remember that there is more than one way to squat; a PL squat will be a lot more hip dominant than a OL squat (the difference between sitting back and sitting down).[/quote]

Ahhh WTF are you? … some kind of know-it-all, or … ;]

So EC’s post brings up a good point. How do we all (you all) squat? PL or OL? I certainly go OL style, as I hardly have the hip mobility to get wide. Besides being able to squat big(ger), why would I want to PL squat? I am in it for the basic reasons most of us are here: better physical ability, lookin’ better in my baby suit, and the straight up damned fun of it!

Bastard!

Eric

[quote]trevor65 wrote:
Something popped in my back last month when I was doing squats, so I’ve laid off them and substituted deads for a while.[/quote]

Dude! Not cool. Get it checked out! I had the same thing happen to me a looooong time ago. I fought it for years and finally got it thoroughly checked out. I should have done it a long time ago … if only I knew then what I know now.

(On top of that, I hardly see how deads put any less stress on the back than squats.)

No matter how big and strong you are, you can’t lift jack squat if you are injured. Worse yet, sex is complicated. Stay healthy!!!

Bastard!

[quote] wrote:
Thus training both deadlift and squat in the same workout is definately a no-go if you want to increase strength in both of these lifts - and I should do something like Bulgarian Split Squats + Deadlifts instead?

That way I work the posterier chain and also have a nice unilateral workout to boot? Sound good?[/quote]

Nothings a no-no. You can do anything you want to. But I split deadlifts and squats into two separate leg days separated by three days.