Deadlifts vs Squats

I absolutely empathise with your situation – it’s a dilemma I’ve faced in the past on countless occasions and have frequently made the tough decision of dropping one of them!

World renowned powerlifters and olympic lifters also very frequently concur: it is too much stress for many individuals’ central nervous systems to both squat and deadlift heavy in the same week. So if the elite guys are very often in agreement, what’s the solution?

It may not actually have to be as ruthless as dropping both movements. If you insist on keeping them, you can simply do one of two options;

1: Don’t push either movement close – or as close – to failure. Leave energy in the tank so that you can continually progress on a weekly basis which is what you should be striving to achieve anyway.

2: Rest longer in between hitting each compound lifts. For example, do squats on one day, and deadlift 3-5 days later, before resuming to squats after 9 days of originally doing them. (Note that this may cause some contemporary issues such as perfecting form on squats).

Bear in mind that either of these two potential ‘solutions’ simply may not work. You may simply find greater success in sacrificing one so that the other can benefit, and if that is the case, then my opinion is one of the following…

DROP THE DEADLIFTS!

You’re either really happy, or really sad / angry I’ve suggested this. For the majority of individuals, deadlifts are frequently a more enjoyable movement to perform for one reason or the other. For me personally, they’re both equally as punishing and ruthless exercises. So why squats?

Unlike a deadlift, I find as though squats simply cannot be replaced for the lower body. No single movement is as efficient as a squat at targeting your lower back / posterior chain, hips, quads, hamstrings, and even calves to a degree. It’s true that deadlifts also hit these muscle groups; however, the emphasis places on the hip region and overall lower body, is not nearly enough in comparison to squats in my sincere opinion. I find solace in the fact that world renowned coaches would be in agreement with me; and it is from them, that I humbly form my opinion. The whole hip and lower body region in particular, simply gains far too much from performing squats, and you’ll very often find that lifters can easily improve their deadlift without even performing them if they install enough consistent effort into squatting. Unfortunately, very often can we replicate improving our squats by deadlifting more frequently which is a shame.

So, if this fateful day arrives for you, I would urge you to put your faith in squats. Contrary to popular belief, deadlifts are very replaceable by a slew of fantastic exercises that will torch your erectors, traps and whole body – the same cannot be said if you drop squats. You will start to flounder in your development.