strong squat, weak deadlift.
icolmenares
Posts: 38 Member
Well title says it all. I have a weak deadlift compared to my squat. Ever since I started lifting squats always felt natural but deadlifts always feel awkward. When I squat heavy I have no trouble getting out of the hole. However when I deadlift heavy I always struggle to get the weight off the ground but when I do I have no problem with the lock out. I've tried doing sumo and conventional but it seems that my biggest problem is exploding off the ground. I've been thinking about doing paused dl and also snatch grip dl to solve this issue. I know I can have a stronger dl if I solve this issue. Any other tips?
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deads are different from squats because you have to preload the lift, rather than the squat where you have that already loaded muscle elasticity you get on the way down . i dont know the proper terms for all those two different types of lifts. But what it means is that before you start your pull you have to fully engage every muscle of your body, tight glutes, tight hams, tight lats, everything rock tight and fired up . Its all about the form and the set up. if you dont fire up those muscles before you start your pull, you wont get the lift.0
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deads are different from squats because you have to preload the lift, rather than the squat where you have that already loaded muscle elasticity you get on the way down . i dont know the proper terms for all those two different types of lifts. But what it means is that before you start your pull you have to fully engage every muscle of your body, tight glutes, tight hams, tight lats, everything rock tight and fired up . Its all about the form and the set up. if you dont fire up those muscles before you start your pull, you wont get the lift.
Yes and that seems to be the cause of my problem. I always get tight but once I try to explode I lose that tightness. I take a deep breath before the lift and then try to explode and that's when I lose tightness. Any tips for that?
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icolmenares wrote: »
Yes and that seems to be the cause of my problem. I always get tight but once I try to explode I lose that tightness. I take a deep breath before the lift and then try to explode and that's when I lose tightness. Any tips for that?
lower your weight and work on staying tight. use a weight that's heavy enough for some resistance but not so heavy you can't get it off the ground. Its all about the form, you have to teach your body to get tight and stay tight. it takes time and practice. make sure your form is correct also.
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icolmenares wrote: »
Yes and that seems to be the cause of my problem. I always get tight but once I try to explode I lose that tightness. I take a deep breath before the lift and then try to explode and that's when I lose tightness. Any tips for that?
lower your weight and work on staying tight. use a weight that's heavy enough for some resistance but not so heavy you can't get it off the ground. Its all about the form, you have to teach your body to get tight and stay tight. it takes time and practice. make sure your form is correct also.
So very much this. Treat the lighter weights with respect and perfect form and the heavier weights will feel and move so much better
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spend 3 months training deficit deadlifts for an improved launch. Lower the weight and start pulling while standing on two plates (round about 5cm), I promise you the bar will fly up when you go back to normal.0
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Iron_Miss_Canada wrote: »icolmenares wrote: »
Yes and that seems to be the cause of my problem. I always get tight but once I try to explode I lose that tightness. I take a deep breath before the lift and then try to explode and that's when I lose tightness. Any tips for that?
lower your weight and work on staying tight. use a weight that's heavy enough for some resistance but not so heavy you can't get it off the ground. Its all about the form, you have to teach your body to get tight and stay tight. it takes time and practice. make sure your form is correct also.
So very much this. Treat the lighter weights with respect and perfect form and the heavier weights will feel and move so much better
Yeah by default I have to lower the weight since I missed a lift. So I will work on exploding off the ground with good form and tightness.
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spend 3 months training deficit deadlifts for an improved launch. Lower the weight and start pulling while standing on two plates (round about 5cm), I promise you the bar will fly up when you go back to normal.
Yeah I've been contemplating on adding deficit dl into my training. My program has me do a dl variation most times so next cycle I'll start on those.
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What make me upset about my deadlift are my forearms. I mean my grip.0
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ALSO THEY ARE DIFFERENT MUSCLE GROUPS!!! Squats are mainly focused on your quads, little glutes and hammies. Deadlifts have a lot to do with the BACK (and glutes and hammies and a little quads). That's why so many people hurt their backs. Bad form when trying to lift something too heavy.
All about the form, push through the heels.0 -
Wouldn't hurt to do some hamstring work. While squatting does hit the hamstrings to an extent, doing some separate hamstring work will help with your deadlifts. Lots of people neglect their "rears" and hamstring, rear delts, and calves get little work. Balancing it out only helps.
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riveragirl15 wrote: »ALSO THEY ARE DIFFERENT MUSCLE GROUPS!!! Squats are mainly focused on your quads, little glutes and hammies. Deadlifts have a lot to do with the BACK (and glutes and hammies and a little quads). That's why so many people hurt their backs. Bad form when trying to lift something too heavy.
All about the form, push through the heels.
No . Proper squats and deads use lots and lots and LOTS and lots of glutes and hams. Focus heavily on using your glutes , they are the most powerful muscle in your body, get them big and strong and learn to use them. And never use your back for either lift, except for core stability.0 -
19gabriela01 wrote: »What make me upset about my deadlift are my forearms. I mean my grip.
Work on grip strength, and/or get some lifting straps0 -
riveragirl15 wrote: »ALSO THEY ARE DIFFERENT MUSCLE GROUPS!!! Squats are mainly focused on your quads, little glutes and hammies. Deadlifts have a lot to do with the BACK (and glutes and hammies and a little quads). That's why so many people hurt their backs. Bad form when trying to lift something too heavy.
All about the form, push through the heels.
No . Proper squats and deads use lots and lots and LOTS and lots of glutes and hams. Focus heavily on using your glutes , they are the most powerful muscle in your body, get them big and strong and learn to use them. And never use your back for either lift, except for core stability.
Right-on, I don't know why some think Squats are quad dominant; it's really quite the opposite. They become quad dominant when performed incorrectly.
I think there are some good options of the OP in here. I'm not sure that deficit DL's are a good option. If they OP can't stay tight with a regular DL, I think his stability will be even worse when pull from a deficit. I would spend some time using a very light load, like 35% to 50% training max and just focus on staying tight and exploding up. Niner mentioned hamstring training it's possible that part of your posterior chain or even posterior Core musculature needs some separate work.0 -
What is your squat and DL max at this point? Can you post video of both, using near-maximal weights (for say a couple reps).0
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It'd be interesting to see your form videos. In the meantime -- I had / have the opposite problem - a far stronger deadlift than squat...I couldn't get out of the hole to save my life. Once thing that's helped me over the hump is to pay attention to what my glutes and back felt like at the start of the deadlift pull, and try to replicate that feeling coming out of the hole on the squat (you'd do the opposite, of course). At the risk of being too graphical, the feeling was like trying to suck my butt cheeks into my a$$h0le, which tightened my glutes, and, for some reason, my lower back. YMMV.
Oh, and just to repeat the basics (which you probably already know) -- remember that coming off the floor isn't a pull, it's a push. You're basically doing a leg press until the bar clears your knees.0 -
19gabriela01 wrote: »What make me upset about my deadlift are my forearms. I mean my grip.
Work on grip strength, and/or get some lifting straps
Use chalk.0 -
It'd be interesting to see your form videos. In the meantime -- I had / have the opposite problem - a far stronger deadlift than squat...I couldn't get out of the hole to save my life. Once thing that's helped me over the hump is to pay attention to what my glutes and back felt like at the start of the deadlift pull, and try to replicate that feeling coming out of the hole on the squat (you'd do the opposite, of course). At the risk of being too graphical, the feeling was like trying to suck my butt cheeks into my a$$h0le, which tightened my glutes, and, for some reason, my lower back. YMMV.
Oh, and just to repeat the basics (which you probably already know) -- remember that coming off the floor isn't a pull, it's a push. You're basically doing a leg press until the bar clears your knees.
It makes more sense that you would have a higher deadlift than squat, in particular at the beginning of heavy lifting prior to nailing down the squat form. As you said the squat requires more focus on form and it contains both an eccentric and concentric portion of the lift, which the deadlift lacks.
OP, if your issues is off the ground but you can lock out (not sure how you know that unless you also work rack pulls) I would guess your setup is poor or you are getting into a weight that is too heavy for you. Without a video this is a guess based on what you have said.0 -
Try holding the bar as long as you can at lockout on heavy singles to train your grip. It's a way I sneak in some extra grip training without having to set time aside to train grip.19gabriela01 wrote: »What make me upset about my deadlift are my forearms. I mean my grip.
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For a while my deadlift lagged behind my squat by as much as 150#, strictly a form issue. Swapping to sumo helped a little, but not much. What really helped was swapping to trapbar deadlifts rather than straight-bar, it's added almost a hundred pounds to what I was doing. Squats are still heavier, but the gap is far smaller.0
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