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Does the Deadlift Build Size?

articles, bigger-stronger-leaner

Christian_Thibaudeau Elite Coach

4d

How to Pull if Muscle Growth is the

Goal

“ Want bigger hams and glutes? Rethink

the conventional deadlift. Here’s why.

The conventional deadlift isn’t your best bet if

you’re trying to build bigger legs and glutes.
Here’s why and what to do instead.

The Bullet Points

The deadlift isn’t the best exercise for

hypertrophy, at least not the conventional
or sumo deadlifts. But they’re great for
strength. All the details: Not the King of
Exercises – Deadlift
Since tension is spread out over multiple
muscle groups, few muscles are worked
to a high level of fatigue. None of them
are significantly taxed.
In addition, the neural drive required for
the deadlift is divided over many muscle
groups. This makes it harder to recruit the
fast-twitch muscle fibers during the
deadlift.
You can use a lot of weight during the
deadlift, but none of the joints reach a
thoroughly stretched or closed position.
During hypertrophy, you want to lengthen
 the muscles to their fullest state. The
glutes do get some lengthening, but not
fully.
The RDL (Romanian deadlift ) is a much
better option for hypertrophy. It WILL
create a stretch in the glutes.
The stiff-leg deadlift stretches the
hamstrings and increases the stretch
required for hypertrophy.
The traditional deadlift is great for
competitive lifting and strength but not so
much for muscle growth.

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 cdep89 4d

I do RDLs one session in the week, and SLDLs

in another right now. SLDLs are still a relatively
new exercise for me as I’ve spent more time with
either conventional DL or a TBDL…but I feel
wonderful doing them. My hamstrings feel
fantastically targeted and lifting a weight in that
style with my posterior feels like it’s going to do
wonders over time to my erectors etc. I never
really have back pain with conventional deadlifts
but something about it feels way safer too. I
don’t go for big grinders, but on the tough reps,
lifting weight without my quads driving it seems
to have my posterior always stay as tight as
required and I can say “nope” before I think
there’s any chance of failure. With a
conventional I can be more likely to leave a leak
somewhere whilst just grinding through with my
quads.

With this massive positive it’s also way more

natural to do slower eccentrics, which means the
bosu ball squatters and elliptical lords can stop
complaining about the noise.

Now, if only there was a way to subdue my ego

and let people know I’m doing a different
exercise to a deadlift and can actually lift more
than this.

Njord 3d

I don’t know. For an overall mass builder, the

deadlift certainly puts weight on the scale.

If targeting hamstrings is the goal, I don’t

understand comparing a multi-joint compound lift
with a hip hinge.

What are your thoughts on rdl’s and sldl’s vs

hamstring curl variations, glute ham raises and
reverse hypers for hamstring concentration?

Reichsritter 3d

If you are not super proficient with DLs, then

starting a “back” or “pull” day with the king of
strength exercises adds the benefit of turning on
your CNS to the max. With experienced lifters it
makes less and less sense because they need
more and more time to properly warm up and get
in the groove, and the systemic fatigue is also
bigger.

cdep89 3d

Njord:

I don’t know. For an overall mass builder, the

deadlift certainly puts weight on the scale.

I don’t think he denies that to be fair, just that

there are better options "for bigger legs and
glutes". There is an important point to be made
here though in that it depends on quite a few
things. I believe it is one of the best exercises for
muscle growth… until it’s not, and then at some
point later it might be again. It comes down to
training economy, training history, training age,
strength levels, and the rest of the program.
There is nothing better than the deadlift in terms
of firing up your CNS, and even if people try to
say it’s not fantastic for hypertrophy, it definitely
is when you consider how well strength on the
deadlift transfers over to so many other pulls.
Many of the best backs/entire posteriors have
been built with the help of deadlifts.

For a new or time-limited trainee, there is close

to nothing that is as good as the deadlift. Hitting
that many muscle groups is remarkable and it
being the lift where you can handle the most
weight, regardless of all this “no muscle is fully
stretched” people preach, the signals sent
throughout your body… a lot stuff is gonna grow
if you take you deadlift from 300lbs to 600lbs.
Yes it’s a leverage lift but that doesn’t mean
there isn’t a ton to be gained from it.

The problem with it lies in when people want to

do higher frequency/higher volume splits.
Shoehorning it in can be difficult and there
comes a point where you might get better results
doing 4-5 exercises targetting those individual
muscle groups fresh as opposed to trying to do
them all after being beat up by a heavy deadlift.
This is another thing, when you get properly
strong the deadlift is extremely fatiguing and
there is no getting away from that. It can eat into
the rest of your workout on that day, and for
some people even sessions later in the week.
Progress on it will also slow down leading to
more and more fatigue for diminishing
hypertrophy returns.

That’s where the nuance comes in though and

the best thing to do is probably phasing it in
occasionally as a switch-up to regain new
stimulus from it in the context of the rest of the
program. I am talking from a pure hypertrophy
standpoint here.

What people get wrong is they use stuff like

“fatigue” and “it hurts my back” as an excuse to
not do the hard work. It is a wonderful exercise
and a BRILLIANT muscle builder for many many
people. I feel that many of these articles are
misread and are taken as black-and-white ammo
against the Deadlift when people need to work
out the nuance for themselves. Thibaudeau
himself has spoken before about his own
anthropometry putting him into a very squatty
Deadlift, so he doesn’t get a great deal out of it
that he’s not already getting from other
exercises. Many taller lifters can also struggle
due to the arbitrary height of the Olympic plates.

The article starts with "The conventional deadlift

isn’t your best bet if you’re trying to build bigger
legs and glutes." If you’re trying to build bigger
legs are glutes, it outright isn’t the best exercise.
Overall mass though? As explained above, there
are a lot of considerations that need to be
figured out before a trainee or coach can figure
out whether or not it’s a good choice to program.

Njord 3d

cdep89:

The article starts with "The conventional

deadlift isn’t your best bet if you’re trying to
build bigger legs and glutes." If you’re trying
to build bigger legs are glutes, it outright isn’t
the best exercise. Overall mass though? As
explained above, there are a lot of
considerations that need to be figured out
before a trainee or coach can figure out
whether or not it’s a good choice to program.

The title suggests deadlifts aren’t mass builders

with no mention of leg and glute development
specifically. The article does mention leg and
glute development specifically.

So one, they are a great mass builder and the

title is a little confusing and two, as a discussion
around leg and glute development, I would circle
back to my original questions comparing the
further specific rdl’s and sldl’s with other isolation
or single joint lifts.
last visit
cdep89 3d

Njord:

The title suggests deadlifts aren’t mass

builders with no mention of leg and glute
development specifically. The article does
mention leg and glute development
specifically.
Okay, the title of the article isn’t perfect. It is
clarified instantly within it though.

Njord:

I would circle back to my original questions

comparing the further specific rdl’s and sldl’s
with other isolation or single joint lifts.

I know you’d rather have an answer from an elite

coach for some real science and experience as
I’m just a guy who reads books, but my answer
to these sorts of questions for hypertrophy would
always be “Why not both?”. If you can only pick
one it’s probably best to choose the exercise
with the higher load and other muscularity
involved, but doing a ton of sets of them would
run you into the ground so we add volume with
less intensive stressors. That’s where the
hamstring curls/GHRs etc come in. Rather than
worrying about what’s best, just hitting the
muscle in slightly different ways and finding the
appropriate volume for you is where the muscle
money is made.

Andym7 2d

What is the difference between the RDL and the

SLDL ?

RT_Nomad 2d

I am fairly ambivalent whether the deadlift is a

good size builder.
Before I powerlifted, I did hanging power cleans,
targeting mostly upper back and all of traps.
When I tried powerlifting I already had much of
the strength to pull a good deadlift, since some
of the same muscles involved in the hanging
power clean as is the deadlift. I would think that
some hypertrophy occurred as a result of
deadlifts, but how much, I don’t know.

After my lower back injury got much better and I

was competing in Master’s bodybuilding I re-
incorporated the deadlift. Because my traditional
deadlift was more of a hinge, with little legs bent,
I used it as a back builder on “back day.” But it
was not my power builder. I used a heavy bent-
over barbell row as mass builder. After barbell
rows I did 2 sets of 10 reps of deadlifts, then
finished back with a few other exercises. Once
again I don’t know what contribution the deadlifts
had for hypertrophy, but I did them anyway. The
10 reps were heavy, but I had a few reps left in
the tank.

TrainForPain 2d
Member Coach

Andym7:

What is the difference between the RDL and

the SLDL ?

SLDL starts from the floor

Andym7 2d

Thanks for the info.

 FlatsFarmer 2d

Stand on a plate when you do SLDL so the

difference from conventional dead is more
apparent.

cdep89 2d

My biggest part of subbing them in was my gym

telling me off for noise. My plan is to work up to a
number where they start telling me off again and
then add plates to stand on so I can keep getting
more out of less weight. I never really
considered that the appearance of the exercise
would look way more apparent with deficits
added though. I look forward to it quelling my
insecurity!

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