Benefits of Doing Deadlifts – Foundational Exercise!

Hey everyone, welcome to another Full Affect Fitness Exercise Benefits article! Today’s topic is going to be on the benefits of doing deadlifts. The exercise some call the king of all exercises! Let’s find out if this is for good reason or not! We will accomplish this by providing 3 main benefits of the deadlift and explaining them in a way that you can relate to your training!

Without further ado, let’s talk deadlifts!

Holy Grail Movement:

The reason I call the deadlift a holy grail movement is because it works a tremendous amount of muscle groups! From your hamstrings to your glutes to your lower back as the primary movers. However, looking past the primary movers, there are a ridiculous amount of stabilizing muscles being used. These range from the glute medius to the core all the way up to the stabilizers of your scapula!

So why is this beneficial? When you have so many muscles groups working together, you get a tremendous bang for your buck! Don’t get me wrong, the deadlift does cost a big buck as far as it’s demand for recovery goes. However, the amount of muscles activated means it is great for strength training in the sense of being able to move quite a lot of weight, and hypertrophy with its high muscle mass activation for training volume!

Let’s apply this benefit to our next main perk of the deadlift below!

A Highly Versatile Exercise:

Any exercise that has all the foundational benefits mentioned above, and can be a highly versatile movement is typically a keeper! What I mean by versatile is the ability for an exercise to be applied to a wide variety of goals. This means that not only can you perform the standard deadlift and receive a whole host of benefits; however, you can also tailor the exercise to your goals to make it even more beneficial. Let’s put this idea into context!

Let’s say your goal is strength. You may perform some heavy deadlifts, followed up by some speedy deficit deadlifts to develop overall speed, with a focus on exploding from the floor. This tailors the exercise towards the goal of strength as you have heavy training followed up my speed work.

Let’s use another example for the goal of hypertrophy. You may perform the Romanian deadlift on leg day to focus the work more towards the hamstrings. Why is this tailored for hypertrophy? Because you will be forced to use lighter loads, which is less relative to strength. However, with this lighter load comes a greater focus on a muscle group, with the potential for a better mind-muscle connection.

Don’t get me wrong, heavy training certainly can be beneficial for hypertrophy. However, if you’re looking for a primary exercise to be trained in the moderate rep range as a foundation layer, the Romanian deadlift is a great option! Speaking of foundation laying, let’s talk about that next!

It’s a Foundation Laying Exercise:

This next benefit encompasses many of the benefits we have just discussed. When designing a training program, we typically have primary movements. Since the deadlift is so beneficial overall and can be tailored to a variety of goals, it makes for a great foundation laying exercise as it can be used in multiple scenarios.

An example would be for strength training, you could perform some heavy standard deadlifts once per week, followed up by some hip thrusts to work on glute strength for the lockout of the lift. For the goal of hypertrophy, you may perform Romanian deadlifts for your primary hamstring exercise on leg day. From there, you may perform some sort of hamstring curl to focus more on the contraction of the hamstrings rather than the stretch.

Having solid foundation laying exercises allow you to effectively structure your training sessions and branch out from there!

The Gist on Deadlifts:

All in all, the deadlift is a big dog in the exercise world! It has so many benefits when looking at the standard deadlift alone. However, it becomes a serious powerhouse when you factor in its ability to be tailored to a variety of goals. Considering its ease of implementation, it simply is a highly beneficial, versatile and programmable exercise!

Does the deadlift sound like an exercise for you? Consider giving it a shot! What do you think of the deadlift? I would love to hear in the comment section below! I thank you so much for taking the time to read this article and as always, if you have any questions or comments please do not hesitate to leave them below and I will be sure to reply!

Until Next Time,

Kohl Johnson

Please refer to my liability disclaimer to ensure you know who is responsible for use of this information after reading.

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