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Are Deadlifts a Back or Leg Exercise? Where Do You Put Them?
Deadlifts work both your legs and back, emphasizing your glutes, hamstrings, lower back, and traps. The muscles in your legs lift the weight, and the muscles in your back stabilize your posture. Both get worked hard enough to stimulate muscle growth.
If you have a long torso, your back will be harder to stabilize, and you might find yourself limited by the strength of your lower back. In that case, deadlifts can stimulate more muscle growth in your lower back than in your legs. You can shift the emphasis back to your legs by switching from conventional deadlifts to sumo or Romanian deadlifts.
If you have a short torso, your back might be fairly easy to stabilize, so the deadlift becomes much more of a leg exercise. Your traps will still need to work quite hard, though. It’s still a great back exercise. You can make it even more of a back exercise by doing snatch-grip or deficit deadlifts.
Let’s talk about where to put the deadlift.
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How to Build a V-Taper Physique (Ideal Shoulder-to-Waist Ratio)
Most research shows that a v-taper body shape is attractive to women, looks impressive to other men, and feels nice to have (full explanation). I’ve confirmed that by surveying thousands of men and women, almost all of whom prefer body shapes that are athletic, muscular, and lean (survey 1, survey 2, survey 3).
Most studies compare the chest measurement against the waist measurement (chest-to-waist ratio). Some studies include the shoulders (shoulder-to-waist ratio). Both mean the same thing. They both show that you’re muscular and lean (study). That seems to be what’s driving the effect. That leads to a common mistake, which I’ll cover in a second.
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How Much Can the Average Man Lift?
How much can the average man lift? There are a few studies we can look at. I also surveyed 600 of our newsletter subscribers, asking them how much they could squat, bench press, deadlift, and overhead press.
Then, I broke down their answers based on how long they’d been lifting, seeing how long it takes people to reach a given level of strength, and noting where they plateau forever.
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How Many Push-Ups Should You Be Able To Do in a Row?
A man in good shape should be able to do 30–40 push-ups. One recent study found that going from under 10 push-ups to over 30 was associated with a 75% reduction in the risk of heart disease. Getting up to 40 push-ups was associated with 96% lower risk (study). Most earlier studies have found similar benefits (study, study, study).
Being able to do 30–40 push-ups also shows a great level of strength, athleticism, and fitness, and it’s enough to qualify for the police, firefighting, and all military branches (reference, reference).
Once you can do more than 40 push-ups, they stop being as good for gaining muscle and strength, so you should probably make them harder instead of trying to get even more repetitions. I’ll give you progressions at the end.
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What Does AMRAP Mean? Techniques & Benefits Explained
AMRAP means As Many Reps/Rounds As Possible. It’s useful when you don’t have full control over how much weight you’re lifting (like with bodyweight exercises) or how intense your cardio is (like when doing circuits).
It’s a powerful way of programming workouts. It means we can program bodyweight exercises without knowing exactly how many reps you can get. It’s one of the only good ways to program bodyweight exercises.
It’s also a good way to see if the workout you’re following is any good. If you see “push-ups: 3 sets of 10 reps” or “crunches: 2 sets of 15 reps,” then you know your workout routine isn’t very good. Those should be AMRAP sets. You should do as many reps as you can. That’s the only way to guarantee you’re working your muscles hard enough to provoke an adaptation.
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The 3-Day Workout Split (Full Workout Routine)
A 3-day workout split is enough to maximize your overall rate of muscle growth, especially if you’re still in your first couple of years of lifting. To maximize the growth of any one muscle, you need to train it at least twice per week. With three workouts per week, that’s easy.
Full-body workouts also allow for more synergy than any other workout routine. You can do the best exercises every workout. You can use supersets and giant sets, making your workouts more efficient. And you get to practice all the big movement patterns 3x per week. You also get 1–2 days of rest between each workout, making it easier to schedule cardio and giving your grip and postural muscles time to recover.
You could make a strong argument that 3-day routines are the best default for natural lifters. They’re almost certainly ideal for novices and early intermediates, and most bodybuilders from the pre-steroid era (such as Steve Reeves) used 3-day routines all through their careers, so there’s never a point where they stop being effective.
The catch is that as you get stronger, full-body workouts take longer. That’s why some advanced lifters switch over to 4-day, 5-day, or 6-day routines. Another option is to drop some of the big compound lifts, doing them 2x per week instead of 3x. Or you could switch over to a 3-day specialization routine (which I’ll cover below).
I’ve gained 70 pounds, and around 60 of those pounds came from 3-day workout programs. At first, I was doing full-body workouts. More recently, I’ve been running specialization programs (like this arm program).
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The 2-Day Full-Body Workout Split (For Gaining Muscle)
A two-day workout split is just barely enough to maximize your rate of muscle growth, kind of. To maximize the growth of any one muscle, you need to train it twice per week. That means with two workouts per week, you can maximize your rate of muscle growth in the muscles you train hard in both workouts. The catch is that you won’t be able to train every muscle hard enough in both workouts.
Most people who are serious about building muscle train more than twice a week, but most of them don’t train efficiently. If you’re ruthless with your workout programming and focus on the areas you care about the most, you can get great results.
I’ve gone through long periods of training only twice per week. I’ve gotten some of my best results during those periods. I just had to be very specific with my goals.
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RDL vs Deadlift: Which is Better for Building Muscle?
Romanian deadlifts (RDLs) and conventional deadlifts are more similar than they are different. They’re both deadlifts. They both work the same muscles, just to different degrees:
- RDLs are lighter, work your hamstrings harder, and won’t tax your spine quite as much, making them less fatiguing. They’re popular with bodybuilders. Use them if you want to emphasize your hamstrings.
- Deadlifts are heavier, work your butt and back harder, and strengthen your spine, making them one of the best overall exercises for gaining muscle and strength. They’re popular with powerlifters. Use them if you to gain overall size and strength.
That’s the answer, but we can delve a little deeper into the specifics.
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The Best Leg Extension Alternatives
You can do leg extensions at home with just your body weight. It’s a variation called the reverse Nordics (pictured above). They’re hard, though, so I recommend getting good at squatting first. Squats will bulk up your quads just as effectively as leg extensions, and you’ll build the strength you need for reverse Nordics.
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The Best Leg Press Alternatives
The leg press is great for your quads and glutes, and it makes a good calf-raise machine. Some at-home alternatives are even better, especially if you have dumbbells or a barbell. If you don’t, we’ll give you some bodyweight exercises, too.
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