20 Benefits of doing the deadlift

I’m a huge proponent of the benefits of deadlifting. I mean, I was a fan of deadlifting before I even got any good at the movement. I literally had no idea what I was working but just enjoyed the feeling the movement gave me - it’s like total power. I’ve done every single movement you could possibly think of but none of them have had the effect on my body that deadlifting has had on me. Years of deadlifting (and tons of research) shows that the deadlift offers these benefits to the body:

It’s a full blown body workout
It thickens the muscles

It’s a great strength movement
Works the posterior chain
Builds an amazing back

Has a great carryover to everyday life
Great for preventing injury
Great if you don’t like wasting time

It’s not hard to add to your workout
Your core will feel like a brick
Your hamstrings get crazy strong

The stronger your deadlift the more respect you get
You grip strength will be out of this world
Way more than 1 way to do it

They even strengthen our bones
It increases hormone production
Improve cardiovascular health

It's not a difficult exercise to do
Aids in seniors recovering mobility
Improves posture

*Make sure to lift when you're supposed to. This article goes into depth about how many times a week you should deadlift.

These benefits are not things that are remote to one person’s body either. I’ve actually found that many people do this movement so they can receive these benefits (more or less). The deadlift is one of those magic compound movements that just so happens to do a great deal for our entire bodies. Below are 15 + of the common (and uncommon) benefits of performing the deadlift:

It’s a full blown body workout

The act of standing up with a loaded barbell requires our bodies to work not only our glutes but it also requires us to work out quads, hamstrings, and entire back. Why? Because we need each and every single one of those muscles to fully stand the weight up. When we perform a basic or standard deadlift we are forcing our bodies to fire different muscle groups during each part of the movement. According to experts at Dark Iron Fitness during the upward push of the deadlift, we apply force through the floor using our glutes, hamstrings, quads and work to pull the muscle the rest of the way up using our back muscles. We even use the hips at the end of the movement to follow through (as well as at the beginning to perform the breaking motion.

2. It thickens the muscles

One of the people who really got me focused on deadlifting (even before I was interested in powerlifting) was Stan Efferding. For those who don’t know Stan is an accomplished Powerlifter, Bodybuilder, and Entrepreneur who just so happens to be able to deadlift roughly 800 lbs (that’s the most I’ve seen anyway). I was on Youtube one day and I just so happened to see him doing a deadlift session up to about 760 lbs. During the video, he mentioned that deadlifting was what allowed him to stand apart from the crowd at his bodybuilding competitions. He mentioned that the best and thickest bodybuilders such as Ronnie Coleman, himself, and many more incorporated heavy compound movements like the deadlift into their programming and this helped them build width. Ronnie Coleman also mentioned this in an interview that he himself did whereby he was deadlifting 800 lbs before he had a bodybuilding show. He mentioned that it helped him improve his overall muscle density and is what set him apart from the crowd as well when he was on stage.

Speaking for myself, I’ve even noticed a major change in my back thickness (the deadlift can be a hypertrophy movement).

*You can check out this article if you want a better description on whether deadlifts help build mass.

3. It’s a great strength movement

In powerlifting, we have 3 basic movements; the squat, deadlift, and bench press. The deadlift is included in that list for a reason. It’s a compound movement that requires explosiveness and complete control over the central nervous system. And consider what you’re doing when you’re deadlifting. You’re pressing through the floor with your glutes, hamstrings, quads and pulling with as much force as you can muster to lift a weight off of the ground. And, at the end of the lift, you’re finishing with hip- drive. The movement is entirely about explosiveness and form which is why when you see people deadlift they typically try to move the weight as quickly as they possibly can off the floor. Another great example of this is how hard it can be to deadlift weight slowly off the ground, especially heavy-weight. The slower you move the more you actually feel the weight you’re moving.

4. Works the posterior chain

The posterior chain is made up of the following muscles: calves, hamstrings, glutes, multifidus, external obliques, erector spine muscles, trapezius, and the posterior deltoids. According to the experts at Sohofitnesslab, the most common issue that lifters tend to see are weak glutes and poor hip movement - things that can be improved with a movement like a deadlift. They also go on to say that it tends to correct certain postural issues that come about with our everyday lives. We tend to spend a great deal of time sitting down or in otherwise sedentary positions - this can result in our becoming quad dominant and developing issues in our control over our postural muscles. Not using our posterior chain is what gives us that hunched, leaning posture, which is something that can be improved with consistent proper weighted deadlifting.

5. Builds an amazing back

I can speak for this myself. While my back isn’t the biggest thing in the world, I can’t begin to tell you how much bigger my back has gotten from doing deadlifts as opposed to doing things like lat pulldowns or barbell rows. But enough about me, if we look at any of the best deadlifters one thing you’ll notice is that each of these lifters has super huge, crazy looking lats and some width on them that was out of this world. If you see a heavy powerlifter who watches his physique, someone like Dan Green, you’ll even notice that his back is just tremendously huge. I can honestly say that any deadlift focused lifter I’ve seen has a huge back, even if it isn’t a naturally crazy huge person.

6. Has a great carryover to everyday life

The deadlift is a full body movement, which allows us to go a bit heavier than with other, more focused movements like bicep curls or tricep extensions. You’ll find, once you are able to lift insane amounts of weight in a movement like a deadlift that you’ve become an overall stronger person. You’ll find that your body is able to do things that you simply weren't able to do. I’m not saying that you’ll become some type of superhuman but your resting strength level (as with any strength training) will become much greater than it was before you started performing these movements.

Things like insane grip strength and improved CNS control are of the things that you’ll notice. I mean, after I started doing strength training and explosive movements like the deadlift I developed resting strength out of this world. I was just blowing through doors and breaking everything and it was all by mistake. I also got really, really good at holding groceries.

7. Great for preventing injury

When I first started deadlifting the strain that people saw on my face signaled to them that I was going to hurt myself. I mean, the first things I hear when I ask most people if they deadlift is that it puts too much strain on their back or they don’t have the back for it. What I want to say to them is that they don't have the back for it because they: 1. don’t deadlift and 2. may be doing the deadlift with terrible form.

According to a few leading physicians, the cause for injury in many lifter’s bodies is an imbalance in muscle strength. If your glutes aren’t firing off when you deadlift and you’re forced to overcompensate with the hamstrings you’re very likely to pull a hamstring. However, performing the deadlift is what will show you those muscle imbalances. If your hamstrings are overcompensating you will be forced to feel it and correct it before you make any real progress.

*Check out this article if you're interested in seeing other preventative measures you can take to avoid injuries.

8. Great if you don’t like wasting time

This one is simple really. The deadlift is a compound exercise that works the entire posterior chain. It uses the entirety of the back as well which basically means that you don’t have to spend all day in the gym performing 10-12 different movements (this is way too much work for one gym session and I’m exaggerating a bit). If you do a few sets of heavy deadlifts on top of a few assistance exercises you will get what you need done done. There’s no need for excess work, just get what you need to stimulate muscle growth and then get out of the gym.

9. It’s not hard to add to your workout

It’s actually not very difficult to add some heavy deadlifts to a back workout. For me, a heavy deadlift session simply looks like 3 sets of 5 reps (with relatively heavy weight) and 2-3 assistance movements with 2 sets of high reps. It doesn’t have to be too difficult to add a compound movement like this to a workout mainly because it can make up the meat of the workout. On top of that you don’t have to only do deadlifts with a barbell, there are a bunch of different variations that you can engage in. For instance, when I was younger and didn’t have regular access to a gym to do deadlifts in I just purchased some dumbbells, loaded them up and performed them with them. That worked for me. There are also kettlebell deadlifts which work wonders for the core and the posterior chain as well.

10. Your core will feel like a brick

Stan Efferding also said this best, “Nothing works the core like squats and deadlifts”. The only reason why the majority of powerlifters have cores that look to be out of shape is because of all the excess calories they take in. Once you see one of these 300 + powerlifters slim down I’m sure you’ll notice the insanely powerful core muscles the lifter has. I mean, take a look at the world’s best deadlifter and WSM winner Eddie Hall. This guy has been slimming down lately after being over 360 pounds and his core is something that looks like it will do damage to a guy’s fist if he punches it.

11. Your hamstrings get crazy strong

While the deadlift is generally praised for giving lifters some insane back and grip strength it also places quite a bit of strain on a lifters hamstrings. I will not lie to you guys on this, before I started deadlifts my hamstrings were complete s***. I mean, I never, ever touched them. After incorporating deadlifts into my routine I noticed that I was finally feeling the burn in my hamstrings. Strong hamstrings lead to improved running, jumping, and explosiveness in a variety of sports.

12. The stronger your deadlift the more respect you get

Now I have to admit that this is more of a competitive lifter and guy thing. There’s no respect like the respect you get after going in the gym and deadlifting 2 -3x your body weight with little to no effort. I mean seriously, the guy who deadlifts, benches, squats the most weight is almost like the king of the gym.

*Does this mean that this should be your goal when you go in the gym? No. If you don’t have proper form or really know how to deadlift you should start out small and figure out the correct pattern for your body to move in to perform the deadlift correctly.

*Make sure to set realistic goals, too. This article goes into depth about that subject.

13. Your grip strength will be out of this world

Do you remember me saying that the deadlift improved our resting strength levels? I also mentioned that deadlifting gave a competitive edge in the sport of Grocery Bag Holding. Why? Because it really did. I mean I got to the point where I could hold around 7-8 full grocery bags in one hand with no problem. Think about it though. Once you’re deadlifting around 400 lbs with the double overhand grip you’re basically able to hold 200 pounds in each hand with no problem. That’s no small feat. Even if you’re deadlifting with a reverse grip you’ll be working your forearm muscles and will develop some insane grip strength.

14. Way more than 1 way to do it

There are literally tons of ways to do the deadlift. We have sumo, Romanian, deficit, trap bar, etc. Each of these different types of deadlift has its own athletic carryover as well. For instance, the purpose of the Romanian deadlift is to put greater emphasis on the hamstrings while rack pulls are meant to keep the tension mainly on the back and not the legs (at least that’s what I’ve found). It’s the reason why you’re able to lift so much more weight with a rack pull than with an off the floor deadlift.

15. They even strengthen our bones

The interesting thing about the deadlift is it’s known to improve overall bone density and strength. According to a study on Futurity,

“Bone mass of the whole body and lumbar spine significantly increased after six months of completing the weight-lifting or jumping programs, and this increase was maintained at 12 months. Hip-bone density only increased among those who completed the weight-lifting program.”

This was a weightlifting program that focused entirely on the deadlift and other heavy compound movements.

16. It increases hormone production

There have been studies done stating that performing heavy deadlifts can have a very positive (an occasionally negative) effect on hormones that we naturally produce. A few of the hormones that have been shown to have a positive correlation with heavy deadlifts are Growth Hormone, Cortisol, and Testosterone. Each of these different hormones performs different functions as well.

Growth Hormone is the hormone necessary for repairing muscle tissue, keeping bones dense, growing muscle, etc. It's produced in the pituitary gland and has been said to increase production even more if rest periods are kept to under 90 seconds. *this has never been proven however and should be taken with a grain of salt.

Cortisol is basically the stress hormone and can be considered a catabolic one as well. Now, it allows us to basically turn tissue into energy and can be considered detrimental simply because of the fact that it can tear down muscle tissue. This is yet another hormone that can be affected by shortening rest periods.

Everyone wants more testosterone, right? Testosterone is an anabolic hormone and is one that is found in higher quantities in males than it is in women(studies show this). It aids in muscle repair, growth, etc,

17. They Provide Improved Cardio

If you perform the deadlift with enough intensity (weight) you'll allow your body to improve cardiovascular health. What does this mean? Cardiovascular health is the health of both your heart and it's corresponding blood vessels. Improved cardiovascular health lowers your chances of having a stroke or getting heart disease.

18. It Isn't A Difficult Exercise To Do

While people may make it seem like deadlifting is a complicated movement to perform, it isn't. It's actually fairly straightforward.

All you do is walk up to the bar, keeping the feet a little less than shoulder-width apart (or in whatever placement feels natural). You then bend up and grab the bar, while keeping the spine neutral (or straight).Then sit back a bit, while keeping the hips slightly higher than the knees (you're not squatting the weight up). Then, stand up while holding on to the bar.

Video on how to perform the deadlift. Video credits go to Men's Health.

19. Aids in Seniors Recovering Mobility

A major benefit of the deadlift is that it helps keep the body functional, lean, and strong. Regardless of age.

It doesn't matter if you're 50 or 60, one never gets too old to do the deadlift. If you think that being over the age of 70 disqualifies you from being able to deadlift you are sorely mistaken.

Video of older person deadlifting. Video credits to Clint Poore.

20. Improves Posture

If you started working out as a way to improve your posture, then adding the deadlift to your workout program will probably help.

The deadlift targets muscles in the posterior chain and such will improve your stability and core strength, enabling you to be better at keeping the back straight during daily activities of living.

The core plays an important role in helping one maintain their posture and balance during everyday activities. Meaning that it will help one walk taller, with more confidence, and better posture.

Conclusion

Now if that’s not enough evidence that the deadlift is almost like the ultimate exercise I don’t know what will convince you. Now don’t take my word for it. I mean go and perform the deadlift yourself. I advise you to just start with the bar and work your way up to heavier weights. While the tips on this list focus more on strength gains and what happens after you’ve already made those strength gains, it’s much more important for you to be safe and as healthy as possible.

To recap this is what this article talked about: