[quote]Bricknyce wrote:
kylec72 wrote:
Rape Weight wrote:
LiveFromThe781 wrote:
when did deadlifting become a lower body exercise?
…
Yeah guys, why is it a lower body ME exercise at Westside??
Touche. But you can’t deny the back muscles are the primary movers for deadlifts, and in fairness there is a big difference between low intensity lat/upper back work and heavy bb rows.
I’m denying it because there is almost no movement at all at the shoulder, neck, and elbows. There is movement the knees, ankles, and hips, hence why it’s considered a lower-body exercise. The upper back and erectors work at stabilizers, not movers.
Bodybuilders usually perform deadlifts at the end of a back workout; athletes and powerlifters perform them on lower body days.
You can do deadlifts the day after an upper body workout. I’ve done it for years. I don’t see how one wouldn’t be able to. Of course, there is a drawback to doing so, but EVERY program has drawbacks. You will never be as fresh during a workout done the day after another one compared to one after a day off.
My max-effort lower-body day is done after a workout that looks like this:
- Speed bench press
- Rack lockouts or 3-,4-, or 5-board press.
- Dumbbell bench press variation
- Row variation
- Pushdowns
- External rotations[/quote]
You can retract your shoulders at the top of the lift for upper back emphasis.
You certainly don’t want to move your elbows, as they Should be locked out.
The lower-body parts move, yes, but I believe you interpreted my phrase “primary movers” differently than I intended. My intention was to state deadlifts produce the greatest amount of workload or development, however you wish to view it, in the back muscles of the posterior chain. If one were to strictly use deadlifts as their only leg exercise, their leg development would be minimal, but if you were to do the same hypothetical as the only back exercise, the person could still potentially achieve significant back development. As Live pointed out, this is why most people treat deadlifts as a back exercise.
This is the bodybuilding forum, and unless stated otherwise, we are led to presume the OP is looking for a setup most conducive to bodybuilding. Following up on that statement, it would be beneficial to retract the shoulders at the top of the deadlift in order to make the lift most effective for overall development.
For a powerlifter, though, and in particular the Westside protocol, I agree it may make the most sense to do deadlifts on lower-body/squat day. However, if you look at Matt Kroc, for instance, his setup places deadlifts as its own day separate from squats. http://www.elitefts.com/documents/kroc_files2.htm
I never said one couldn’t do deadlifts the day after upper body; in fact, I did the same setup for quite a while. Any program will have drawbacks, like you said, but one should always try to minimize them as much as possible. Avoiding heavy bb rows the day before deadlifts is, in my opinion, one such way of minimizing program drawbacks.