Deadlift vs. Squat: Which Is Better?

YOU HAVE TO make one major decision when planning for your lower body day workout: should you squat or deadlift?

Both the back squat and the barbell deadlift are renowned for their ability to build lower body strength and size; they’re both compound lifts, so they recruit multiple muscle groups. You can load them with lots of weight—for most people, more than nearly any other exercise you can do in the gym. Both deserve a place in your routine.

“Welcome to the gym equivalent of Godzilla vs. King Kong,” says Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S., MH fitness director. “The reality is, both of these movements sit atop of the exercise food chain as moves that challenge multiple large lower body muscle groups, and let us move major weight.”

Here’s how you should prioritize one over the other when you don’t have time for both.

Squats vs. Deadlift: Which Lift to Pick

“In the long term, for strength and physique balance, you’ll want to master and dominate both of these moves,” Samuel says. “But how you prioritize them in your program will change based on your goals and other factors.”

Both the squat and the deadlift forge lower body strength, but they target different muscle groups. Squats are a knee-dominant movement, so they require more quad activation. Deadlifts are hip-dominant, so they hammer the glutes and hamstrings more. These might change slightly based on the variation of the exercise you do (more on that later), but generally, think quads with squats, and glutes and hamstrings with deadlifts.

Who Should Prioritize Deadlifts

If your goal is glute, hamstring, and back gains, the deadlift should take the top spot. Yes, the squat utilizes these muscle groups too, but the deadlift places more of an emphasis through the posterior chain than the squat does.

If your goal is to improve athleticism, the deadlift strengthens muscles that work in the hip extension mechanics that power movements like running and jumping.

The deadlift also generally has more carryover into “real-life” movements, too. Think about how often you bend over to pick up something heavy off the ground, like your groceries. The deadlift trains us for more day-to-day actions you wouldn’t typically think of as exertions of strength.

Who Should Prioritize Back Squats

If you have a small window of time in the gym but you want to get better at both exercises, prioritize the squat. The squat trains the same muscles you use in the deadlift, but through a greater range of motion, according to Samuel. The strength you build in a squat will carry over into the deadlift. The same will be true for carryover from a deadlift to a squat, but not to the same extent.

Squats will also be superior to the deadlift if your main muscle-building goal is to grow your quads. They’re one of the main movers of knee flexion and extension, which is the chief mechanic in squats.

Many Olympic lifts, like the power clean and snatch, originate in a squat. So if you’re looking to get better at these powerful movements, you’ll want to emphasize the squat in your routine.

How Squats and Deadlifts Are Similar

One thing is for sure: both the squat and deadlift are going to significantly improve your strength. With both exercises, “as long as you’re pushing yourself, you’re using nearly every muscle in your body,” Samuel says.

The heavy loading of your skeletal system in these exercises can also improve your bone density. Because of the intense need for back activation, that also means they’re heavily fatiguing on the central nervous system—meaning you’ll need to plan adequate rest time in between training sets.

How Squats and Deadlifts Are Different

The main difference between the squat and deadlift are the main movers of each lift (a.k.a. the muscle group that drives a majority of the exercise). This will depend on what variation of each exercise is being done, though—a sumo squat is going to utilize a few different muscles than a conventional stance, for example. For the sake of this discussion, let’s focus on the most prevalent variations of each movement: the conventional barbell deadlift and barbell back squat.

The barbell deadlift is a hip-dominant movement. The glutes and hamstrings are the main drivers in pushing to extend the hips. Your big back muscles (lats, rhomboids, and traps) also play a significant role, as you stabilize the spine through the movement.

The barbell back squat is a knee-dominant movement. Your quads, hip adductors, and glutes work together to extend the knees and the hips at the same time. Like the deadlift, your back muscles attribute to the movement as well—your low back extensors shorten at your extend through the hips, and your mid-back muscles work to stabilize the load.

Overall, Samuel emphasizes that this should not be a case of only doing one of these exercises on a regular basis. Your emphasis might be a matter of preference—but if you want to be truly strong, you’ll make time for both.