So, um, I'm certain you all will know this ...

[resolute]

What's the difference between a squat and a deadlift? Actually, practically, when I am at the Y, what should I be doing differently between them?

Comments

[thalia]

Squat is where you have the barbell on your shoulders, you go down into a sitting position and stand back up. With better form than that, but you know what I mean.

For the bent-legged deadlift, the barbell starts on the floor. You start in a squatting position and grasp the barbell, usually with your hands outside your legs. You push through your legs and stand up; when you finish you're upright and holding the barbell in front of you at crotch level. Then you squat back down so the barbell is back on the ground.

...and it just occurred to me that you probably know that. In my experience, the way the legs work with the two exercises is more or less the same. It feels different starting from the squatting position instead of starting from upright, and, of course, the upper body is leaned differently, which makes the whole thing feel different. But in both exercises, when I'm pushing up, I'm mostly pushing through the heels and trying to drive the barbell upwards using the quads, hamstrings and glutes. I find that BLDLs hit my hammies and glutes more, while squats hit my quads more, but I've also heard people say the exact opposite.

Does that help answer your question?

I'm sure there are a bunch of YouTube videos of both exercises; I'm too lazy to find links. You might also want to search stumptuous.com.

[cereta]

Basically, as I understand it, a squat, you start from standing up (holding the weight or not), and a deadlift (pretty much always holding a weight), you start from squatting down, or rather, reaching down to get the weight.

[rydra_wong]

Well, it gets clearer with barbells, because with a squat, the bar will be on top of you (on your shoulders, front or back) and with a deadlift, the bar is underneath you. So it's usually possible to tell which one you're doing. *g*

That's not very helpful with dumbbells, of course ...

As I understand it, with squats the primary focus of the movement is in the front of your thighs (though the entire body gets involved, in both exercises). The action is the bend in your knees and hips, so you go all the way down until your thighs and calves are as close as possible, then push all the way back up again.

With deadlifts, it's all about the "posterior chain" -- back, glutes, hamstrings. You're trying to move the weight from a "dead stop" on the floor. You bend your knees enough to grab the weight (ETA: WITHOUT ROUNDING YOUR BACK)-- you don't have to squat all the way down -- and then the action is pulling with all of the muscles down the back of your body to straighten yourself up with the weight.

There's some overlap, because they work a lot of the same muscles, particularly in the legs and back, but ideally they should be different movements.

Informative linkage:

http://gubernatrix.co.uk/2008/01/deadlift/
http://gubernatrix.co.uk/category/technique/squat/
http://www.stumptuous.com/lurn-to-squat-good-e-zy
http://www.stumptuous.com/dork-diva-squat

Just for extra confusion, there's the "sumo deadlift", where you start the deadlift in a different, more squat-like position, and it feels like almost a hybrid between a deadlift and a squat.

Um. I suggest not even trying to deal with that right now. Unless it seems like fun.

[resolute]

Ohhhh, okay, I see a vast part of my personal confusion. I am not up to doing these with weight all the time. So, with no weights, what's the difference between a squat and a deadlift?