There are tons of different ways to work out, but deadlifts remain one of the most simple, the most badass, and the most intense. Deadlifts can change your body and lead to some serious physical improvements – as long as you’re doing them right.
In this article, we’re going to explain how deadlifts can change your body. Deadlift benefits not only impact your muscle tone but your hormonal health as well. Learning all about deadlifts will help you maximize your gains.
What Will I Learn?
- Benefits of Deadlifts for Men
- What Are The Types of Deadlifts
- How Deadlifts Increase Testosterone And Change Your Body
Benefits of Deadlifts for Men
Benefits do more than just get you jacked (though they’re great at doing that, too). There are more than a dozen benefits of deadlifts, many of which are backed by science and others which thousands of people will attest to.
Here are a few of the best deadlift benefits.
Functional
Deadlifts are one of the most functional exercises that you can do. It’s one of the best ways that you can train yourself to do the simplest of things: pick something heavy up off the ground. This is a very basic skill but it’s something that everyone is going to need to do, probably many times throughout the course of their lives.
Builds Your Glutes
One of the muscles targeted by the deadlift are your glutes. Do a few deadlifts every couple of days and you’ll be packing some rock-solid glutes in no time. This will help you become stronger, can prevent pain, and will improve your balance
Boost Your Hormonal Health
Deadlift benefits work quite a few different muscles. This is important to know because this causes a hormonal reaction in the body. When a lot of different muscles are activated at once, the body starts to produce more testosterone and human growth hormone to compensate.
Decreased Fat
If you’re hoping to shed fat, then deadlifts are one of the best exercises for you. Because of the huge hormonal surge that you’ll experience when using deadlifts, your body will start to burn fat at a quicker rate.
Injury Resistance
Deadlifts train a huge number of different muscles, such as your lats, your traps, and your glutes. This makes you stronger all around and will make you much less likely to become injured.
Deadlifts are also known to be useful for helping to prevent back injury. Since back injuries are one of the most common causes of disability, it’s a pretty good idea to make sure that your back is solid enough that you won’t pull it out.
Improved Core Strength
Sure, crunches work your core – but so do deadlifts, and they’re also working the rest of your body. Improved core strength means that you’ll be able to move heavier weights without injuring yourself. You’ll also be able to remain balanced and you’ll be able to perform a wider range of exercises.
Many people think the ‘core’ is just the abdominal muscles, but it’s much more than that. The spine, the lower back, the abs and pretty much any muscle in that region composes the core. Deadlifts strengthen them all.
Improved Grip
Another thing that deadlifts will do is improve your grip. The grip is important: it dictates how much stuff you can carry. A strong grip is great, and it’s helpful for more than just opening a jar for your girlfriend.
The stronger your grip, the better you’ll be able to perform lifts and pull-ups/chin-ups.
Improved Posture
Improved core strength, strong glutes, and strong hamstrings are all key for improving your posture. Deadlifts improve all of these areas and are key for anyone hoping to improve their posture.
Posture is important for a lot of reasons. If you don’t have good posture, you may experience some issues later in life. Chronic bad posture can also lead you to develop bad habits with working out, which can lead to injury.
Confidence
Deadlifts will make you bigger, stronger, and more capable. No matter how you look at it, these are great things and you’ll start to feel more like an alpha male. This confidence will spill over into all areas of your life, making you more comfortable talking to women, seizing opportunities, and standing up for yourself.
Increased Bone Health
Another thing that deadlifts can do is boost the strength of your bones. One of the reasons for this is because of the way that they increase your muscle strength and testosterone levels. Both of these things are important for preventing bone diseases, and testosterone treatment has even been used to increase bone density and strength in older men.
What Are The Types of Deadlifts
If you think deadlifts are all the same, then think again. There are quite a few different deadlifts, and each one works your body a bit differently.
While normal deadlifts are fantastic and still provide a huge handful of benefits, there’s no harm in switching it up once in a while. Regularly engaging in a variety of different deadlifts is one of the best ways to make sure that you work out your whole body.
Sumo Deadlifts
If you’ve done sumo squats, then you’re already familiar with the basics of sumo deadlifts. All you really need to do is place your feet wider apart, keep your grip on the inside of your feet.
This decreases your range of motion and allows you to lift heavier weights. The focus during sumo deadlift is on the quads, hamstrings, and glute muscles.
It’s incredibly important during a sumo deadlift to make sure that you’re not lifting any weight with your back. Instead, focus on your legs.
Chains and Bands Deadlifts
Chains and bands deadlifts are among the most difficult and some of the most satisfying to complete. You have to use bands and chains to increase tension and add extra weight at the top of the deadlift.
When you do this, you are forced to focus on the lock-out position. This puts a ton of stress on your core and makes this one of the toughest deadlifts around.
At the top of the motion, when the chains have completely been lifted off the ground, and the bands are fully stretched, you will deal with the greatest amount of tension. This is the hardest part of the rep.
After this, the rep gets easier as the tension is reduced once you begin to lower the weight.
One of the best benefits of doing chains and bands deadlifts is the fact that it improves core stability. This makes it seem a lot easier, or at least more balanced when you’re doing any other form of deadlifts.
Snatch Grip Deadlifts
Snatch grip deadlifts are another intense form of deadlift – they’re actually an Olympic exercise. You need to use a wide grip, which puts more focus on your hamstrings.
Be sure not to push yourself too hard when you’re doing a snatch grip deadlift. If you do, you might pull out your back and cause a serious injury.
The Romanian Deadlift
The Romanian deadlift is also called the stiffed leg deadlift, and for good reason. These lifts focus on your hamstrings and are generally considered to be a great exercise to include on leg day. However, because of this, it could be a good idea to practice other lifts on other days.
During a Romanian deadlift, you lower the barbell by pushing your hips back. Make sure that your back remains straight while stiffening your legs. Put all your concentration on your hamstrings.
Deficit Deadlifts
Deficit deadlifts are great for improving your mobility, strength, and range. The main difference between a deficit deadlift and a regular deadlift is that you stand on an elevated platform when you’re doing a deficit deadlift.
These are a great leg exercise, but it’s important to note that you need to already have pretty strong legs if you’re going to do these successfully.
How Deadlifts Increase Testosterone And Change Your Body
So, how exactly do deadlifts change your body?
You probably already know the basics of muscle building. When you work a muscle beyond its limit, it develops small tears. These tears are patched up by the body, leading to larger and stronger muscle tissue.
The more often you work out, the more often you tear your muscle tissue and the more your body repairs it. This leads to bulkier, stronger, and more toned muscles.
But that’s not it. Deadlifts change your hormonal health, and this leads to a number of other changes in your body.
Deadlifts Increase Testosterone
Testosterone is generally considered to be the ‘manliness’ hormone. It’s responsible for our muscle growth, energy levels, and strength. People with more testosterone tend to be able to stack on the pounds much easier, work out for longer, and heal quicker. They also have higher libidos.
Strength training is one of the best ways to increase your testosterone levels. Heavy deadlifts increase testosterone, as heavy deadlifts are among the most intense forms of strength training. Doing heavy deadlifts (meaning that you’re working with 75% of your total, one-rep max) with short rest periods will stimulate your T levels.
Doing high-rep sets is great for building muscle tone and durability, but it doesn’t do a lot for your overall testosterone levels.
Deadlifts Boost Human Growth Hormone
Human growth hormone, or HGH, is a hormone that your pituitary gland produces. As the name implies, HGH is important for all of the functions related to our growth: tissue health, bone strength, muscle gains, and fat loss.
Strength training programs like heavy deadlifting help to improve growth hormone production. Just as if you were trying to boost testosterone, make sure to only engage in short rest periods of less than 90 seconds.
However, make sure that you don’t push yourself beyond your limits and injure yourself. Make sure that you’re rested enough before trying to do your second set.
Cortisol
There are two hormones in our body that bodybuilders and athletes should be aware of. The first, testosterone, is anabolic: it helps the body build muscle. Cortisol is a catabolic hormone, which has the opposite effect: it consumes your muscle tissue, turning it into energy.
This can be good in an extreme situation where you’re starving, but if you’re trying to put on pounds, you want less cortisol.
Cortisol tends to rise if you’re waiting too long in between sets at the gym. That’s one of the reasons that you shouldn’t rest for longer than 90 seconds. Extreme overtraining also produces more cortisol as the body begins to try to use muscle as an extra energy source.
Conclusion
Deadlifts are one of the best exercises that you can do. They’re versatile and they work a wide variety of different muscles.
It’s not just your muscle tissue that gets a workout when you do deadlifts, though: your whole body sees an improvement. Deadlifts help to enhance levels of testosterone and human growth hormone, both of which are important for muscle growth and overall health.
There are lots of different types of deadlifts, but they can all be utilized to boost T levels and HGH. As long as you’re doing heavy deadlifts and not resting too much in between sets, then you’ll be able to maximize your hormonal health.
