When Should I Do Deadlifts? Back Or Leg Day?

To be honest, it can vary on what your training goals are. Deadlifts has so many uses and so much variety can be introduce with the exercise. Many people ask whether to do them on back or leg day. Can you do them on both days? This depends largely on your training level and your ability to recuperate. Beginners will suffice from doing deadlifts one time a week as it will suck a lot out of you and will require the beginning trainer more rest then the advanced.

Photo By Muscle & Performance

More advanced trainers can benefit from deadlifting on both days as they have conditioned their body more efficiently from years of training with weights compared to the beginner. Now comes the question, what is best muscle group to use them with? Both are good, but I have found using deadlifts on only either back day or leg day and alternating each week. So if you perform deadlifts on back day, then next training session when you do legs, you include them. At least a 1 week in between should be good.

Since deadlifts do target the whole area of the body, you can specifically target the upper back portion by using rack deadlifts. Essentially you are taking the legs out of the movement and focusing more on pulling with your upper back. In this exercise you can add more weight than normal as you are starting from the middle portion of the exercise where you would be strongest compared to pulling off the floor. This is good to help build up your strength in this part of the movement when you perform it from the floor. Are they a true substitute for regular deads? No, but they can be supplemental to them.

As mentioned above, you use rack deadlifts on back day and use regular deadlifts from the floor on leg day if you prefer to do them twice a week or prefer to alternate them. As before, it depends on your training level.