Can You Squat And Deadlift On The Same Day? (Here’s the Truth…!)

Planning your workout and confused about whether you can do squats and deadlifts on the same day?

If you are confused about this, you’re probably not a beginner at the gym. And anyone acquainted with weight lifting knows that squatting and deadlifting are the two biggest training you are likely to do with a barbell.

Squats and deadlifts are the two most demanding exercises. They target and train the same muscle groups, requiring a lot of strength, neuromuscular coordination, and power generation. Most pro weightlifters choose to do squat and deadlift same day, but can you do it, too?

In this article, we will answer all your queries related to squatting and deadlifting on the same day. We will cover the benefits and risks associated with the same. And we will also help you make the most out of squatting and deadlifting on the same day. Keep reading to plan your workout effectively.

Can You Squat And Deadlift On The Same Day?

Yes, you can squat and deadlift on the same day, provided you make the right moves, have enough lifting experience and follows a protein rich calorie surplus diet.

Squat and deadlift are two of the heavier lower body exercises. Both these exercises target the same muscles and are equally taxing on the body, which is why people get confused about whether they can practice both.

Most people will feel too tired to perform both of these workouts together, especially when they are not too pro at weightlifting.

When a lifter splits squatting and deadlifting into two different days, they feel less tired compared to performing both these exercises on the same day. But this doesn’t mean you cannot challenge your body.

If you aim to push your limits, you should try doing these exercises on the same day. However, you need to be careful about a few aspects we will discuss further in this article. Most people include both these workouts in a single day and then mess it up. We’ll make sure you aren’t one of them.

4 Benefits Of Doing Squats And Deadlift On The Same Day

Squatting and deadlifting on the same day is the best workout you can do for yourself. This kind of workout routine has multiple benefits for your body. Let’s study these advantages in detail.

Exposes body weakness

The most common mistake athletes, sportspersons, or fitness enthusiasts make is focusing on their strengths and ignoring their weaknesses. However, little do they know that knowing and working on their weaknesses is a great way to improve one’s performance.

Similarly, when you perform squats and deadlifts on the same day, it becomes easier to spot the relative weakness because there is no big gap between the exercises.

In contrast, planning these exercises on different days makes it fairly difficult to access the one you aren’t performing better at. Trainers believe performing deadlifts after squats is a great way to detect what you need to work on, besides giving you impactful full-body training.

Putting both these exercises on the same workout session will help you look for the signs of technical breakdown, revealing the inefficiency in your workout.

Raised muscle activation

Squats are one of the most efficient workouts for your nervous system as it significantly strengthens your lower body and core.

On the other hand, deadlifts also work somewhat the same, except they also target muscles from your upper body. So, if you are aiming to work on muscle growth, the combination of squats and deadlifts is absolutely perfect.

Time-efficient

Performing squats and deadlifts on the same day saves you warm-up time. Squatting and deadlifting target the same muscle groups, which takes 15-20 minutes of warm-up.

Both these exercises require 15-20 minutes of warm-up time, but if you are performing both workouts on the same day, you save this time. In addition, the time you save on this warm-up can be invested in other exercises.

Support Hypertrophy

The process of muscle growth or muscle building is called hypertrophy. Muscle building is a two-step process that involves muscle breakdown followed by muscle repair.

Muscle growth occurs after muscle repair; for repair, the muscle must break down first.

Heavy workouts like squatting and deadlifting lead to microscopic muscle damage, causing small tears in the fibers. This damage signals the body to rush resources to repair the damage.

The body sends amino acids (the building blocks of protein) and other nutrients for muscle protein synthesis, which involves assembling new proteins from amino acids and using the same to repair muscle damage. 

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4 Risks Of Doing Squats And Deadlift On The Same Day

When you do two important exercises targeting the same muscles on the same day, your body is exposed to potential risks.

Performing these two titans of strength back to back puts a lot of strain on your body, which could also lead to several risks. So, to keep you informed, we have highlighted a few common potential risks that you can avoid with patience, dedication, and thoughtfulness.

Increased risk of injury

Excess strain on the body is the most common risk involved in doing squats and deadlifts on the same day. If you are not a pro and your body is not used to such a rigorous exercise routine, you might feel too exhausted after your workout session.

Squatting and deadlifting involve an extensive range of motion through the glutes, lower back, and legs that involve muscles like the hamstring, quads, and calves. Performing these exercises on the same day is excessively taxing on tendons, muscles, and ligaments of the lower body and back.

Squats and deadlifts are heavy exercises, and your body needs proper rest after a tiring session. However, when you perform these movements on the same day, your body doesn’t gets enough time to rest between sets.

Therefore, it is important that you act keeping in mind your body’s strength and weakness. This will help avoid the risk of injury during the workout.

Fatigue

Scheduling squats and deadlifts on the same day is exhausting and taxing from a mental, physical and neuromuscular perspective. And, if you overwork your neuromuscular system, you can experience central nervous system fatigue, including flu-like symptoms like body pain and fever.

Squats and deadlifts target the same muscle group, and hence, your body would take a while to recover from the fatigue.

But, as they say, no pain means no gain. Therefore, a lot of fitness enthusiasts recommended including squats and deadlifts on the same day for maximum benefits.

Strain in your posterior chain

As we already mentioned earlier, scheduling squats and deadlifts put a lot of strain on your body, especially your posterior chain.

Squats and deadlifts are individually exhausting, and when you combine both these exercises on the same day, you put double the strain on your body. Therefore, to avoid such stress, make sure to take proper breaks between the sets.

Reduced performance

You should do squats and deadlifts on the same day only if your body is ready to take this amount of strain. If you are a beginner, you should not force yourself to do these exercises on the same day until your body feels ready to amp up.

Beginners may use lighter weights or perform less volume while doing both exercises on the same day, reducing their potential gains.

Should You Squat And Deadlift On The Same Day?

We have already answered the question of whether you can do squats and deadlifts on the same day, but now we will talk about whether you should do both exercises on the same day.

The answer remains a yes. You should do squats and deadlifts on the same day, provided your body is prepared for it.

If you have at least six months of experience in weight lifting, you can perform squats and deadlifts on the same day. A good full-body workout program should cover a few basic movements that include;

• Upper body pushing
• Upper body pulling
• Lower body knee-dominant
• Lower body hip-dominant

And, when you do squats and deadlifts on the same day, you can easily cover all these movements and see an impressive impact on your body.

You should definitely do squats and deadlifts on the same day to cover the majority of muscles in your body.

Most importantly, if you are performing squats and deadlifts on the same day, ensure using weights that you can lift safely with proper techniques for all your sets. On the other hand, if you feel the weights are exceeding your limits, try reducing the number of sets or reps you do.

Besides, you should also focus on recovering your muscles after the workout by consuming plenty of protein, carbs, and calories to speed up the recovery process. In addition, you should take a break of 72 hours before you hit on the same muscles again.

How To Make Most Out Of Squatting And Deadlifting On The Same Day?

Performing squats and deadlifts on the same day requires some serious planning. Most importantly, you should perform these exercises together only under expert supervision to avoid potential risks.

Let’s now learn how to make the most out of squatting and deadlifting on the same day.

Take a look at these guidelines for maximum benefits:

• Squat high intensity, low volume. Deadlift high intensity, low volume.
• Squat high intensity, low volume. Deadlift moderate intensity, high volume.
• Squat moderate intensity, high volume. Deadlift low intensity, low volume.
• Squat moderate intensity, moderate volume. Deadlift moderate intensity, moderate volume.
• Squat low intensity, low volume. Deadlift moderate intensity, high volume.
• Deadlift high intensity, low volume. Squat moderate intensity, low volume.
• Deadlift moderate intensity, high volume. Squat moderate intensity, low volume.
• Deadlift moderate intensity, moderate volume. Squat moderate intensity, moderate volume.
• Deadlift low intensity, low volume. Squat moderate intensity, high volume.

As mentioned in these guidelines, you can capably perform higher intensities and volumes of deadlifts after squatting, but this is not the case when you deadlift first.

Should I Do Deadlifts or Squats First?

Squatting before deadlifting is highly recommended because the carryover of fatigue worsens when you deadlift first.

People who plan to do squats and deadlifts same day often need clarification about which exercise to perform first. People who have worked on squats and deadlifts know that the deadlift exhausts the muscles needed in squats, but the squat might not do the same to the muscles used in deadlifts.

Deadlifts make it challenging to perform any other exercise after as they use the hip and back, making them extremely tired. Whereas in squats, you primarily use the muscles of the thighs, and your hip and back don’t get exhausted.

Deadlifts are more taxing on your body as compared to squats. Therefore, you should prefer performing squats before deadlifts for optimum benefits.

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Wrapping Up

Squatting and deadlifting on the same day will make your day incredibly productive at the gym. However, as already discussed above, you need to be excessively careful to avoid potential risks.

Initially, this style of training may feel overly exhausting, but if you remain patient and consistent, you’ll experience impressive results in no time.

Most importantly, you should put squats before deadlifts. Gradually build up your volume and intensity, and make sure to balance your workload and manage fatigue with variations in intensity.

Most experts recommend that you also take an exercise or two between the squats and deadlifts to ensure proper rest time for the muscles.