Squats or Deadlifts

Hi everyone,

I've recently joined the site to try increase my motivation and keep an eye on what I'm eating. So far it seems great - lots of information and the food logs are really helping me steer away from the nasties.

Anyway, my question is to any keen weight trainers out there. I've been training with weights for a while now and after a long time of four days splits I've discovered that a two day split seems to work best for me. My split is simple - upper body, lower body, rest, rinse and repeat.

With this in mind which would you perform first on a leg day, squats or deadlifts?

At present I've been alternating which I start with but I am looking to add more bulk to my thighs.

i tend to do squats first with my trainer albeit im not sure if this is for a reason. i tend to do deadlifts in between arm exercises to give me a break. however, i do notice on days when i am tired or havent had enough water or food (i am hypoglcymic at times) that i get dizzy in which case deadlifts would come first ;)

In my head they use the same muscles so I'm not sure if doing one will affect the other.  I'm considering dropping one of them and maybe cycling every 4 weeks or so.

I will need to read up a little more I think!

I don't do those on the same day currently, but when I did the squats came first.  I don't know about you guys, but squats tear up my legs more than deadlifts. I want to have all that initial energy for them

Yup, deadlifts last - you need more mental focus and energy to do squats right. And deadlifts are intensely draining on your nervous system, so if you put them first, you can't (safely) hande as much weight on your squats as you normally would.

 Sometimes there's reasons to change it up a bit and try doing things in a new order just to see what happens, but I think you'll find that doing it in the conventional order will give you the better results.

I went to a new chiropractor, and besides telling me that I had food allergies, hypothyroid, was going to get cancer from my birth control AND the water supply, should give up all grain, that the only cardio I need is 15min on a bike 3/week (and that elliptical is BAD), and, at my starting weight must have been "a little porker"....

said to NEVER do squats because they tear up your knees.  Thoughts?

(Clearly, this man is one step away from the loonie bin - kind of a hippie hypochondriac with theories about everything - but he might help my back, so as long as he keeps working on it, I can ignore whatever craziness he spews. But I wasn't sure how to take the advice on squats.)

um, your chiropractor is a numbskull. You actually can tear up your knees if you're doing squats wrong, but a good squat will keep your lower body nice and healthy!

I alternate squat and deadlift exercises, and have a rest day between them.  I do them first before my other exercises.  Also important if you do them first is to do a warm up with them.  Say use like 50% of the weight for a rep just to get your body warmed up.

As Dan John so succintly put it:

Squats don't hurt the knees, but what you're doing isn't squatting.

Form is important, but once you do it right...

"Squats, when performed correctly and with appropriate supervision, are not only safe, but may be a significant deterrent to knee injuries."
- http://www.exrx.net/Kinesiology/Squats.html

That squats hurt the knees is a myth.

melkor and spiro - thanks. I found the stumptuous article after posting. Looks like I have to take what he says about squats with the same grain of salt that I took the rest of his ramblings.

maybe squats give you cancer too...

Thanks Melkor,

Superb squating article!

If you are doing them in the same workout, always squat first.  The amount of neurological coordination they take, and how fatigued your nervous system is, afterwards.  Deadlifts don't take near as much. 

call me kooky, but i think squats fix knees. they fixed mine anyway.

torn pcl and bruised tendon on the right... and years of being a lazy tubby slug had both my knees achy... until i started a squat regime. using cardio 30 minutes 3 times a week (including the elliptical and a rowing machine) and i must say i have never felt better. my knees never give out anymore. the never ache. i have full range of motion.

i vote: switch chiropractors. actually, i vote: see a registered massage therapist instead.

p.s. on the "vile" elliptical i never get numb feet, sore knees, aching back, hair on my hands or whatever others complain of... i tend to think bad form is rampant even outside of squats!

My current routine calls for deadlifts first, I'm not sure of the reasoning, but it's been working so far.