How should deadlifts affect your physique?

MaxMMA

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Was just tearing it up at the gym yesterday when I noticed something that I wanted to ask you swole sherbro members about. As I was working out, I noticed a very small guy load up the weights at the deadlift station. He could be no more than 130-135lbs tops, but if I had to guess his weight I would say 120-125lb. Anyway this kid starts slapping plates onto the bar and when its all said and done he was deadlifting 365lb, dude killed it.

My question is, how should I expect deadlifts to affect my physique? For a person that was deadlifting 365lb, he sure didn't look like he could pick that amount of weight up, and not because of how little he weighed, but because of his physique. He had zero muscle tone, just short and skinny. Pencil arms, pencil legs, narrow back. I don't get it. I would imagine that building up to a 365lb dead lift would make some significant changes in your overall muscle tone, especially for a guy of his size.

Any insights?
 
Itn all depends on leverages really, maybe he is built to deadlift. The record for guys his size is over 600lbs raw so there's that.
 
Size is dependent on Caloric intake and protein intake. It's also genetic. Strength and size don't always go hand in hand. If you train in hypertrophy style of 8-12 reps with moderate weight, you will put on more lean muscle mass, with some strength of course. But if you train in Powerlifter range Wich is Heavy ass weight for 1-4 reps you will build your CNS to move heavy weight.

You will gain size only if you increase caloric intake doing either hypertrophy or strength training. That 130LB dude must have been training for years but probably eats at maintance, making his muscles more dense but not larger
 
? He eats at maintance? What don't you get? You won't gain size if you don't eat in calories surplus. Your muscles can become more Dense, hard, strong, but not grow in size if you don't eat enough.
 
? He eats at maintance? What don't you get? You won't gain size if you don't eat in calories surplus. Your muscles can become more Dense, hard, strong, but not grow in size if you don't eat enough.
if the muscles grow more dense then they will be heavier.
 
if the muscles grow more dense then they will be heavier.
No. Density and weight are not the same thing. Before I started lifting my muscles we're squishy and fluffy. Then I started lifting but didn't increase my calories. So I got stronger, and my muscles became rock hard, but I gained zero weight or size.
 
No. Density and weight are not the same thing. Before I started lifting my muscles we're squishy and fluffy. Then I started lifting but didn't increase my calories. So I got stronger, and my muscles became rock hard, but I gained zero weight or size.
holy fuck me in the goatass you are retarded..
 
Ok? Good counter argument. Super intelligent.
If density increases but size remains equal then mass increases.

Also, your anecdote about transforming from "squishy and fluffy" to "rock hard" is pretty irrelevant. Congratulations on turning it around though.
 
What that's almost 5x BW are you sure?

Richard Hawthorne is a beast.. he competes at 132. Here he is doing 610 for multiple reps. Looks like he's in a suit for this though



He is 5'3". I think his best in competition numbers back in 2011 before he stopped competing were a 562lb squat, 601lb deadlift and 308lb bench raw.
 
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No. Density and weight are not the same thing. Before I started lifting my muscles we're squishy and fluffy. Then I started lifting but didn't increase my calories. So I got stronger, and my muscles became rock hard, but I gained zero weight or size.

I don't think that is what is happening.

AFAIK when you get stronger without gaining size it's because of improved technique, neural efficiency/mootor neurone recruitment, inter-muscualr and intra-muscular coordination, rate coding, stuff like that. It's not that your muscles become more dense. The hardness is tonus- passive muscular activation. It's quite possible that even though you think you were eating at maintenance you still improved your body composition as well- lost some fat and gained some muscle, just from being a little over maintenance. It's incredibly hard to track calorie consumption and expenditure accurately.

Anyway, same size and more density does mean more mass- that mass would have to come from somewhere.
 
What that's almost 5x BW are you sure?
Theres a handful of dudes at the 132lb class that can do low 600s raw with no straps/suit.

The strongest dude i ever meet did 3 reps of 600 and he weighted about 10-15bs lower than me (I weight 160). He multiple repped 4x his body-weight ! (guys was a monster )
 
I don't know much about guys that size, but 365 deadlift isn't that much. You could probably get a random fat guy off the street and he could lift about a hundred pounds less than that. In 6 months, he could be over that. Maybe that weight is really impressive and represents a lot of hard work for someone his size, but I find it very believable that a physically unimpressive guy could lift that kind of weight.
 
To actually answer the question posed in the op....basically everything on your posterior side will get bigger and more muscular.
 
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