Yesterday I watched a guy spend twenty straight minutes doing preacher curls.

Same weight.
Same mirror.
Same sour puss face that looked like he was trying to remember his Wi-Fi password.

Meanwhile…

The deadlift platform sat empty.

A loaded barbell resting there like a cannon nobody had the courage to fire.

Do deadlifts actually build muscle?

This question was prompted by my buddy and fitness insider Shane over at Muscle and Fitness.

Short answer: yes.

Long answer: absolutely yes...

...but the devil is in the details and can't treat them like some nervous warm-up exercise with light weight for 1-2 sets and call it a day.

Let’s break down why.

Volume Is the Currency of Muscle

Muscle doesn’t care about your pump selfie.

Muscle cares about training volume.

Weight × sets × reps.

That’s the signal your body uses to decide whether it should bother building new tissue or just keep you the same slightly stronger meat stick than you were last week.

And here’s the dirty little secret:

Deadlifts let you accumulate far more useful training volume than most exercises.

Ask yourself something simple.

How much weight can you deadlift for five reps?

Now compare that to your preacher curl.

Exactly.

One exercise involves hundreds of pounds of iron trying to fold you like a used lawn chair.

The other involves a small chrome dumbbell and a lot of conjured optimism.

Research supports the importance of training volume for hypertrophy. A systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrated a dose-response relationship between weekly resistance training volume and increases in muscle mass (Schoenfeld et al., 2017).

More productive sets generally lead to greater hypertrophy.

Deadlifts just happen to deliver a lot of productive work very quickly.

Deadlifts Recruit a Ridiculous Amount of Muscle

Deadlifts are not an isolation exercise.

They’re a full-body coordination test under heavy load.

Your erector spinae stabilize the spine.

Your glutes drive hip extension.

Your hamstrings assist the movement.

Your quads extend the knee.

Your core locks everything together so the bar doesn’t fold you into a human accordion.

Your gip holds on to the bar for dear life.

Electromyographic research confirms that the deadlift activates multiple major muscle groups simultaneously, including the erector spinae, gluteus maximus, vastus lateralis, and the hamstring complex (Martín-Fuentes et al., 2020).

That’s a lot of muscle firing at once.

The more muscle fibers you recruit under heavy tension, the larger the overall stimulus for growth.

Isolation movements whisper politely to a single muscle.

Deadlifts kick the door down and recruit your posterior chain like a biker gang rolling into a roadside bar for happy hour.

Heavy Compounds Spread Stress Across the Whole System

Here’s another advantage that doesn’t get talked about enough.

Deadlifts distribute stress across multiple joints and tissues.

When lifters try to accumulate large amounts of training volume using single-joint exercises, stress often concentrates in one location.

Elbows during curls.

Knees during extensions.

Shoulders during flyes.

Eventually those joints start complaining.

Compound movements spread mechanical stress across several joints and muscle groups.

An integrative review examining exercise selection and injury patterns concluded that poor programming and localized loading contribute to overuse injuries, while compound exercises distribute mechanical stress across multiple tissues (Bonilla et al., 2022).

In simple terms:

The deadlift lets your whole body share the work.

Instead of forcing one joint to carry the entire burden.

Assuming, of course, that your form doesn’t resemble a the shape of a pooping dog.

A Simple Deadlift Protocol for Muscle

One of the best ways to build size and strength with the deadlift is the classic Bill Starr 5×5.

Five sets.

Five reps.

Heavy enough to challenge you but manageable enough to accumulate meaningful volume.

Let’s say your five-rep max is 315 pounds.

Instead of starting there and immediately regretting your life decisions, begin slightly lighter.

Work toward five clean sets around 295 pounds or even lighter.

Once you own that weight with solid form, increase the load by about 10 pounds and repeat the process.

Your first week at 295 might look like this:

295 × 5
295 × 5

Take a little more rest here.

Because the demons are about to show up.

295 × 5
295 × 3
295 × 2

That’s perfectly fine.

The next week, focus on adding reps to those later sets.

Progress gradually.

Take full rest between sets.

Three to five minutes if necessary, this is not a race.

You’re not doing cardio.

You’re accumulating high-quality mechanical tension.

What This Means for You

If your goal is to build muscle and strength, deadlifts deserve a place in your training.

They allow you to:

Accumulate large amounts of productive training volume.

Recruit a massive amount of musculature.

Distribute stress across multiple joints.

And build serious strength in the posterior chain.

None of this is new...

...but it works.

Load the bar.

Grip it like it owes you money.

Stand up with it.

Repeat.

Go at it with violent consistency,

Deadlifts for the win!

Much love,
Dr Mike

PS -When you are ready there are 3 ways you can work with me
1) Listen to one of my podcasts totally free HERE.
2) Read one of the tons of free articles I have on my site HERE.
3) Book a private 1 hour virtual call to ask me any questions. Cost is $250 and you can email Jodie HERE​

References

Bonilla, D. A., Cardozo, L. A., Vélez-Gutiérrez, J. M., Arévalo-Rodríguez, A., Vargas-Molina, S., Stout, J. R., Kreider, R. B., & Petro, J. L. (2022). Exercise selection and common injuries in fitness centers: A systematic integrative review and practical recommendations. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(19), 12710.

Martín-Fuentes, I., Oliva-Lozano, J. M., & Muyor, J. M. (2020). Electromyographic activity in deadlift exercise and its variants: A systematic review. PLOS ONE, 15(2), e0229507.

Schoenfeld, B. J., Ogborn, D., & Krieger, J. W. (2017). Dose-response relationship between weekly resistance training volume and increases in muscle mass: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Sports Sciences, 35(11), 1073–1082.

____________________

Mike T Nelson CISSN, CSCS, MSME, PhD
Associate Professor, Carrick Institute
Owner, Extreme Human Performance, LLC
Editorial Board Member, STRONG Fitness Mag
​​Mike T Nelson is a Ph.D. and not a physician or registered dietitian. The contents of this email should not be taken as medical advice. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any health problem - nor is it intended to replace the advice of a physician. Always consult your physician or qualified health professional on any matters regarding your health.

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