Deadlift or squat more weight

You should roughly squat and deadlift the same weight. If you deadlift a lot more than you squat work on your hip mobility. If you squat a lot more than you deadlift work on your grip strength. This should move these lifts closer together.

What is your goal

Why are you interested in whether you should squat or deadlift more? Do you want to become a powerlifter? Are you worried about your strength levels? Do you think one of your lifts stinks? Whatever it is that brought you here, it is important that you have clear goals. Clear goals get you clear results. Fussy goals get you fussy results. Most beginners have goals which are all over the place and wonder why they are not progressing. The biggest areas in fitness are

Looks
Performance
Health

If you are all about looks you will be in for a hard time. You improve your looks mainly via your diet. Be prepared to be hungry, tired and angry when you embark on this journey. The pictures you see on Instagram are the result of a grueling routine. Entire food forces will be closed off to you to achieve this unless you have superior genetics. The choices you make in pursuit of the perfect look will not always be healthy or help performance. At least you will look pretty.

The next group of interest is performance orientated. If you belong to this group you are all about numbers and results. Your exercises will be picked according to your goals. The workouts will be intense and the main driver of success. Food will only fuel your ambitions. It will cease to be the main driver of success. Injuries will be a constant presence in your routine. Therefore your choices will not be healthy or pretty all the time. You would do anything to get your hands on that trophy.

The last group is mainly about health. The health group wants balance. The choices you make will stay clear off extremes. As a result, it is less likely that you get injured or burned out. You will happily sip your tea and watch life go by while reflecting on it.

As you are researching the squat and the deadlift you are most likely into performance. Just take the time to realize whether this is actually your main focus as this determines success and progress.

The squat

The squat, deadlift and bench press are the big three compound lifts of powerlifting. There has been a surge in popularity of lifting lately. Crossfit and YouTube did their share.

When we talk about the squat most people think about the barbell back squat but there are also other alternatives. You can also do the

Front squat
Overhead squat
Safety bar squat
Hack squat

The options are endless.

A barbell back squat is a great feat of strength. Once you start squatting twice your bodyweight for repetitions you are in a very good spot. The landmarks of getting there are a bodyweight squat for one repetition and then for multiple reps.

The first challenge to a good squat is bar placement on the back. There are quite a few people who complain about pain when placing the barbell on their backs. There are two main reasons for this. The bar either has to much wiggle room to scratch your skin or you have poor shoulder mobility. Yoga is a good way of fixing the mobility issues. Bending the bar like a horseshoe on your back will create the tension to keep it in place.

The second challenge many face on this road is hip mobility. It takes years to undo years of bad posture from office jobs. Work on opening the hips through yoga to be able to squat to depth.

Those are the main blockers which skew the performance of the squat compared to the deadlift for beginners. These can be fixed quite easily.

The deadlift

The deadlift is one of the most iconic movements you can do in the gym. The biggest lifts to date are in the range of 500kg plus. Most fitness enthusiasts will give you an approving nod when you reach a 500-pound deadlift. Anything for 2.5 times bodyweight for repetitions is also very respectable.

The deadlift is an easy lift to perform for beginners. It is a lot more intuitive and less scary than the barbell back squat. Variations of the deadlift are

Conventional deadlift
Sumo deadlift
Romanian deadlift
Stop deadlifts
Deficit Deadlifts
Rack Pulls

Whatever you do make sure it has relevance to your goals. Otherwise, you are wasting your time. While the deadlift is easier to start with than the squat, it is harder to master.

The deadlift is hinge and not a pull. While most beginners manage to adopt the deadlift quickly it is easier to get into bad habits with it. The squat is less forgiving in this respect and provides more direct feedback. This gets even more pronounced with the Olympic lifts. Poor technique on these almost directly translates into failed lifts.

The biggest mistake with the deadlift is to round your back. While this is the most intuitive way of doing it is not the most powerful or healthy way. Getting your back straight starts in your setup. Pay attention to tuck your elbows as if you were squeezing oranges before you initiate the lift. Also, build tension before you break ground rather than yanking the bar off the ground. If you follow these two points with maximum attention your back is very unlikely to round.

The next point is to keep the bar close to your body. Minimise drift to maximize the transition of power from your body to the bar. This also minimizes the pressure on the spine. The more the bar drifts away from you the more spinal pressure will be produced. To avoid drift keep the bar close to your body. Pull it into you rather than straight up. Wear knee high socks so that the bar does not scrape your shins.

Should you deadlift or squat more weight

It depends on your goals. Generally speaking, the two lifts should be about equal with the deadlift being slightly ahead.

Beginners will often see a big discrepancy between the deadlift and squat. The squat is more technical and has bigger demands on mobility. Mobility is often the limiting factor for beginners. In addition, the psychological challenge of being crushed by a weight failing a squat compared to just dropping it in the deadlift also plays a role.

When it comes to muscle activation the squat and deadlift almost activate the same muscle groups. If you have a pair of strong legs and a strong back you will do well on both lifts. To address bottlenecks work on your grip for the deadlift and on paused squats to increase strength out of the hole for back squats.

The more experienced you get the closer your squat and deadlift will become. Experienced powerlifters will usually get about 40% of their total from deadlifts, 40% from the squat and 20% from their bench press. Give or take 5% per lift based on gender size and build of the lifter.

If you are interested in statistics on this you can read my article on how to prepare for your first powerlifting meet.