Be it muscle building, general fitness, or sports performance, two of the most basic exercises are squats and deadlifts. With years of experience in powerlifting and bodybuilding—as many as 15—I know how important planning your workout really is. Of these, one of the frequently asked questions is whether squats and deadlifts can be combined within one session, notably on leg days or during total-body workouts.

In this article, I will share the pros and cons from my experience over the years with doing both exercises in one day.

Let me show you how to get the most out of these two compound movements that hold the key to your training goals.

Table of Contents:

• Can You Do Squats And Deadlifts On The Same Day?
• Squats and Deadlifts on Different Days
• Squats and Deadlifts on The Same Day
• Which Option Is Best?
• Overview
• References

Can You Do Squats And Deadlifts On The Same Day?

Wondering if you can squat and deadlift in the same workout? This comes up often, and it isn’t hard to see why, with how strenuous both exercises are.

The short answer to this question is: yes, you can do squats and deadlifts on the same day. Whether you should, however, depends on your goals.

In this article, we will take a quick dive into the pros and cons of combining these exercises in a single session, so as to find the best approach for your routine.

Squats and Deadlifts on Different Days

Most lifters like to keep their squat and deadlift days at least a few days apart. For example, squatting on Monday and deadlifting on Thursday. There is some truth in this, as for good reasons, this has been an adopted approach when it comes to training.

1. Less Fatigue — Squats and Deadlifts

Squats and deadlifts both place a great demand on the same muscles. So doing them on the same day all but ensures severe fatigue. Once heavy loads are introduced that require maximal or near-maximal effort on that same day, it’s arguably possible you’d be too fatigued to tackle additional exercises with much effectiveness. Separating squats and deadlifts even by a few days really helps keep your workouts from becoming truly fatiguing and makes it easier to keep your energy levels up throughout your routine.

2. Lift More Weight

Squats and deadlifts share many of the very same muscles; therefore, doing them both on one day changes the weight you are lifting between doing one and the other. Fatigue from the first lift carries over to the second, potentially reducing the amount of weight you can handle. This might not be a major concern in most bodybuilding programs, but it might mean quite a lot in terms of affecting your gains in strength if you’re looking to lift as much as possible. Spacing these out makes room for you to go much heavier and really push your strength training.

3. Go Easy on Your Lower Back

Because squats and deadlifts are heavy in lower-back engagement, having to do them on the same day may add more stress to the area and increase the potential for pain or injury. After a heavy squat or deadlift, the lower back might be somewhat fatigued, therefore reducing form and increasing the risk of potential problems. Separating them gives time for the lower back to recover and reduces the risk for overuse injuries.

4. Less Training Volume — Squats and Deadlifts

Combining squats and deadlifts within one workout most of the time means that you’re going to have to cut back on the number of sets you can do for each exercise. The time and energy involved in both can get very significant, leaving you with less capacity to push hard on each lift. This enables more time and energy to be given over to each, meaning a greater volume of work. And that greater volume may be the key to gaining strength and building size in the first place.

5. Legs One Day, Back the Next

While squats obviously work the lower body, deadlifts are a bit more vague—often classified as a back exercise, even though they also work the legs. Separating the days for your squats and deadlifts helps you treat deadlifts as a back exercise, so it makes it relatively easier to split up your workouts based on muscle groups. This approach is mainly utilized by bodybuilders who want to isolate specific muscle groups with each passing day.

6. More Time Per Lift

Training squats and deadlifts in different workouts means you are going to have more time dedicated to each movement. This may be very helpful if you are still learning these lifts or if you just want to drive up some sets to get better at them. Now, having time specifically for each, you’ll be able to focus efforts on perfecting your form and building strength, which may ultimately mean quicker progress.

7. Opportunity for Variations

When you do a full workout of either just squats or deadlifts, you can play around with different variations of each lift. This could include box squats, banded squats, or paused squats on squat day, for example. If you train squats and deadlifts together, you may not have time for these variations, and you may get too fatigued to have a meaningful go at them. The incorporation of different variations will raise your overall training standards through the variation in strengths and techniques.

Drawbacks to the Consideration

While this often works well, it does come with some challenges—most notably managing two really heavy workouts every week working overlapping muscle groups, which can be demanding. Some lifters might find recovering from these sessions adequate enough. Secondly, if you miss the squat or deadlift workout, this is going to throw your whole training plan off and will affect your progress.

Squats and Deadlifts on The Same Day 

But just because most lifters do squats and deadlifts on different days doesn’t mean you have to. In fact, doing both of these lifts in the same workout may work well for you. Real-life example: Andy Bolton was the first man to pull 1000 pounds in competition.

If you are going to do squats and deadlifts on the same day, do squats first and then deadlifts. Again, this is somewhat similar to how you would do it in competition if you’re a powerlifer. So it makes some sense for training.

Start with squats rather than deadlifts. Since squats mostly work your legs and hips with less strain on the lower back, meaning it will be fresh. Deadlifts take so much more out of your lower back. If you already tired your lower back from doing squats, it might be a formula for injury, even with a weightlifting belt.

In case you have never done both exercises in one workout, begin with lighter weights and fewer sets. As you become more comfortable with the workout routine. You can over time start increasing the amount of weight and number of sets over some time.

Some of the advantages of squatting and deadlifting on the same day include: 

1. Powerlifting-Specific — Squats and Deadlifts

Powerlifters, who compete in squats, bench presses, and deadlifts all in one day. Prepare with squats and deadlifts together for the competitive format. This is of particular interest to powerlifters who want to recreate as closely as possible the demands that occur during their sport in order to better prepare themselves.

2. Less Warm-Up Required

Since squats and deadlifts both utilize almost identical muscle groups and the movements correlate a lot with each other, you won’t have to spend very much time at all getting warmed up for the second exercise. In fact, this efficiency can make your workout shorter. Which comes in handy if you want to spend less time getting ready to lift.

3. Increased Muscle Potentiation and Activation

Squats may stimulate your nervous system heavily, and deadlifts performed afterward may benefit from this. Furthermore, since deadlifts are a shorter-range of motion exercise compared to squats, they may feel slightly easier. Which helps when you’re working to ensure the overall workout is really effective.

4. Less Weight Necessary

Squats and deadlifts have a significant muscle overlap. Meaning that just cutting the volumes of your other lifts down somewhat can still work. For example lets say you have a volume day and decise to do 6 sets x 3 reps of squats and finish off with 3 sets x 3 reps of deadlifts. This has the ability to give a solid training effect for the deadlift even if the volume on it was lower.

5. More Recovery Time

When you train both squats and deadlifts in the same session, you give yourself a full week to rest and recover before working these muscle groups again. On the other hand, squatting one day and deadlifting merely a couple of days later might. In theory, leave that muscle group with less recovery time before you come at it again. If you lift very heavy or require more recovery, then combining the exercises in one session can be helpful.

6. Reciprocal Benefits — Squats and Deadlifts

Squats and deadlifts are autonomous movements, but they supplement each other. Any gains to your squat will transfer to your deadlift, and vice versa. You can train them both on the same day. Just like you do while doing any other main lift followed by an accessory movement. It can be a good idea.

Points to Watch Out For:

• Less Time Available for Assistance Exercises: If you have squats and deadlifts in the same workout, it means that you may not have the time or even the energy to add other exercises.
• Volume Reduction: You will have to reduce the overall training volume due to the addition of a new lift.
• Performance Interference: Performance in the first exercise will impact the latter and may not be as effective.
• Longer Workout Sessions: Combining exercises may make your workouts longer, mainly if you include heavy weights and need more rest time between sets.

Which Option is Best?

Well, that really depends on your training goals, experience level, and the time you can avail. Not to mention individual preferences. It’s really not possible to give a one-size-fits-all answer. So let’s consider your options below.

Why Squat and Deadlift on Separate Days:

• Focus on one lift: Obvious reasons are that each lift requires a huge amount of concentration, and if you’re doing them together, then the second one will most likely suffer because of fatigue.
• Bodybuilding Goals: If you’re a bodybuilder and like to split your training in order to train specific muscle groups and do some extra accessory exercises.
• Fast Recovery: If you recover fast from your workouts, then you can take frequent trainings.
• Body Part Split: If you are on a body part split routine, it keeps these exercises separate to hit different muscle groups on different days.
• Variety of Accessories: Provided that you like to work with a variety of accessories and assistance exercises, the split lifts allow for a more varied workout.

Why Squat and Deadlift in the Same Workout:

• Powerlifting: Squatters may opt for this approach for competitive purposes or simply to practice both lifts together.
• Slower Recovery: If you recover slower between workouts, the aggregation of the lifts in one session may enable better overall rest between the training days.
• Advanced Lifters: If you’re already advanced in both lifts and can handle this workload put together.
• Less Frequent Training: If you like to train less often but still want to hit both exercises in your routine.

Competitive Training: If you’re going to be competitive in powerlifting and you want the demands of a workout to be similar to competition.

If You’re Not Sure:

Do both for 6-8 weeks and see how your body responds, what makes better progress. You can also train in the following ways:

Example Workout:

Monday: Squat and Deadlift
Thursday: Squat OR Deadlift (do opposite exercise each week)

Try these methods out and use them to get the best balance for your training goals and your preferences.

Overview — Squats and Deadlifts

There really is no universal rule to be followed when it comes to strength training. And that becomes even more specific to critical exercises like squats and deadlifts. Provided our bodies are all very different from one another. All it will boil down to is experimenting with the various techniques to find out what works best for you. One of the most common questions one gets is whether one should squat and deadlift on the same day or on different days.

Each has its own advantages. Among the advantages to squats and deadlifts in the same day are the saving of time and the increase in workout intensity for powerlifters. This also allows for a full week to recover if one has lifted heavy.

However, by separating them, you are able to focus more energy on each one. It really helps someone in lifting heavier and doing more sets for better muscle growth and strength gains associated with bodybuilding.

Ultimately, it’s all about your goals, recovery time, and how you feel. If you are a powerlifter, you may prefer to do both exercises within the same workout. If you’re trying to pack on muscle, you would probably want to train them separately. You could also do a little bit of both—train squats and deadlifts together one week and separately during the next.

Try each one of them for a few weeks and find out what really works for you. Listen to your body and adjust accordingly.

If you have any more questions or need further tips, feel free to comment below. I’m here to help you rock those fitness goals!

Other articles for Squats:

• Goblet Squats For Optimal Lower Body Strength and Flexibility
• Bulgarian Split Squats: A Functional Substitute for Leg Extensions
• How-to Do Squats for Weight Loss: Benefits, and Workouts
• The Slant Board Squats, Tips, Mistakes, and Variations
• Hack Squats Workouts, Benefits, Variations, and Performance Tips

Articles for Deadlifts:

• The Paused Deadlift is Trainers’ Secret for Building Strength
• Switch to Touch and Go Deadlifts for Faster Gains
• Romanian Deadlifts — Muscles Worked, How-To, and Benefits
• Deadlift Success: Warm-up and Mobility Essentials
• Jefferson Deadlift Workouts For Strength
• The Jefferson Deadlift Revolution

References;

• Bolton, Andy. *Deadlift Dynamite: How to Master the King of All Strength Exercises*. 1st ed., Dragondoor Publications, 2012.
• Simmons, Louie. *The Westside Barbell Book of Methods*. 1st ed., Westside Barbell, 2007.
• Rippetoe, Mark, and Lon Kilgore. *Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training*. 3rd ed., The Aasgaard Company, 2011.
• Bompa, Tudor O., and Carlo Buzzichelli. *Periodization Training for Sports*. 3rd ed., Human Kinetics, 2018.
• Zatsiorsky, Vladimir M., and William J. Kraemer. *Science and Practice of Strength Training*. 2nd ed., Human Kinetics, 2006.
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