Written by Garett Reid | NSCA, CSCS, CISSN, M.S.E.S.S
Fact checked by Kiel DiGiovanni, Co-founder
FACT CHECKED
There's more than one way to deadlift, and one of those ways is to choose how many reps you use!
The deadlift is considered the king of exercises due to its ability to train multiple muscles and build massive amounts of strength. However, even though it's a very popular lift, there tends to be a lot of confusion that surrounds it. You've probably seen people knocking out 20 reps before, but is that a good idea? This article will tell you how many reps to use on deadlifts.
The Deadlift
The movement pattern of the deadlift exercise is about as fundamental as it gets. Something heavy is on the ground, and you need to pick it up. It's a straightforward exercise that's highly effective at building strength and mass while utilizing almost every muscle in the body.
It's generally one of the first exercises you use when you get into real strength training and is fundamental in building movement patterns. There tends to be a lot of controversy around it, but when trained smart, no exercise will make you stronger.
Muscles Trained By The Deadlift
The deadlift trains just about every muscle in the human body. We want to review these muscles quickly.
Glutes
The glute muscles play a crucial role in hip extension and are one of the primary movers in the deadlift. This is especially true during the second half of the exercise, when the hips extend and lockout. During the first half, they still work by holding the torso and helping to extend the legs.
Hamstrings
In the bottom position of a deadlift, when your upper body leans forward, and your legs are bent, the hamstrings are stretched. As you lift, they contract to help raise the body. The hamstrings are primarily responsible for hip extension and work together with the glutes.
Spinal Erectors
The erector spinae, generally referred to as your "lower back", consists of muscle columns running along the spine. They are vital in maintaining spinal stability and health, keeping the back straight, and resisting forward bending—both crucial during deadlift sets.
Lats
Your lats are the large mid-back muscles that pull the arm. During the deadlift, the lats help keep the bar close to the body through shoulder extension. While they primarily function isometrically, they play a huge role in maintaining bar position and are often one of the reasons for errors, as they aren't engaged.
Upper Back
The upper back comprises several muscles, including the trapezius, rear deltoids, teres, and rhomboids. These muscles contract isometrically to ensure a strong, stable foundation for the scapula, which in turn maintains rigidity in the upper back throughout the movement.
Like the lats, these muscles primarily contract isometrically, but the high forces provide enough stimulation to increase strength and growth.
Forearms
Forearm flexors and extensors are often neglected in training, but the deadlift effectively targets them. Specifically, the forearm flexors (located on the underside) are engaged to maintain a firm grip on the bar from lift-off to set-down. Since forearm and grip muscles are less frequently trained, many lifters find that grip strength becomes the first limiting factor, often fatiguing before the legs or back.
Why Should You Deadlift?
Knowing why you should deadlift can tell us much about what reps to use. Different loads and rep schemes produce different muscle adaptations. Therefore, we want to first look at the primary objective of the deadlift: What are we trying to achieve?
As a whole, the deadlift can be used in multiple scenarios, such as:
- Build strength
- Build muscle
- Improve anaerobic conditioning
- Even rehab!
However, we believe it has one primary role: building pure strength. There's a reason it's one of three lifts trained in powerlifting! In addition, for the vast majority of people, the deadlift is their strongest lift. This is a testament to the loads you can pull with this movement pattern.
When it comes to using an exercise, we believe in training the body according to its function. Therefore, if it wants to lift a ton of weight with the deadlift, we will do that! If you think about it, you won't be able to lift more weight with any other exercise (at least free weights).
Now, of course, you will build muscle by training the deadlift. In fact, many lifters claim the deadlift is the sole exercise responsible for putting thickness on the muscle. However, we feel this is a secondary benefit (and a great benefit) to building strength!
Can You Use The Deadlift To Build Muscle?
Absolutely!
As mentioned above, training the deadlift will build muscle mass in your frame. This is especially true for beginners.
If we were to think of building the body like a house, the deadlift would lay the foundation and build the structure (along with other primary lifts such as the squat and bench press). When you start training and include the deadlift, it will build muscle on your entire body while targeting your back, glutes, and hamstrings. More importantly, it will be strong, quality muscle mass.
However, you will eventually need to start using other exercises to target individual muscle groups. At this point, you can continue training the deadlift for strength, but it's important to remember that there are many other exercises we can use to build muscle, so we should play to the exercises' strengths.
No Eccentric
Another aspect to consider when discussing the deadlift for muscle growth is that there is usually no meaningful eccentric contraction. The eccentric contraction lowers the barbell back to the ground during the deadlift.
Due to its awkwardness, the eccentric is skipped most of the time. Many people will utilize a controlled drop, which is when you use your body to guide the barbell down. However, it's not a free fall, as minimal tension will be put on your muscles.
This is important as we now know that eccentric contraction is paramount for muscle growth. Due to its ability to create greater force and stress on the muscle, researchers have discovered that eccentric contraction plays a larger role in muscle growth than concentric contraction.
In other words, if one group only performed the eccentric contraction and one group performed the concentric contraction, the group doing the eccentric would see better results. Therefore, while the deadlift will build mass, it's not its primary function.
Related: Concentric vs Eccentric Contraction
How Many Reps Should You Use On Deadlift?
So, let's get to the primary purpose of this article: How many reps should you use with the deadlift?
As we have laid out the case for the deadlift to be primarily used to build strength, we can use reps of 1-5 utilizing loads 85% or higher. This range is optimal for building strength due to the higher demand on your neuromuscular system for force production.
However, using heavy loads may also promote muscle growth when the muscles contract isometrically. For example, this study examined muscle activation of the traps during the deadlift at two different loads, 60% and 80%. They found greater activation using 80%, so we would guess that going higher would produce even more.¹
How Many Reps For Deadlift To Build Power?
Another tactic you can use is to build power with speed reps. A speed rep is exactly what it sounds like; you perform a deadlift explosively while using good form.
However, even though you're using low loads, you'll still perform low reps. Because you're performing speed reps, you're demanding greater force production from your muscles.
To build power, use 1-3 reps with 50-70% 1RM.
Should You Use High Reps For The Deadlift?
This question has no scientific correct answer as it's completely subjective. Further, you'll find plenty of answers from different sources, some with more or less rationale behind their beliefs.
With that said, we believe advanced athletes should only use high-rep deadlifts.
When it comes to new lifters, we don't think high reps are appropriate. The reason is simply fatigue and form breakdown. Of all the exercises you could do, apart from power exercises, the deadlift is the most technical and fatiguing, two things that don't mix well. Further, it has the slightest room for error, and while it's not dangerous, the risk increases significantly with fatigue.
What Rep Scheme Should Beginners Use?
Therefore, beginners should only use low reps (<5) to build strength, muscular endurance, and form. At the same time, you should stay away from reaching failure until you build up a good foundation. This means you're not finding your true 3RM, 4RM, or any RM! Your primary focus should be training proper movement patterns and improving muscle firing.
Use the first few months to put in work with lower reps. You can then gradually increase intensity and loads as you progress. For example, running a 5 sets x 3 reps @75% could work well in your first few months. This is heavy enough to create demand yet relatively easy.
Effective Deadlift Rep Schemes
We wanted to end with some effective rep schemes, including some high-rep options. However, remember that the deadlift is best used for strength so that these rep schemes will focus on that.
3 SETS x 6 REPS
3x6 is a great beginner rep scheme because it's simple. It uses 6 reps, which is on the upper threshold for deadlifts and is known as the sweet spot to maximize strength while still getting volume for muscle growth.
This is a great rep scheme to use when first getting into deadlifting.
5 SETS X 5 REPS
5x5 is probably the most popular rep scheme used for the deadlift, at least in the strength world. If you never thought 5 reps could beat you up, you'll know after completing a cycle of these.
5x5 is usually used by newer lifters who have some experience and have built some strength.
Intermediate lifters still benefit from this or may run a block to stress their system.
6/4/2
6/4/2 is a basic ladder using 3 sets of 6, 4, 2 reps;
- 1x6
- 1x4
- 1x2
You could even then do one backoff set after the double. This is when you'd drop the load by 10-15% and perform reps until an RPE7-8, which might look like this;
- 315lbs x 6
- 335lbs x 4
- 360lbs x 2
- 315lbs x RPE7-8
These can work really well as they work the whole rep scheme while allowing you to ramp up to a heavy double.
Related: What Is RPE Training & How To Use It?
Weekly Blocks: 5/3/1/10
Weekly blocks are a form of periodization in which the reps are altered weekly. A pure strength block utilizes a 5/3/1/10 rep scheme.
- 5x5
- 3x3
- Ramp up to a single of 95% or RPE9
- 3x10 @50%
Ramp Sets
Ramp sets can be very effective. The general premise is that you gradually increase the load and lower each set's reps. A common method is to ramp up to a heavy single 1RM. For example, it might look like this:
- Set 1: 6 reps at 70% of 1RM
- Set 2: 5 reps at 75% of 1RM
- Set 3: 4 reps at 80% of 1 RM
- Set 4: 3 reps at 82.5–85% of 1 RM
- Set 5: 2 reps at 85–87.5% of 1RM
- Set 6: 1 rep at 92.5–95% of 1RM
EMOM
EMOM, which stand for Every Minute On The Minute, can be great for those looking for an ultra-intense pump using low reps. They are generally used for anaerobic conditioning. Basically, you start the clock and perform the prescribed number of reps. Once you finish, you wait until the next minute and perform another set.
For example, Let's say your first set takes you 20 seconds. You would then have 40 seconds to rest. Then, the next set takes you 23 seconds. You would then have 37 seconds of rest. Continue until you're finished.
- For a 10-minute EMOM: You'll usually use about 300 lbs. Let's say your 5RM is around 300 lbs. You would perform 300 lbs for 2-3 reps every minute.
- For a 5-minute EMOM: Use a higher percentage of reps, such as 3-4, with your 5RM.
You can also use this same concept for short durations such as 30s.
These can work effectively to get a lot of volume effectively.
Final Say On Deadlifts
The deadlift is a foundational exercise that should be used by just about everyone. It will build strength, muscle, and even mobility! Plus, once you advance with the deadlift, you can use multiple variations in your program, such as rack pulls, deficit deadlifts, and snatch grip deadlifts.
Remember that the deadlift is just one exercise in your tool belt. It's one of, if not the best, but it doesn't need to be used for everything. Even though you can perform high reps, that doesn't mean you need to or should. Apart from the occasions listed above, stick with higher loads and low reps to optimize the deadlift's purpose—to build raw strength!
Check out more resources on everything related to reps:
- How Many Reps For Overhead Press?
- How Many Reps For Bench Press?
- How Many Reps For Back Squat?
- Rep Ranges For Strength & Hypertrophy
- High Reps vs Low Reps
- Partial Reps For Muscle Growth
References:
- Beggs, Luke Allen. COMPARISON of MUSCLE ACTIVATION and KINEMATICS during the DEADLIFT USING a DOUBLE‐PRONATED and OVERHAND/UNDERHAND GRIP. 2024, www.researchgate.net/publication/254692133. Accessed 23 Oct. 2024.
Garett Reid
Author