“Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but don’t nobody want to lift no heavy-ass weights.”
Thankfully, you deadlift, so presumably you do want to lift heavy-ass weights (thanks for the inspiration Big Ron).
Let’s get straight to the point. The deadlift works both your upper and lower body muscles. So, on an upper lower split, should you deadlift on upper or lower day?
Although deadlifts work both upper and lower body muscles, it makes the most sense to deadlift on lower body days. You already have more upper body exercises to do than lower body, so there’s no point in adding another to your upper day. Additionally, deadlifting on upper day will tire out your grip strength, which is critical for other upper body exercises like rows, pull ups, and curls.
Designing an upper lower split and effectively incorporating deadlifts does not have to be hard. I will cover why and how exactly to program deadlifts into your lower body days effectively. After that, I will go over alternative ways to incorporate the deadlift into an upper lower split.
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Deadlifting on Upper vs Lower Day
| Deadlift on Upper Day – Benefits | Deadlift on Lower Day – Benefits |
|---|---|
| Allows you to focus on squats on lower day | Upper body already has more exercises than lower body |
| Keeps energy levels high for other lower body lifts | Saves your back and grip for other upper body exercises |
| Allows you to focus almost solely on the deadlift |
Although it makes way more sense to put the deadlift on lower body day, there are a couple benefits to putting it on your upper day.
Benefits of Deadlifting on Upper Body Day
Allows you to focus on squats
Let’s say you are putting more attention on improving your squat, or squatting more. In this case, it might make sense to put deadlifts on one of your upper body days so you can focus solely on improving squats.
Keeps your energy levels up for other lower body lifts
Technically this applies to the upper body as well, but usually lower body exercises take more out of you than a typical upper body exercise.
Think about the difference between a cable row and lunge. Doing lunges with enough weight is incredibly taxing. If you have already deadlifted, it’s hard to put too much into lunges because you will already be so drained.
Benefits of Deadlifting on Lower Body Day
More exercises to perform for upper than lower body
Given that there are more muscle groups to train in your upper body, there are simply more exercises to do. That is undeniable. You don’t want to overdo the amount of exercises in a session or be in the gym too long.
By performing the deadlift on upper day you are eliminating one possible upper body exercise, unless you plan to spend extra time in the gym. I don’t recommend this because as the workout progresses you will become more fatigued and less effective at each exercise. But, that’s a whole ‘nother topic!
I always do less exercises on my lower body day anyways. It doesn’t make sense to take a valuable exercise slot away on your upper body day when there are more to do there.
Saves your back and grip
If you are deadlifting on your upper body day, there is no doubt your grip and lower back will be fatigued afterwards.
You are probably doing rows or pull ups afterwards (or at least you should be), and having a fatigued grip and/or lower back while doing these means you will be less effective at them.
Just another reason to keep your deadlift on your lower body day, where you can do lower body exercises which don’t depend on your grip or back as much.
Allows you to focus almost solely on the deadlift
The squat is often called the “king of exercises”, but if that is true, then the deadlift is the warlord who dethroned the king. Seriously, you could dedicate an entire workout just to the deadlift and it wouldn’t be in vain.
On this plan you will be squatting on a separate day, which means you only have a few smaller exercises to perform after the deadlift. That means you can put the vast majority of your focus on the deadlift, which is going to help you progress more quickly.
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How to Structure an Upper Lower Split for Deadlifts
Let’s take a look at how to properly structure an upper lower split deadlifts. For my upper lower splits, I like to have two upper body days and two lower body days per week:
Sunday – Off
Monday – Upper Body (A)
Tuesday – Off
Wednesday – Lower Body (A)
Thursday – Off
Friday – Upper Body (B)
Saturday – Lower Body (B)
You’ll notice that each session is marked with ‘A’ or ‘B’. This is to distinguish between each upper and lower workout. Each session will have different exercises to perform for the same muscle groups.
In this particular split, I will put my deadlift on Lower Body ‘A’ and my squat on Lower Body ‘B’ day:
Sunday – Off
Monday – Upper Body (A)
Tuesday – Off
Wednesday – Lower Body (A) – DEADLIFT
Thursday – Off
Friday – Upper Body (B)
Saturday – Lower Body (B) – SQUAT
One benefit of scheduling it this way is you have a rest day in between your deadlift day and next upper body day, so if your traps or grip are sore from deadlifting you will be able to recover in between.
Alternate Ways to Incorporate the Deadlift on an Upper Lower Split
Outside of deadlifting on an upper body day or a lower body day, what other options are there? Well, you could do one of the many deadlift variations on either day. Let’s take a look at a couple examples.
Romanian Deadlift (RDL)
The Romanian deadlift is a deadlift variation where you keep your legs as straight as possible. This targets the hamstrings and glutes more than a traditional deadlift. Because of this, it clearly belongs on lower body day.
Rack Pull
The rack pull is a deadlift in which you set the bar higher than the floor on the safety pins of a squat rack. By eliminating the bottom portion of the lift, it becomes mostly a lower and upper back exercise. Given this, it clearly belongs on upper body day.
What you can do is put the RDL on one of your lower body days, and the rack pull on one of your upper body days. So, it would look like this:
Sunday – Off
Monday – Upper Body (A) – RACK PULL
Tuesday – Off
Wednesday – Lower Body (A) – SQUAT
Thursday – Off
Friday – Upper Body (B)
Saturday – Lower Body (B) – RDL
Then again, you may want to save your lower back by only doing one deadlift variation per week. It’s really up to you listening to your own body.
Closing Thoughts
Regardless of whether you place the deadlift on your upper or lower body day, the principles of weight training remain the same. Just by doing the deadlift with proper technique, you can make progress irrespective of what day you perform it on.
Although I think there is good reason to do it on your lower body day, really it often comes down to your own personal preference. Experiment with different exercises on different days to find out what works for you.
Keep pulling heavy weight and working on your technique and you will make progress!
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