Deadlift and Squat: The Inexorable Link

Deadlift - Thoughts on the King of all back exercises

Powerlifter Mark Chaillet locks out another world record deadlift: whenever he was asked how to improve the deadlift he would respond, “Get a bigger squat.”

The deadlift and squat are inseparable in Marty Gallagher’s school of powerlifting. The deadlift is the king of all back exercises, but in the Maryland style of pulling, the lift is built from the floor with leg power. A lifter who wants a bigger deadlift needs stronger legs, a better raw squat, a straighter bar path, a powerful hip-hinge held in reserve, and enough technical discipline to make the body conform to the barbell, not the other way around.

Deadlift Experience, Powerlifting History, and Hard-Earned Opinion

In recent years, the deadlift has become immensely popular in elite coaching circles. I love the barbell deadlift and have done them for over fifty years. I do them to this day; just last Sunday I pulled a limit triple. I began competing in powerlifting in 1966. I made my first 400-pound deadlift at age 15. Weighing around 200, I have pulled and raw squatted 400 or more every year for 53 straight years. My deadlift bell curve peaked with a 750-pound deadlift in the early 1980s. I have done a lot of deadlifting – and at a high level.

I have made a lifelong study of the deadlift and how to improve the deadlift. I have strong opinions that rarely line up with how the deadlift is presented and taught in 2019. As an athlete, I have always been a physiological overachiever. I was a slightly above average guy that had to train smarter and harder to overcome my genetically superior opponents. We have a phrase in powerlifting – there are four different types of powerlifters.

• Looks like Jane, lifts like Jane: the muscle-less beginner.
• Looks like Jane, lifts like Tarzan: me.
• Looks like Tarzan, lifts like Jane: muscular lifters fearful of big poundage.
• Looks like Tarzan, lifts like Tarzan: Karwoski, Coan, Cash, Chaillet, etc., the champs.

As a competitive powerlifter I had to come to grips with being physically outgunned by shorter, stouter, more powerful opponents. I was always way too tall for my weight class. I knew this starting in 1980 walking around backstage at the national powerlifting championships when I noticed that all the superheavyweight lifters were my height. Doyle, Moran, Paul Wrenn, Dave Waddington, et al., and all the top 275-pound lifters were 5-foot 10 or less. At the time I was competing in the 198-pound class. I looked like a 7-foot basketball player compared to my stumpy, thick-muscled short opponents.

Early on I realized that with perfect technique I could outlift stronger men with rougher technique. I had good instruction early on: as a teenager I was shown squat, bench press and deadlift techniques that I use to this day by a world champion. Since then, I have made a lifelong study of the deadlift and deadlift technique. As you might imagine, with a half century of practice under my belt, I have strong opinions.

As an athlete competing in national and international powerlifting competitions, as an IPF Master lifter, I deadlifted 644 pounds in the 198-pound class, 688 weighing 220 and 750 weighing 240. All were done between ages 42 and 47, over a five-year span. All the deadlifts were done after squatting and benching. I won six national master titles in three different weight classes. I was the IPF world master champion in the 220-pound class masters division in 1991. As a strength coach, I have created world champion powerlifters and world record holders.

Mark Chaillet, Hugh Cassidy, and Deadlift Graduate School

For six glorious years I trained with one of the best deadlifters of all time, Mark Chaillet. Mark pulled 880 weighing 265. We were training partners. I coached Mark at national and world championships. While I learned my core deadlift technique from world champion Hugh Cassidy, my six years with Mark Chaillet were deadlift Graduate School. Chaillet was taught the Cassidy deadlift style by IPF world champion and Cassidy protégé Mark Dimiduk. Mark C. layered on his own stylistic innovations atop Hugh’s basic pull technique.

Both Hugh and Mark were powerhouse squatters: Hugh was the sixth man in history to raw squat 800. Chaillet consistently squatted 900-plus pounds in competition. Both Hugh and Mark felt leg power was the prerequisite, the foundation upon which to build a big deadlift. My mentors used increases in leg strength to “automatically” push up the deadlift. I call this highly stylized deadlift technique the “Maryland” deadlift style. Maryland is where the technique was hatched, incubated, and workshopped.

The Maryland Deadlift Style: Straight-Line Pulling

When devising the ideal technique for deadlifting, Cassidy asked himself, “What is the most efficient motor-pathway for an optimal deadlift?” The answer: pull the bar upward in a perfectly straight line – the shortest distance between two points. A good deadlifter makes his body conform to the bar as it is pulled upward in a straight line pull; the bad deadlifter makes the bar conform to his out of position body.

The Cassidy-Chaillet school of conventional deadlifting swears allegiance to the straight-line pull. Everything flows from this core contention. To pull upward in a straight line necessitates vertical shins. You can’t pull straight up if your knees are six inches in front of the barbell at launch.

A narrow stance width shortens the length of the rep stroke. The shoulders are directly over the bar at the instant of launch. The hips are set low and coiled. At the exact instant of launch, the legs are “pushed through the floor.” The Maryland style uses leg power to break the bar from the floor, allowing the hip-hinge to be held in reserve.

When the deadlifting bar touches the lower knees, leg power is augmented with the instantaneous and violent opening of the powerful hip-hinge. The hip-hinge has been held in reserve and fired as the lifter encounters the deadlift sticking point.

Why purposefully throw away the legs – legs that set squat records? Why purposefully use a pulling technique that diminishes the role of legs in deadlifting? While that might be an appropriate course of action for the weak-legged, why would lifters that held national and world records in the squat throw away their best muscular asset, powerhouse legs?

Why Big Squats and Big Deadlifts Go Together

A commonality among all the national and world champion powerlifters that came out of Maryland was they all had big squats and big deadlifts. The two went hand in hand. Mark, Hugh, George Hecter, Don Mills and Kirk Karwoski, all were big squatters. Kirk was the greatest squatter in the history of powerlifting. Kirk was a Marylander and I coached him for ten years. Kirk pulled 800 for three reps and 840 for a training single. Why would he not utilize the strongest legs in the world?

If leg power is insufficient, the hips need be set high in order to break the weight from the floor. A high-hip start allows the lifter to telescope the legs, putting the thighs in a more advantageous leverage-wise position to begin the lift. This technique has the unfortunate side-effect of turning the spinal column into a crane.

Because the shoulders are in front of the barbell when the weight plates clear the floor, the barbell will automatically drift forward. Any bar that drifts forward will require the lifter to derrick the barbell back into place to attain lockout: this creates incredible stress on the two to three spinal column vertebrae that lie at the perilous fulcrum point.

Those that use the Maryland pull style never let their shoulders get in front of the knees. The barbell stays in contact with the lifter’s body throughout the lift and because of the upright torso, the vertebrae stay safely stacked one atop one another.

Roger Estep and the Maryland Deadlift Launch

Powerlifter Roger Estep performing a barbell deadlift

World champion Roger Estep shows how the Maryland deadlift looks at the exact instant of launch. His shins are vertical, his hips set low, his shoulders are directly over the bar. Roger is coiled and tensed. He launches the bar upward with his 800-pound squat legs. When the bar touches the bottom of his knees, the hip-hinge, purposefully held in reserve, is fired – the effect is afterburner like. Roger is accepting the hard start in return for the easy finish.

John Gamble and the Back-Pull Finish

Powerlifter John Gamble performing an 845 lb. barbell deadlift

World Champion and world record holder John Gamble is in perfect position to finish this 845-pound deadlift. John exemplifies our deadlift technique: note narrow stance, vertical shins and upright torso. Gamble used his 880-pound squat legs to break the bar from the floor. Once the bar touched the bottom of his knees, he fires the held-in-reserve hip-hinge. Once the bar is atop the knees, as pictured, Gamble now gets to pull not so much up as back to lock it out. Since launch, his shoulders have stayed over or behind the bar, never in front.

At the instant this photo was snapped, Gamble is beginning the back-pull phase. He will slide the bar up his angled thighs while thrusting his hips forward to finish the lift – which he did. He has applied baby powder to his thighs to reduce bar friction. The high-hipped start trades the easy start for the excruciating, potentially injurious finish; the Maryland style trades the hard but safe start for the easy finish and is predicated on having strong legs.

Build the Squat to Build the Deadlift

To our way of thinking, the deadlift is inexorably linked to the squat. Increase the proper squat, vertical shins, upright torso, shoulders behind knees throughout, and the proper deadlift, vertical shins, upright torso, shoulders behind the bar throughout, automatically goes up.

If your legs are not strong enough to break the bar from the floor while maintaining a proper start position – you are leg weak. Don’t compensate by setting your hips higher, thereby making the start easier and the finish harder – get your leg power up, build your squat.

Stop continually playing to your strengths. The greatest progress and fastest progress lie in attacking weak points with the same gusto and verve formerly reserved for the favored exercises and body parts. When it comes to big league deadlifting, trade in the easy start for the hard start. If you cannot break a weight from the floor while maintaining vertical shins and keeping the shoulders over the bar, then you need to bring your leg power up. Concentrate on increasing your below-parallel squat, low reps, triples and fives. Feel free to add some muscular bodyweight while getting a bigger squat.

The squat and deadlift are husband and wife, John and Paul, Mick and Keith, Butch and Sundance, ham and eggs – they should never be separated and always considered two sides of the same coin. Proper squatting is the foundation for proper deadlifting. This eternal exercise duo is – or should be – inexorably linked.

Equipment Notes for Deadlift and Squat Training

The deadlift and squat do not require a complicated training room, but they do demand serious basics. A lifter building a home gym, commercial strength room, school weight room, first responder gym or military training space should start with stable strength training equipment, enough free weights, a dependable barbell, accurate plates, and a rack setup that supports controlled squatting and pulling.

For rack-based squat training, powerlifters can compare the Alpha Combo Rack, half racks and quarter cages, the Alpha 11 Half Rack, the Body-Solid Powerline Half Rack, power cages, platforms and power racks, or the Body-Solid Commercial Power Rack, depending on available space, user population and training goal.

For barbell work, a general lifting space can use the CAP Barbell 7' Black Olympic Weight Bar, while heavier powerlifting-style squat and deadlift work may call for a dedicated power bar such as the Iron Cowboy Powerlifting Bar. For loading, compare urethane Olympic plates with grips and American Barbell rubber Olympic grip plates when building a repeatable plate system for heavy squat and deadlift training.

Deadlift and Squat Training FAQ

Why does Marty Gallagher say a bigger squat improves the deadlift?

Marty’s deadlift method uses leg power to break the bar from the floor. If the legs are strong enough to launch the bar while the shins stay vertical and the shoulders stay over the bar, the lifter can save the hip-hinge for the sticking point and finish the pull more efficiently.

What is the Maryland deadlift style?

The Maryland deadlift style is Marty’s name for the Cassidy-Chaillet conventional deadlift technique. It emphasizes a straight-line pull, vertical shins, a narrow stance, low coiled hips, shoulders over the bar at launch, leg drive from the floor, and a hip-hinge fired later in the lift.

Why are vertical shins important in the deadlift?

Vertical shins help the bar travel upward in a straighter line. When the knees are too far forward at launch, the bar is more likely to drift forward, forcing the lifter to pull it back into position and making lockout harder.

Should every lifter start the deadlift with low hips?

No. The low-hip start described here is predicated on strong legs and proper position. Marty’s point is that if a lifter cannot break the bar from the floor while maintaining the correct start position, the answer is not to fake the lift with higher hips; the answer is to build leg power and improve the squat.

Who were Roger Estep and John Gamble in this article?

Roger Estep and John Gamble are used as examples of the Maryland deadlift style in action. Marty describes Estep’s coiled launch position and Gamble’s 845-pound deadlift finish to show how powerful squat legs, vertical shins and a reserved hip-hinge can shape a successful pull.

What equipment supports deadlift and squat training?

A practical setup includes a quality Olympic bar or power bar, reliable weight plates, and a rack or cage that supports heavy squatting. Depending on the room, lifters can use a combo rack, half rack, power rack, or power cage along with plates that match the training environment.

Training Note

This article is powerlifting technique commentary, not medical advice or a universal training prescription. Heavy deadlifts, raw squats, low-rep triples and fives, maximal pulls and advanced technique work require technical control, appropriate loading, proper setup, recovery, competent coaching when needed, and honest self-assessment. The useful lesson is not reckless poundage; the useful lesson is to build the squat, respect the bar path and make the deadlift position stronger from the floor up.

About the Author

As an athlete Marty Gallagher is a national and world champion in Olympic lifting and powerlifting. He was a world champion team coach in 1991 and coached Black's Gym to five national team titles. He's also coached some of the strongest men on the planet including Kirk Karwoski when he completed his world record 1,003 lb. squat. Today he teaches the US Secret Service and Tier 1 Spec Ops on how to maximize their strength in minimal time. As a writer since 1978 he’s written for Powerlifting USA, Milo, Flex Magazine, Muscle & Fitness, Prime Fitness, Washington Post, Dragon Door and now IRON COMPANY. He’s also the author of numerous books including Purposeful Primitive, Strong Medicine, Ed Coan’s book “Coan, The Man, the Myth, the Method" and numerous others. Read the Marty Gallagher biography here.