Many weightlifters and coaches find that deadlifting is much more tiring than squatting, and recovery is slower. That's why many people deadlift a few times a week; Some are even alerted by saying that they should not do this exercise if they are aiming for hypertrophy. Personally I am against this idea, and it is what we are going to compare next.
What exercise causes more muscle fatigue?
To this day, there is no empirical evidence to support the fatigue theory. Furthermore, little is known about the acute endocrine response in the heavy deadlift exercise and how it may differ from other similar compound exercises. Looking for studies to reflect on, I found a he wanted identify and compare acute, neuromuscular, and endocrine responses to squat and deadlift exercises.
Ten resistance-trained men participated, completing 10 sets of 8 repetitions at 2% repetition maximum. Maximal force of voluntary isometric contraction of the quadriceps, along with measures of central fatigue (voluntary activation and surface electromyography) and peripheral fatigue (electrically elicited control stimulus) were performed before and 95 and 5 minutes after exercise. Additionally, testosterone and cortisol were measured at these same time points.
EMG decreased over time, but no difference was observed between exercises. No changes in testosterone or cortisol were noted. And, although a higher absolute load and a higher volume load were completed in the deadlift, no difference in core fatigue was observed versus the squat.
The greater peripheral fatigue observed after the squat exercise may be due to the greater work done by the quadriceps with this exercise.
These results lead us to believe that separating periodization, decline, and programming may be unnecessary when performing squats and deadlifts to develop muscle strength.