Something I deeply dislike, as a Health Editor and qualified personal trainer, is when fitness influencers share bold and often baseless claims about the capabilities of a single exercise to spot-reduce fat, balance hormones, and overhaul your health (and then some). You see, research there’s no such "perfect" exercise that ticks all the boxes. That said, I do have favourites. Don’t tell the others, but the deadlift is my all-time number one. I love that they’re time-efficient and easy to modify for your current circumstances. Still wondering, how effective are deadlifts for building strength and improving your fitness? Allow me to explain.
The deadlift is a compound exercise, meaning it recruits multiple joints and muscles, at once. “It’s a lower body hip hinge bias variation,” says personal trainer Andy Vincent. “By that, I mean that as much as the knee bends, the hip is the main joint that has to flex during the movement, so therefore muscles around the hip are most likely to be engaged.” Glutes and hamstrings are the main movers in the exercise, he explains, but because the weight is held in the hands, the upper body – specifically, the core and the back – is also targeted.
