What Muscles Do Deadlifts Work?

In the time-tested weight-room classic known as the deadlift, muscles from your shoulders to your calves are engaged. With full-body lifts like this one, it’s little wonder that weightlifting is making its way into programs for general fitness, sports performance and even rehabilitation.

As the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) puts it, “in terms of positive changes and strength progressions, there are few substitutes for the deadlift.” But choose your variation wisely, because different deadlifts target different muscles.

Deadlifting is an integrated exercise (also known as a compound exercise), which means it engages muscle groups throughout the whole body, according to the American Council on Exercise (ACE).

The traditional deadlift mainly targets the gluteus maximus (yes, it’s a butt-building exercise), but it also engages key muscles like the quadriceps, hamstrings and erector spinae (the muscles along your spine).

As you prepare to deadlift, your hamstrings stretch and your quadriceps stabilize your body to help flex your knees and hips (aka hip hinge). During knee flexion, the back of the thigh moves toward the lower leg to bend the joint.

During the main part of the lift, hip extension occurs when you “open” your hip joints so the angle between your hip and thigh increases. In a deadlift, the glutes, hamstrings and adductors (the muscles along your inner thighs) work together to extend the hips.

The hip extension that’s so vital to the deadlift puts a critical focus on the gluteus maximus muscles, which are located behind your hips. But the glutes aren’t the only muscles invited to the deadlift party.

No less than four key muscles act as synergists during the full movement of the deadlift, according to ExRx.net. During exercise, synergists are the muscles that help other muscles complete a movement. For standard barbell deadlifts, these four muscles include:

1. The ‌quadriceps‌ (quads) at the front of your thigh extend from below your hip to just above your knee.
2. The ‌adductor magnus‌ along your inner thigh just below your groin on either side.
3. The ‌hamstrings‌ along the rear of your thigh extend from below your glutes to just above your knees.
4. The ‌soleus‌, long, thin muscles on either side of the back of the mid-calf.

Deadlifts involve the quads as they propel the extension of the knee. Meanwhile, the soleus flexes the ankle, helping the shins return to their upright position at the end of the lift.

Stabilizers are muscles that help, well, stabilize your body during exercise, per ExRx.net. As you complete an exercise like the deadlift, these muscles contract without making noticeable movements to help you maintain your posture.

And when you have heavy weight on the bar (or when you deadlift with heavy dumbbells), the stabilizing contraction is enough to work those muscles, too. In a classic deadlift, stabilizers include:

1. The ‌erector spinae‌, which includes the heads of the iliocastalis, longissimus and spinalis muscles, extends from the base of your skull to the bottom of your pelvis.
2. The ‌middle trapezius‌ is in the middle of the back of your shoulder blades.
3. The ‌upper trapezius‌ sits at the tops of your shoulders, extending up into the base of your skull.
4. The ‌levator scapulae‌ connects the outside of your neck and shoulders.
5. The ‌rhomboids‌ of the mid-back extend from your spine to your shoulder blades.

The erector spinae is particularly important here, because it’s what keeps the spine rigid at the top of the exercise and facilitates movement from your shoulders to your hips in its flexed position.

Once your torso is angled forward, the middle trapezius and rhomboids stabilize your shoulders. When you’re more upright, the upper trapezius and levator scapulae kick in.

There’s a bit more to the stabilizers than isometrically contracting. During compound movements, dynamic stabilizers shorten and lengthen to assist in joint stabilization, countering the force of the antagonist stabilizers to keep your body steady and balanced.

Often activated during isolated exercise, antagonist stabilizers are contracted at the extreme end of the movement in question to stabilize the joints, contracting against the forces putting the muscles into motion.

In a deadlift, those dynamic stabilizers include:

1. The ‌gastrocnemius‌ muscles make up the bulk of the upper rear calves and contract and expand just a little as your knees extend and your ankles flex during a deadlift.
2. The ‌rectus abdominis‌, or abs, come into play as antagonist stabilizers, as do the obliques (the large, flat muscles along the sides of your torso). These two muscles pull against the erector spinae during your deadlift, according to ExRx.net.

Performing the classic barbell deadlift — or any other sort of lift, for that matter — with proper form is crucial not only for safety and reducing the risk of injury, but also for effectively engaging your muscles.

When performing more than one rep, don’t let the barbell “settle” into the ground. Instead, tap and lift quickly, which allows for a full range of motion while enhancing your overall muscle engagement.

Engage your core from the start, and keep it braced as you push through your heels to stand, to make sure you’re abs are working through the entire movement, according to the National Institute for Fitness and Sport.

To keep your back engaged, avoid rounding your shoulders during the upward movement and give your glutes a little squeeze at the top. Keeping the weight in your heels during the downward motion also helps keep your glutes and hamstrings in play.

When you perform it properly, you should feel a barbell deadlift in your glutes and at the backs of your thighs. What you should ‌not‌ feel during your lift is strain on your back. Keeping the back straight and flat and returning the weight to the floor by flexing the hips helps prevent back issues, according to the ACE.

Mixing up the way you do your deadlift changes which muscles are working more or less. You can change your stance or the type of resistance you use in deadlift variations.

The barbell stiff-leg deadlift, for example, focuses more on the erector spinae than a traditional deadlift. Sumo deadlifts rely more on the hips than the spine and increase glute engagement. Dumbbell deadlifts place a greater emphasis on stabilizer muscles.

Bottom line: There’s no shortage of deadlift variations you can test. Once you get comfortable with the traditional version and feel confident in your form, experiment with a few that work best for you.

Alongside the many muscles this compound movement strengthens (as mentioned above), it can also help improve your general movement patterns in daily life, like when you lift a box or heavy suitcase.

The exercise can even help improve bone density, increase metabolic rate and even decrease back pain, according to the NSCA. Learn more about deadlift benefits.