Not sure what you think about this, but I feel like there are people who can deadlift, and people who can squat.
I like low-bar squats, but I was never very strong in them(~1/2 my DL weight), they hurt my knees, and I've tweaked my back several times doing them.
I freaking love DLs. They feel amazing, they actually seem to fix my back pain, and I'm just downright strong in them(compared to my maxes in nearly every other exercise).
Now, I also have to say that as a 45 year old who has now gone through shoulder surgery, and gave up anything beyond farmers carries( * ) when it comes to weightlifting, that most people should just stick to cardio. I feel somuchbetter now that I'm doing crazy hikes again and not carrying around a bunch of useless muscle. I'm better in bed, I feel less pain, I have more energy, and I'm not spending all day worrying about protein targets. To each their own. Weightlifting was fun and being big is kinda satisfying, but it's not something I will recommend anymore.
* - I'll probably get a bar and some plates to resume lower weight(275 or less), higher rep DLs once I move out of the bay area and have the space.
What it seems like is most people enthusiastic about weight lifting spend far too much time near their physical limits trying to increase that maximum target and end up with a growing list of increasingly permanent injuries. If your goal for exercising is to be good at exercising, I just don’t get it, and I have experienced far too many people who treated exercising as their lifestyle and appeared by any reasonable metric to be addicted.
I'm the same as you. I am embarrassingly weak at squats. I have done 140kg for reps (I'm 78kg), but it just doesn't feel right. Eventually the mental load just became too much so I stopped squatting.
But deadlifts I seem naturally good at. I did a 200kg deadlift (2.5x bodyweight) which I'm proud of, but honestly I think I could go much heavier if I really wanted to train it. But I decided to leave it there as the risk of injury becomes too high after that. Nowadays I don't train it regularly but find I can still deadlift 160kg (2x bodyweight) at any time. It really helps my back and my shoulders.
FWIW like you I was always much better at deadlifting than squatting (my deadlift was always about 50% more than my squat). Since the pandemic, I've been using kettlebells and really been enjoying them, specifically kettlebell front squats. The weight being offset forward allows you to stay very upright and it destroys your upper back and core. Feels so good, the way I imagine squatting feels for people who are naturally good at squatting. I feel like I'm able to power through the sticking point at the bottom instead of wondering if I'll be crushed under the weight.
> Well, kind of. Squats have different limitations than DLs. But even a kid can squat (and their knees do go past their toes so cut the BS about that)
What BS? This strikes me as an incredibly naive take on squats and people's ability to do them. Likewise, a kid is a bizarre benchmark, because they haven't yet had decades to abuse their body. Duck feet/knocking knees/knee valgus or even shin splits will make squats incredibly uncomfortable if not implausible to do with correct form. Add to that years of being a software dev. I imagine there are many other conditions that would start you at -2 or more in terms of progression.
I'm not talking about a kid squatting with weight. I'm talking about simply squatting on the floor. It's a natural movement and one that's learned early.
I like low-bar squats, but I was never very strong in them(~1/2 my DL weight), they hurt my knees, and I've tweaked my back several times doing them.
I freaking love DLs. They feel amazing, they actually seem to fix my back pain, and I'm just downright strong in them(compared to my maxes in nearly every other exercise).
Now, I also have to say that as a 45 year old who has now gone through shoulder surgery, and gave up anything beyond farmers carries( * ) when it comes to weightlifting, that most people should just stick to cardio. I feel so much better now that I'm doing crazy hikes again and not carrying around a bunch of useless muscle. I'm better in bed, I feel less pain, I have more energy, and I'm not spending all day worrying about protein targets. To each their own. Weightlifting was fun and being big is kinda satisfying, but it's not something I will recommend anymore.
* - I'll probably get a bar and some plates to resume lower weight(275 or less), higher rep DLs once I move out of the bay area and have the space.