Why Squat/Deadlift

People are always complaining about squatting/deadlifting because they "don't want to hurt their back" or pretend to already have some sort of back problems. The truth is, you're being a little bitch. Harsh, but its probably true. Squats and deadlifts are 2 of the best exercises, if not the best, for you to do (and if I had to choose 2 excercises to do for the rest of my life, it'd be these two). There literally is no reason not to do these.

I'll start with deadlifts since everyone seems to hate these. The thing that hurts me the most is people saying that "deadlifts are great if you don't want to walk when you're 30".

Now that I made you look weaker than this 75 year old grandma, we can throw away that preconceived notion that deadlifts are bad for your back. In fact, with proper form, they strengthen your lower back and teach you the proper way to pick shit up for the rest of your life, helping you prevent back strain and all that jazz. You get great forearm work (so you can stop doing forearm curls like a 14 year old pretty boy) and also hit your hamstrings hard, which is great if you're an athlete and do any type of running (which is most athletes). It even gives you monster traps, so you look like a badass and can scare little punks. I mean EXRX has a list of all the muscle groups it hits, so I don't really want to go into detail, but I mean damn, passing up this lift is like giving up the opportunity to build a solid foundation.

Squats aren't bad on your back either, so don't even go there.

61 year old squatting 105kg/231Lbs. Squats hit your quads better than the leg press ever will. Hell, when I was maxing out at 2 plates/225lbs, I was leg pressing over 800lbs. Squats, when done properly, hit your quads, back, hamstrings, quads, abs, spine, and quads. Did I say quads? They're even going to give your arms a little bit of work when you go up in weight and start having to stabilize the iron on your back from killing someone in the room. They burn more calories than cardio too. Squats are the end-all exercise, except if you preform them first, they fire up every muscle in your body and get your core running so you can put muscle on faster. Squats are the king of exercises  because they're easy and efficient. Also, for the ladies, they help you build a nicer butt, and contrary to belief, squatting heavy won't make you look like one of those female bodybuilders. They've been abusing steroids their entire lives to look like that.

Simply put, if you aren't squatting and deadlifting, you aren't strong. You might have huge arms and a great chest, but I could lay your ass out any day of the week. You can bench 400lbs with your big, strong, chest, but I can pick that shit up over my head and hit it into the floor with the power of a thousand suns. Your call - only the strong survive.