It honestly wasn’t until I started to realize I didn’t like how much muscle I had in certain areas of my body —- that you can’t workout a certain way and lift like a powerlifter if you want to bring up specific things without bringing up others. And I’m going to explain that more in depth so keep reading -
When you do a deadlift you do not only work your glutes - you also work your hamstrings, your transverse abdominis, your rectus abdominis, lower back, your upper back to keep your shoulder blades tucked back, etc.
You have to have a certain level of strength in your CORE and your entire “trunk” (if you will), to lift heavier and heavier in that specific exercise. Compound lifts come with a price. No one on stage or even in life wants to grow their waist.
Being someone who wants to build certain aspects of their body (or it’s entirety) isn’t just being big, it’s knowing how to bring up certain areas and sculpt your body in certain ways without becoming a blob.
Sure, you don’t want to be a bodybuilder but you’ll eventually find that you’ll have to do the same types of things to accomplish your physique goals.
So this is where mind and muscle come in. It’s not just about having a certain muscle split every week - it’s also narrowing down what your goal is with each muscle group. For instance, with every leg day I do, I actually never have the goal of building my hamstrings or quads anymore. So when I go to do my sumo squats on the smith machine or a squat machine, I go light enough to make sure I’m pushing my glutes (solely) but hard enough to maximize my time/making progress with them. And I always make sure to do an isolated exercise beforehand to make sure my glutes are primed.
It’s the same idea with other compound lifts.
Because unless your goal is to build your:: butt, hamstrings, transverse and rectus abdominis, lower back, upper traps etc., in a deadlift - if you are lifting just to move the most weight possible - especially for 1-5 reps - you might as well step into a powerlifting meet.