Funny how you can acknowledge that dls can aid in movements that don't exactly mimic their range of motion, yet believe that bench presses can only aid in a very narrow, specific range of motion. There is no wrong way to open a door, at least when it comes to where your hands are positioned in relation to your chest. But the description of opening a heavier door is just wrong. You only have to resort to relying on lower body strength if you don't have enough upper body strength. And increased upper body strength/ pushing power categorically aids in that.
I didn't say anything about dl only helping in daily activities that duplicate the trajectory of a deadlift. What I did say is that I don't think there is any overwhelming benefit from it for the majority of average people. Like I said earlier, any activity is preferable to being sedentary, but most people aren't lifting or moving heavy items often enough where regular, intense deadlifting will actually have an affect on quality of life.
Me thinking DLs aren't an effective exercise has nothing to do with them being hard or even me not liking them. I love working out and performing deadlifts is not less appealing to me than other exercises.I haven't limited them in my workouts because they are hard, I've done it because their effectiveness is so questionable. Even after dropping them regularly, I still occasionally do them and my strength on them has not dropped precipitously. The last time I did them about 2 weeks ago, I pulled 4 1/4 plates for 8 reps at the end of a workout. I maintained a fairly consistent strength level because of heavy back and leg work. I would never expect to keep any gains on back and leg exercises by focusing on dls. I think one of the reasons people get so defensive about how useful and essential deads are is because the numbers are such an ego boost. Yet almost all proponents are vague about what the benefits of dl'ing are. That's just not the case with other exercises.
In my over ten years on this board this is the first I think I can speak on the behalf of everybody else on this thread. No gives a crap whether you DL or not, or even what you think of the DL. This thread would be long dead if it wasn't for the fact that you spread so much misinformation.
First of all, there is such a thing as opening a door the wrong way. You can pull when it should be pushed for one thing. But more pertinent to the discussion is how you open the door. Try to push open a door near the hinges rather than the edge of the door. Huge difference in leverage. You can't budge even the lightest of door by pushing at the hinge. And, as with all things in moving or lifting something, you want to employ your legs as much as possible. If some is pushing a heavy door open by pushing with their arms and not leaning into it they are simply opening the door wrong.
And considering that the back is one of the most common problems people have and a weak in our structural design, having a strong back will prove to be very useful and improve the quality of life for anybody. You certainly use your back more, whether it's picking up your dropped pen or lifting an a/c out of your truck, than you would doing a bench press movement.
And doing some serious DL in the gym is going to get you in much better physical condition than doing the bench press.
You should just say that doing DL is not a top priority for those primarily interest in developing pretty muscles and just leave it at that. Trying to put forth the argument that the bench press is a more useful and functional movement than the DL is a losing proposition.
