Tips » Weight Training
Should I be able to lift the same weight for both squats and stiff-legged dead-lifts?
Strength ratios are a matter of debate. Typically, you should be able to deadlift more than a squat. However, a dead-lift is not the same as the stiff-legged dead-lift. When comparing ratios, the common advice I have read is about a 3:2 ratio of quads to hamstrings. The reasons why quads are slightly dominant is because we are walking creatures so by nature we do more push than pull with our legs. The problem is that most people then do push first in the gym - everyone does squats before dead-lifts - so that just pushes the imbalance further.
Of course, because the squat and stiff-legged dead-lift are compound movements it is difficult to really assess a correlation, too many variables. A better means is to compare an isolation movement like the leg extension to the leg curl. Here, having a 3:2 is probably a good target to shoot for. I don't know of any literature that would suggest having a 1:1 would be detrimental but I know that over-dominance of the quadriceps can lead to knee, hip, and lower back issues.