How to Deadlift

Sorry for no post in a while, been studying up on more saturated fat and cholesterol literature. But anyway this weeks article is on deadlifting.

i) The Name and Benefits

In the common gym circles, the "deadlift" is (unfortunately) often synonymous with a high risk of injury and often seen as generally precarious exercise. It's probably for this reason - more than any other, that the deadlift has been ostracized and neglected from most peoples training regiments.

This is a grave mistake as the deadlift offers an array of unique benefits. Ones that are manifested specifically in the deadlift per se, and cannot be achieved elsewhere. The deadlift works more muscles than any other exercise (even the squat). The efficacy of the deadlift lies in the fact that it's unequivocally the absolute greatest developer of the total posterior chain. No other exercise can conceivably produce the same effect, period.

The deadlift also works a shit-ton of muscles. Including but not limited to -  quads, hamstrings, glutes, abductors, erectors, lats, abs, traps, forearms and the tongue while yelling obscenities etc).

Another great thing is that the deadlift builds functional strength. This can be simple things like posture to more useful and practical things like picking up heavy objects off the ground.

The name itself is called a 'dead'-lift simply because the weight starts at the floor on each rep - at a dead stop. I'll discuss this more later but essentially you should not be bouncing the weight up (aka touch 'n' go). The deadlift is devoid from any stretch reflex, in theory this means there is no eccentric portion of the lift. This is why the deadlift is such a fucking hard exercise and will tax your muscular and nervous system like no other.

ii) The Setup

So, you have the loaded bar on the ground.  Now what?  Well before you decide to wrench your back into a question mark trying to pick the weight up, set it (and yourself) up correctly.  The setup is the most difficult and longest part of getting ready for any exercise.

iii) Bar Height

First, be sure that the bar you are using is around 8 inches.  This is the standard radius of a 45lb (20kg) plate from the edge of the plate to the edge of opening for the bar.  Optimally, you should use an Olympic barbell.

There are two reasons for using an Olympic bar: (a) you don't want the bar to bend and get destroyed and more importantly, (b) 1-inch plates (that fit on a regular bar) aren't the correct height.  If you lift less than 135lbs as many beginners do, unless you use training plates of the same height as 45lb plates, then you need to stack up some plates, or something that will give you a total height of ~ 8 inches.  When you have gotten the bar at the correct height then proceed.

iv) Stance

The most common stance to take is one with feet shoulder width apart and toes pointed slightly outward. For most people it is your static jumping position, which is the position in which you can achieve the greatest power output. We do not want to take an extra wide stance here because this is not a squat (forget sumo's). We also do not want an extra narrow stance because this eliminates any hip activation.  The toes pointing out slightly also aids hip activation and encourages the proper tracking of the knee.

To continue about stance, this part will be about distance from the bar.  The bar should be around 1 inch away from your shin when standing straight up. The bar should ideally be in the middle of your foot.  That is, not in the middle of the front part of your foot, but in the middle of your entire foot, from heel to toe. This will place the bar approximately an inch from your shin.  A little less or a little more depending on your proportions. At first this will seem that your hips are too high, but this fixes itself (read on).

v) Gripping and Preparing for the Pull

First, bend over with straight knees and grip the bar. Your hands should be on the outside of your knees, not too much further - in fact, they should be just far apart for you to clear your knees on the way up.  Grip the bar with a suitable grip (more on this later)

After gripping, bend the knees so that the shins touch the bar.  Do not move the bar, just touch it.  Your back will be bent now. Straighten it. This means flex your spinal erectors so that the lower back is flat. As a result your hips will come down a tad perfectly into position.  Keep your arms straight, the whole time, and raise the chest without looking up.  You should look slightly downward, but with a raised chest.  Imagine a tennis ball under your chin and you having to move your chest upwards to keep it there.

This next part is crucial, and it really helped me to get the form right.  Make sure that your scapula's are over the bar. Keeping your actual shoulder in front or behind the bar is subjective, so just choose what's comfortable. The arms will make approximately a 10 degree angle with the bar path.

If you done everything right, you should be in this exact position:

Notice that the arms are not hanging straight down.  They are angled.  Also take into account that because of this, you will have to engage the lats to keep the bar against your leg. The natural tendency will be to let it hang out, but that's wrong because the bar will not be over the mid food anymore. I will not go over the anatomical importance of this position as it exceeds the span of this guide, but know that it makes sense, and is correct.

Also notice that the shins are nearly straight. If this is necessary for the shoulder blades to be over the bar, and the bar to be over the mid foot, then so be it.

Now, tighten your upper back, take a deep breath, hold it (Valsalva Maneuver - very important) and get ready to PUSH.

vi) The Pull

Wait.... push?  That's right. Technically this is a pull, but it helps to think of it as a push. Think of driving your heels into the ground when you do the movement. The force transfers acutely through the heels and into the ground.  That is because the motion you first should think about is knee extension.

There are three angles to keep in mind. The torso to ground angle (aka back angle), the hip to ground angle (ground being an imaginary line that runs parallel to the ground splitting your torso and legs, that runs through your hips) and knee angle.  The knee angle opens up first.  This is accomplished by knee extension.  You will never correctly lift what your quads cannot handle, so these move first.  Keep the glutes tight as they aid the movement and subsequently the hip angle begins to open up and the bar brings to clear the knees.  Once it does the back angle now opens up and drags the bar up the thighs to the semi- lockout position. There is a lot of crossover with these movements, and the transition between them should be fluid and seamless. The knees do not fully extend until the bar is on the thighs, at this point, bring the hips back forward to complete the lift.

Remember - the lower back stays in rigid isometric contraction to keep the back angle the same. When the bar clears the knees the torque is reduced on the lower back so it is safe to lock out the knees, and tighten the glutes, bringing the hips forward and opening the back angle.

All the while, you should be keeping your shoulders down (unshrugged) and your back and arms tight.  Do not make any attempts to bend at the elbow and keep the bar against your leg the whole time.  Do not dig a trench into your leg, but keep the bar against the leg so that the bar path is as vertical as possible.  Also remember to keep the chest raised ('proud') and back straight the whole time.

vii) Lockout and Reset

Despite the hardest part being over, the lockout deserves its own section. Lockout is accomplished by having straight knees, straight arms, straight back, and looking forward.  Chest is still high. Do not shrug your shoulders. They are back, down and back. That is it. No extra fiddling is necessary. Do not hyper-extend or over-exaggerate the lockout as many people do. Not only can this injure your back, but you look like an idiot. Do not let your breath out yet.

To reset, simple do in reverse what you did to lift the bar, except faster since you're essentially doing a controlled drop of the bar.  Nevertheless, do not re-lift until the bar is safely on the floor and has no upwards kinetic energy due to any bounce.  Re-achieve the same position aforementioned.  Don't bend the knees too early or the bar will have to go around them and dig a hole in your shins.  What you essentially want is a vertical bar path.  Now let your breath out, assess your stance and grip, and correct any deviation, take a big breath and start again.

Troubleshooting

Read this at your discretion - I won't underline what's important because it's mostly all important and not everyone has these problems.

Grip:

Always go for double overhand as that is the easiest and most conventional.  For heavier pulls, you may want to switch to a mixed grip, but only do this after completely exhausting your double overhand (pronated).

When pulling with a mixed grip, do not attempt to flex the bicep of that arm. Use chalk if your hands are sweaty, this will do wonders for grip strength. Also, grip the bar close to the fingers (not palms) this reduces the formation of calluses.

A word on straps: use them only if the grip is seriously impeding your lifting.  Do not use them until your working set if anything, and if you can handle using a normal strapless grip (mixed or double overhand) do that instead. Obviously, if you use straps, use a double overhand grip for that.

Footwear:

Squatting/Olympic shoes are good (and expensive).  For most people, barefoot is the best, and next are compressible shoes such as a good old pair of Chucks.

Why you shouldn't bounce:

Bouncing is detrimental because it helps you out in the first few inches of the movement.  As diminutive as it may seem, this is actually very important. These few inches are what develops the lower back and legs the most. If you bounce, you don't work as hard in this part of the ROM, leading you to think you can increase weight whereas the reality is that you cannot. If you bounce, the first rep is always unbounced, while the successive reps are. So, when you increase weight you pull the first rep with a curved back since it is weak and cannot remain rigid, and throw your back.  Then you complain that deadlifts are dangerous and bad for your back when you're just doing the exercise wrong.

Why you shouldn't pull with bent arms:

Pulling with bent arms (elbow flexion) is a great way to tear your biceps.  Unless you can curl the weight that you deadlift (lol) the biceps will not be able to support all the force being put on it to open up while you give it the signal to close the elbow angle.  You telling it to contract and the bar prying it open is a recipe for disaster.  If you have particularly strong biceps, you can tear the tendon which is not only painful, but takes time to recuperate from.  So in sum, do not lift the bar with bent arms - especially while using a mixed grip as the tendency is greater then, when one of the palms faces up.

Final Words

The deadlift is an incredibly important exercise. Learn how to do the fucking thing then thank me later when your back looks like a rugged mountain. Anyway there is no point in me regurgitating myself, what has been said is pretty straight-forward, but if in any case you don't get something just hit me up.  And last but not least - drink your fucking whole milk. You are a baby mammal, do what your supposed to do.      - Nemo