Keep Grinding, Keep Getting Better!

Deadlifts are an amazing full-body workout that stresses everything in your body making everything grow. It hits your glutes, hammies, quads, core, traps, lats, delts, and forearms. It basically hits it all. With that being said, it is a fairly risky movement if not done properly so extra caution should be taken to make sure you perfect your technique as it is an easy movement to load up more than you are capable leaving you prone to injury. Just because you can do it doesn't mean you should do it, especially with sloppy form. You can destroy your back, hurt your spine, pop a bicep, or pull a hamstring. It's best to take your time, warm up properly, learn the lift, and slowly increase the weight and intensity. No need to rush. This will look at conventional deadlift as it translates to other movements and lifts more directly than sumo does.

Foot position

Jump up. Where you land is probably a good starting point for where your feet should be. A good athletic stance should have your feet slightly outside of shoulder width, but like anything, this completely depends on your body structure. Some people might go wider or more narrow depending on their leverages and strong points. Generally, you want your toes pointing forward, maybe turned out every so slightly. The more you turn your toes out the more it will engage your glutes.

Hip Hinge

The hardest thing to teach for the deadlift is the hip hinge. It's a foreign movement and idea for most people. I can tell someone to squat because you sit on the toilet every day so it's pretty natural. But, hinging at the hips to pick something off the ground is different. You want a slight bend in your knees, and with your shins staying more or less vertical, and your lumbar spine ( lower back) staying flat, you stick your butt back as far as you can. This initiates the descent moving your arms down and towards the bar. You don't want to round your upper back to move down, nor your lower back. Your spine should stay stiff and stable. Another mistake people make is they bend their knees forward to drop down to pick the bar up. Keep your shins vertical. This is difficult to explain via text. Photo and video will better demonstrate.

Head position

You want to keep your head neutral and more or less staring down at the floor in front of you. Alot of people crane their neck up towards the ceiling but it puts your spine in a not-so-optimal position. Just let you head and neck stay in the same plane as your spine.

Grip width

Put your hands directly down from your sides and grab the bar. This is the best position, but if you are anything like me, your knees get in the way. So you may have to shift your hands out slightly. You want to draw a line straight down and that's where you should put your hands. don't bring them in, only shift them out. You can do a double overhand grip which is harder and requires very good grip strength. Starting out over under grip is easier, but you can start to develop one side more than your other side over time because it is asymmetrical.

Bar Path

You want the bar to go generally in a straight line from the floor to your top position. Keep the bar as close to you as possible. Ideally, you want to drag it up your shins and thighs, for every inch that bar drifts away from you decreases your leverages and makes the weight feel way heavier and work against you. I usually wear long pants for deadlift day as I have had many bloody shins from pulling the bar in really hard. The closer the better.

Initiating the lift

Step up to the bar, get your feet set, brace your core, tighten your back, hip hinge down, and grab the bar. From here squeeze your lats really tight, pull the slack out of the bar, and squeeze your glutes, and drive through your heels to get the bar started off the ground. Pull the bar into you and don't let it drift away. When it gets just above your knees pull the bar up your thighs and squeeze your glues to lock out. Don't over-extend your back which a lot of people do, it just puts unnecessary stress on your lower back. Rinse and repeat.