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Deadlifting is the best back exercise, plain and simple. It
hits your spinal erectors, traps, posterior delts, and lats.
As well your legs are taxed as the glutes, hamstrings, psoas
and quads are all involved in this lift.
Do if it's such a great exercise why don't more people use
it in their exercise program? Firstly, it is very taxing on
the system and your lower back. Many people don't like this
feeling of pain and exhaustion that comes with a good dead
lift workout. Secondly, it is very difficult to learn on one's
own. Most people don't know how to perform this lift nor describe
it properly to a novice lifter.
Deadlifting Basics
You stand behind a barbell that is placed on the floor
in front of you. Deadlift takes this barbell from the
floor to resting around hip level. Now return the bar
to the floor.
Not very descriptive? Well that's because there is 3 variations
of deadlift to describe: conventional, sumo and straight
leg.
Conventional: Your stance is about shoulder
width apart with your feet pointed ahead to slightly out.
You should now lower your butt until your quads are roughly
parallel to the floor. The bar should be just ahead of
your shins. Now grip the barbell with both hands so that
your grip is spaced slightly outside your legs. With a
lumbar arch in your back push with your legs and lift
with your back |
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| simulaneously so that the bar clears your
knees and comes to rest at your hips. Your shoulders and
knees should be locked fully and your arms should be straight
during the entire attempt. Conventional deadlifts stress
your lower back, glutes and hamstrings primarily. |
Sumo: This variation is often used in powerlifting
meets as a way to reduce the stress on the lower back at the
starting position. The key difference between the sumo and
conventional styles is the foot positioning and grip. In sumo
you place your feet out wide (I've seen sumo lifts with feet
near the collars... typically though they're about 12"
outside your shoulders or so.) and your grip comes inside
your legs. Your hands should be in the centre of the bar about
4-6" apart. In this position your back should be alot
more straight then in the conventional style. Sumo deads require
a lot of glute, hamstring and hip flexor involvement.
Straight Leg: Similar to the conventional
deadlift except the starting position is at the hip and you
lower the barbell to around mid shin (this depends on a few
factors.) and then your straighten back to a standing postition.
The big thing to remember here is the arch in your back. Many
people go down way too far and round their back in the lowering
portion of this exericse. As soon as your back goes flat you're
at your limit... do not continue past this point. Straight
leg deadlifts primarily involve the hamstrings and spinal
erectors.
Placement of the Bar
The bar should start about 1" away from your
shins and stay about this far away until you clear your knees.
From this point to the hips the bar should just barely clear
your thighs. With heavier weight and going to failure you
might experience dragging of the bar against your thighs as
the top of this lift.
Many people also experience bruises and nicks from the bar
on their shins. This has a lot to do with one's body type
and lifting style. Remember to push with your legs simultaneously
as you pull with your back. You also can widen your stance
which should reduce this problem.
Hand Grip
There are two styles of grip for deadlift, the overhand
and the alternate grip. In the overhand grip both palms of
the hands face the floor with the thumbs underneath the bar.
This is a pronated grip. The biggest problem with this grip
style is that with heavier weights the bar tends to slip from
the hands. This is why many deadlifters prefer the alternate
method. In the alternate method one hand is a supinated (palm
toward the ceiling) and the other is pronated (towards the
floor.) Thus the bar does not slip away from the grip. You
might also want to change grip orientation (change pronated
to supinated on one hand and vice versa with the other) between
each deadlift set just to work your forearms and back evenly.
I personally don't believe in wrist straps... with the alternate
grip I can easily hold 600+ lbs without any danger of slipping.
If you do choose to use straps in the deadlift I suggest doing
as many reps and sets you can without them and then add them
once you've pushed your grip to failure. Challenge yourself
to improve your grip over time so that you won't need the
straps... your grip strength is an important asset in the
iron game.
The Movement
I'll deal with the movement in two parts: one for
conventional and sumo and the other for straight leg dead
lifts.
Conventional/Sumo: Now that the bar is correctly
aligned and you've chosen your grip style it's time to move
that beast. You should be in a squatting position with a good
lumbar arch. A good tip to do this is to elevate your eyes
and look at a point about 8" above you. Do not tip forward...
keep the weight back solidly through your heels. Now drive
your heels into the ground and push with your legs while at
the same time straighten your back. The key here is the simultaneous
push. People who start their leg drive too early or late usually
do too much back work.
Lock the legs and shoulders out at the top of the lift. This
puts a good emphasis on the hamstrings, traps and deltoids.
Do not let your knees buckle in and then out. Keep them in
line with your legs at all time. Too much lateral movement
can be dangerous on your knees.
Do not round your back at any time! This is very important...
if you round your back to get that last rep you're risking
a terrible injury that might set you back months or totally
end your weightlifting career. If you cannot do deadlifts
with good form anymore then you're done. Get some rest before
your next step.
Lower the weight with the legs and back in a controlled manner
to the start position.
Straight Leg: Start with the bar at your
hip level and slowly lower the bar until your back flattens.
Keep looking up at that stop 8" above you at all times
during this lowering process. Now slowly reverse the motion
and bring the bar back up to lock at the top position. Keep
your legs locked or slightly bent at most. Do not bend your
legs during the lift... they should stay static (ie. not move)
from start to finish.
If you keep the bar close to your legs this exercise is primarily
a lower back/spinal erector exercise with some hamstring involvement.
If you attempt to keep the bar away from your legs (I try
to envision a plane through my toes that I keep the bar outside
of.) this exercise heavily involves the hamstrings and doesn't
effect the lower back as much. You might not be able to go
down quite so far with the bar away from the legs though as
there is a tendancy to tip forward... this is OK.
Deadlift Don'ts
If you do any of the following it is likely that
you need to correct your form.
• Do not round your back in any deadlifting movement.
This will make your back vulnerable to injury if you do so.
Concentrate on keeping the lumbar arch in place, keep the
chest forward, shoulders back and look up with your eyes.
• Do not jerk the movement. It should be smooth from
top to bottom. Quick movements put a lot of strain on your
spine. You should avoid this in your regular routines.
• Do not tip forward or move your feet during this lift.
If you do this signifies that you're off balance and risking
a back injury. Keep the weight back, push through your heels
and keep the weight as close to your centre of gravity as
possible.
• Do not hitch the bar... ie. Jerk the bar up and down
in the middle of the movement in order to get past a sticking
spot.
• Do not let your knees bow in and out during this lift.
Lateral movement is dangerous for the knees. If you seem to
pull too much with your back or push too much with your legs
you might want to concentrate on doing the leg push and back
pull in a simultaneous manner.
• Do not go really heavy all at once. When I started
deadlifts it was with a weight of 95 lbs. I concentrated on
the form and slowly built my spinal erectors over time. In
the past year I've quadrupled that number for the same reps.
Do not rush your deadlift... remember slow and steady progress
is the safest way to get to your goal.
• Do not rush your rest and recuperation when doing
this exercise. The deadlift is very taxing on your entire
system. I would advice doing it once a week at most if you're
taking it to failure. Also allow plenty of rest between squats
and deadlifts in your workout scheduling IMHO.
By Garry Hollmen
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