Photo: TonyGentilCore.com
When it first started becoming popular in the late 1800s, the deadlift became known as the “health lift” because it was so beneficial. Every contest that involves a show of strength–from the Highland Games to the CrossFit Games to, obviously, the World’s Strongest Man–requires competitors to get a heavy weight off the ground. OK, you might not be trying to bend a bar like The Mountain from Game of Thrones, but you should still include the deadlift in your lifting repertoire because it allows you to build strength and power and test the integrity of your hip hinge in a brief amount of time. Indeed, you could just do deadlifts a couple of times a week (following a 10 minute aerobic warmup and some movement-specific prep–see (Travis Jewett’s Dad Strong for pointers) and call it good for the day.
The trouble is that people–particularly us guys–tend to make compromises to get more weight off the ground. We let our shoulders slump forward, our back round and our knees cave in. Whatever it takes to set that PR, right? But even if we don’t get injured in the moment, there will be a reckoning when these cheats will come home to roost in the form of a herniated disc, a torn labrum or umpteen other potential injuries that let us know it’s never OK to cheat your position to achieve an outcome. Here are a few tips to help you perform the deadlift more safely and sustainably, whether you’re using an empty bar or loading up those 45-pound plates on each side:
Get Your Quads Involved
No, the deadlift isn’t a squat. But you see all too many folks trying to heave a heavy weight off the floor just using a hip hinge. This not only puts their spine in jeopardy but also takes one of the strongest muscle groups in the body–the quads–out of the equation. To help protect your back and tap into more power, try bending your legs more and then as you start the pull, pushing your feet into the ground like you were trying to shove it away.
Set Your Scapula & Fire Your Lats
With the deadlift, we often think about the lower back because that’s what hurts if we’re deadlifting with poor form. But what we fail to realize is that areas further up the posterior chain are also critical. One of these is the musculature of the thoracic spine and, moving to the outside of your back, those fan-shaped lats. To help get these muscles more involved, pull your shoulder blades back and down after you wrap your hands around the bar. Also, make sure that your hands are positioned outside of shoulder width apart, otherwise you’re short changing your lats and what they can bring to the lift.
Don’t Be All in Your Heels
Because we’re taught to pull the bar back as well as up, many of us end up with all of our weight on our heels. Sure, this can help fire the glutes (see: butt muscles) and the other muscles of the posterior chain. But just like we discussed in tip #1, it can also minimize the role of the quads and the other muscles along the front of our body (anterior chain). So when you’re setting up to grip the bar, try to consciously put some of your weight over your forefoot and toes. Then screw your feet into the ground (left foot counterclockwise, right foot clockwise) to create stabilizing torque at the hips that will help set a strong relationship between your pelvis and lumbar spine. Keeping the big toe on the ground is crucial to maintaining this force throughout the lift.
