deadlift

Welcome to the King of exercises, aka; the Deadlift. This exercise deserves your undivided time and attention, as you familiarise yourself and dedicate your future in weightlifting to the continuous development of your Deadlift.

Truly, it is in a league of its own. This is an almost full body exercise, working more muscle groups than any other exercise. Furthermore, with the Deadlift you will move the most amount of weight. Making it the most powerful lift. Period.

Here we will delve into the fundamentals of this empowering exercise. First we will look at the muscles worked in more detail, then we will demonstrate how to perform the Deadlift, followed by its benefits, mistakes to avoid, reps and sets, progression techniques and alternative exercises that work similar muscle groups.

Muscles Worked When Performing a Deadlift

As mentioned above, the Deadlift recruits several muscle groups, and provides a full-body workout, see details of each muscle group below:

Quads: Located at the front of the thighs your quads play a huge part in your deadlift. Moreso when you pull a conventional deadlift. You can learn about the three main types of deadlift here.

Hamstrings: Your hamstrings (at the back of your thighs) are heavily recruited as you deadlift, in fact, this is one of a few muscle groups that you will really feel working, again, moreso if you pull conventional.

Glutes: Deadlifting sumo places additional emphasis on the glutes, but regardless of which deadlift variation you pull, your glutes are essential from start to finish.

Trapezius: Your traps are engaged as you pull your Deadlift, and because you’re pulling more weight than you would with any other exercise, your traps are going to be getting quite the workout.

Rhomboids: The rhomboids, at the upper central part of your back are also engaged during this exercise.

Adductors & Abductors: The adductors on the outer thigh are also engaged as you deadlift. And the abductors on your inner thigh are emphasised when you Deadlift with a sumo stance. A wider leg and foot position will naturally place more emphasis on the abductors as you pull.

Abs, Obliques & Core: It would be impossible for you to pull so much weight and not engage your entire core. The Deadlift is a wonderful exercise for building a strong core, because there is no other core exercise that could see you use as much resistance.

Erector Spinae: This muscle group that runs down your entire spinal cord is also recruited to help you deadlift. Strength in these muscles is beneficial for good posture and everyday functional strength.

Levator Scapulae: These muscles run down the back side of the neck and are fully engaged throughout the Deadlift.

Calves: Your calves are engaged from a secondary perspective.

Forearms: Although you don’t Deadlift with any upper body strength (it’s a hip hinge exercise, more details below), you still recruit the help of your forearms simply by gripping the bar and keeping a firm grip of it throughout the exercise.

Hands: Like the forearms, your hand muscles are also developed naturally as you Deadlift, because without these muscles you wouldn’t be able to grip the bar. As a result, deadlifting helps to develop your grip strength.

You can use the muscle highlighted image at the top of this page for a visual guide of the muscles worked.

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How to Perform a Deadlift

A Deadlift should do exactly what it says; ‘dead’ – lift; meaning you should pick the weight up ‘dead’ off the floor with every single rep. As a side note; this is not the case if you are performing a Romanian or Stiff Legged Deadlift which is a similar, but different exercise. This page is focused solely on the traditional Deadlift. So let’s get into how you do that:

1. Setup: To begin with, you’ll need a loaded barbell. If you are a complete beginner, practice this exercise using a fixed barbell and a couple of raisers (steps, or some weight plates). The start position of the bar on the floor should be around the bottom of your shins.

2. Bar Grip: Start by standing with your toes slightly under the bar and feet shoulder width apart, then reach down and grip the bar wherever you feel comfortable. Directly below your shoulders is the ideal position.

3. Get Into Position: While holding onto the bar, flatten your back and point your bum up in the air, look up, keep your chest high and your back neutral.

4. Brace Yourself: Before you enter into the lift, brace yourself for the load.

5. Pull: Then, dip your hips back ever so slightly and pull the bar up off the floor to hip height. Lock your knees and hips at the top as you squeeze your glutes.

6. Hold and Return: Finally; hold for a couple of seconds. Then slowly bring the bar back down to the floor, through the same controlled movement.

7. Hip Hinge: Be mindful that you are driving the weight through your hips and not ‘lifting’ with your arms.

8. Go for reps.

Other Weight Types You Can Use to Perform This Exercise

While the Olympic barbell method is optimal, you can also deadlift with a heavy Kettlebell. Perform the exact same steps as above, except with your hands gripping the handle of the kettlebell.

Benefits of the Deadlift

The Deadlift is the fastest and most efficient way to build multiple muscle groups with minimum movement. Below are some other benefits of this exercise:

Strength and Power: The Deadlift is by far the best exercise for building overall strength and power. No other exercise compares in terms of how much weight you will load onto the bar.

Muscle Builder: Like no other, this exercise will help you build more overall muscle faster than any other exercise.

Functional Strength: The strength that you build with this exercise is transferable into everyday activities, making your physical life much easier in general.

Full-Body Workout: As we have already explored above, the Deadlift works multiple muscle groups with minimum movement. On its own you can call it a complete workout.

Improved Posture: This exercise will improve your overall posture.

Improve Bone Density: Weight bearing exercises, over time, result in increased bone density, which means you will be fitter and stronger until much later in your life.

Metabolism Booster: Deadlifting uses the most muscle groups, allowing you to lift the most weight, which in turn means you will expend the most energy both during the exercise and in recovery.

Muscle Burns Fat: More lean muscle will boost your metabolism, which will help you to burn more fat. In terms of exercises to perform, because it targets the most muscle groups with the most weight, the Deadlift will help you to build lean muscle faster overall, helping you to burn more fat.

Deadlift: Common Mistakes to Avoid

Back Position: Maintain a neutral spine throughout the lift. Avoid rounding your back or hyperextending your lower back.

Pull Through Your Hips: You are not lifting this weight with your arms, you are pulling it through your hips, therefore there should be absolutely no attempt to lift the bar with your hands, arms or worse, your back!

Grip Strength: As you progress to heavier weights you might find that your grip is the first thing to cave. Don’t let this stop you, you have options; first you can consider using a mixed grip (one hand over, one hand under) or if you prefer lifting straps can help you progress your deadlift without letting your grip hold you back..

Form and Posture: There is no place for sloppy form when deadlifting, one wrong move and the back pain will be no joke. Take your form seriously, give this exercise the respect it deserves with every single rep.

Reps and Sets

This is a powerful exercise, and the Olympic barbell can seem a little daunting at first, especially if you’re not sure if you’ll be able to lift it. Something to keep in mind is that the wider bar distribution of the weight will feel different to a shorter bar, so always start with just the bar first so you can get a feel for it.

The number of reps and sets you perform depends on your current strength with this exercise.

Beginners: Start with simply mastering the move. Keep in mind that if you’re just starting out, 3 reps is a valid set.

To determine how many reps/sets of the Deadlift you should start with, you first need to figure out how many reps you can comfortably perform. Then add 2, and perform that number of reps for 3 sets.

For example; let’s say you can perform 4 reps comfortably. Add 2 to make 6 reps. Perform those 6 reps 3 times over, allowing yourself sufficient rest inbetween.

Experienced lifters: You know your body and its abilities better than anyone, use your own judgment.

We recommend that you avoid performing more than 12 reps per set. If you’re comfortably performing 12 reps for up to 6 sets, it’s time to make the exercise more challenging.

How to Make the Deadlift More Challenging

This is already one of the most challenging exercises to master, making it more challenging is simply a matter of increasing the weight on the bar.

You can also change your stance, whether you start with sumo or conventional, switch to the other, you’ll be surprised how much of a difference your foot position makes to weight distribution. You can get a visual representation of this here.

How to Incorporate the Deadlift into Your Workouts

The Deadlift is your workout. Everything else you do during that workout comes second to the Deadlift. You can incorporate this exercise into your Leg Workout, or your Back Workout, or a Full Body Workout. It doesn’t matter which you choose, what matters is that you build the rest of your workout plan around your Deadlift. These are the fundamentals of any good Weightlifting Workout Plan, you always build your workout around one of 3 key compound exercises, and the Deadlift is number 1 on that list.

Always start with the exercise that expends the most energy and uses the most weight, work your way down through barbell exercises, dumbbell exercises, cable/machine exercises and finish up with bodyweight exercises. You can learn more about the importance of exercise order here.

Exercises That Work Similar Muscles to the Deadlift

To achieve a well-rounded lower body and posterior chain development, consider incorporating exercises like Romanian Deadlifts, Sumo Deadlifts, Rack Pulls and Good Mornings into your Strength Training Workout Plan, as well as multiple squat variations. These exercises engage similar muscle groups, which will enhance your overall strength and power when you Deadlift.

Other less intense, isolation or assisted exercises that will support your Deadlift development include; Kettlebell Swing, Hip Thrust, Bent Over Row, Leg Press, Goblet Squats, Farmers Walks and Hangs, where you literally hang from a pull up bar to develop your grip and forearm strength.

There are more Leg Exercises at the bottom of this page, and you can find some other Back Exercises here.

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