Pulling Big With The Deadlift

No lift works your entire body like the conventional deadlift does. This makes it both the hardest lift for most guys but also the most rewarding. Do it right and keep the gains coming.

  1. With a roughly shoulder width stance and toes pointed slightly outwards, place the bar right above the middle of your feet (near where your shoelaces would be).
  2. Don't touch or move the bar once you've attained the proper position. Keeping your arms straight by flexing your triceps, get your hands closer to the bar by pushing your hips back and down.
  3. Your hands should reach the bar just when your shins touch the bar. Grip the bar with a double overhand grip.
  4. To ensure you have a neutral spine before you pull, bring your chest out, engage your lats, and look diagonally down at the floor while keeping your hips at the same level as when your hands reached the bar. Doing these will straighten your spine.
  5. Breathe deep into your stomach pushing your abdomen out, hold your breath to brace your midsection, and begin gently applying pressure on the bar.
  6. Continue applying more pressure on the bar until the bar eventually gets off the floor.
  7. Dig your heels into the ground, pull the bar towards yourself and drive your hips in by contracting your glutes as hard as you can. Do all these together until you end up standing straight with your shoulders, hips, and knees vertically aligned.
  8. Begin your descent by quickly pushing your hips back and down. Use your lats to keep the bar in contact with your thighs and shins throughout the descent.
  9. You can breathe once the bar is back on the ground. Reset in between reps to get the most out of this lift.

Tips and pointers

  • Double overhand grip builds grip strength. Stick with this for as long as you can. When your pulling strength eventually exceeds your grip strength, switch to an alternate grip. Keep using the double overhand on your warm up sets though.
  • DO NOT start pulling by jerking the bar up with your body. This is a great way to get torn biceps. Apply slow and steady pressure instead.
  • DO NOT exhale once you're standing straight. The air in your stomach is protecting your spine from the weight of the bar you're holding.
  • DO NOT be that rare kind of idiot who rolls his shoulders at the lockout of the deadlift. You also don't have to shrug at the top, you do your shrugs separately from the deadlift.
  • DO NOT lose contact with the bar at any point in the lift. Letting the bar get away from you will only drag you forward with the bar. For your back's sake, you don't want this to happen.
  • The dead in deadlift comes from "dead weight". Reset in between reps to get the most out of this lift. "Bouncing" the bar off the floor in between reps will just take away some of the resistance from your lift and will lessen this lift's effectiveness.
  • DO NOT turn your head at any point while pulling. Keep looking diagonally forward and downward throughout the entire lift. Turning your head while having a heavy load dangling on your arms is asking for trouble.