Deadlifts, The Other Nectar of Life

The Deadlift 

One of the most basic straight forward movements in the world of lifting. You see something heavy. So you pick it up. Pretty hard to do that one wrong. It's how you pick it up that matters. I would shy away from using the technique that Peter from Family Guy uses. 

Set Up

There are many different ways to deadlift. Different ways to set up, stances, grips, cues to think about.  A good start is with your shins right up next to the bar. Feet shoulder width apart. Hips back, chest up, sit back on your heels. Grip the bar tight and get the slack out of the bar. To get the slack out, pull on the bar as your get into your starting position. Create some tension. Spread the floor with your feet.* Load the spring. 

Stand Up

Your hips stay tight. As you drive up, your chest is up. The bar stays close to your body, you pull it back. The knees get out of the way of the bar. You pull your knees back as you continue to spread the floor. Once the bar passes your knee cap, drive your hips forward, hard and fast. Squeeze your glutes, your butt, tight at the top and pull your shoulders back. Don't let your hips rise before your shoulders. No J-Low or Britteny Spears dance moves in the deadlift. Wear long socks, you are going to scrap your shins. There will be blood. 

*Spread the floor (definition): to apply pressure to the outside and back (lateral and posterior) of your feet. This avoids any weight being on the balls or forefoot of your feet.

The Biomechanics

All these cues and tips allow you to keep your spine neutral and in extension. The reason you setup with tension on the bar is to preload your body, to tell it to start firing the muscle groups that you are about to use. Your glutes, hamstrings, and back, are the main movers. Muscle groups in your upper body (traps, lats) are firing as well. This is a huge whole body pulling movement. 

You need to keep the bar close to you during the whole movement to take the unnecessary stress off your back. Just try deadlifting holding the bar as far away from you as you can, you will not want to do it again. Spreading the floor not only keeps the weight on your feet where it should be, it activates more muscles to help you get the weight off the ground. All your abductors fire up when you do this. Try it right now, just standing there. You can also spread the floor when you squat! 

Pulling your knees back to get them out of the way of the bar, allows the weight to stay as close to your center of mass as possible. This means less unwanted stress on the back and easier to pull the weight. Keeping your chest up is a great mental cue that keep your from raising your hips before your shoulders. If you cannot do this, the weight is too heavy. Go deadlift the world.