Deadlifting: The Ultimate Guide

Want to bulk up and get shredded at the same time?

Are you a skinny guy looking to get big or an enthusiastic gym buff frustrated with measly gains? Meet the king of all functional movements: the deadlift.

You’ve probably heard of the deadlift. But unless you train at an old school bodybuilder’s gym or a new-age CrossFit station, chances are that you’ve never actually seen this king of lifts in action. And that’s okay. In fact, it’s probably for the best, since not a lot of people know how to perform this lift correctly. You’re better off not doing the deadlift at all than doing it with poor form and hurting your back for good. In this guide to the deadlift, we’re going to break this monster lift down to all its various parts. We’ll hold your hand every step of the way. You’ll know exactly how to perform this amazing movement and reap all the benefits with zero potential for injury. Although we will be discussing the different types of deadlifts, our focus will be on the Conventional Deadlift. Let’s get started…

What is the Deadlift?

Simply put, the deadlift involves lifting dead weight off the floor.

It sounds simple. But the key to lifting progressively heavier weights off the floor without injuring your back lies in proper form and technique.

Why Deadlift?

Real World Use

Unlike several other bodybuilding movements that are restrictive in their scope, the deadlift has solid real world applications.

As you become more adept at lifting heavy weight off the floor, you will you become more useful to your misses (come on, I didn’t mean like that!). You’ll also feel stronger and walk taller.

Improve Posture

Most men tend to ignore their backs and legs while focusing primarily on their chest and arms.

As a result, they develop an unbalanced physique that is upper body dominant. They tend to stoop and lean forward more while walking or sitting.

Hunched holders and a rounded back are postural deficiencies that might ail a person who neglects to train their posterior chain while emphasizing their upper body. What is the posterior chain? The chain of muscles that makes up the posterior of the body is the posterior chain. Here, we are referring to the lower body posterior chain, including the lower back, glutes, hamstrings, and calves.  

Improve Athletic Performance

The anterior chain (consisting of the muscles on the front side of the body such as the chest, biceps, abdomen, and quads) and the posterior chain are intimately linked.

It is crucial to train both muscle groups if you want a well-balanced physique while maximizing your athletic performance. The glutes and hams (hamstrings) have far more fast twitch muscles than the quadriceps. Training them can lead to greater explosiveness.

Gain Size and Strength

As we mentioned at the onset of this article, practising the deadlift can get you massive gains and help you cut at the same time.

The deadlift is the king of muscle recruiting and recruits more muscles than even the infamous squat! It helps your train your back, glutes, hamstrings, arms, shoulder and even your traps.

The deadlift truly forces your body to grow and adapt while releasing more testosterone than other single body building movements. If you are skinny and looking to bulk, the deadlift and the squat should be central to at least 90% of your workouts. With the added testosterone and HGH (human growth hormone) that is secreted during the lift, you will gain size and continue to burn calories long after your workout has ended.

Get a Strong Core and Shredded Abs

Deadlifts are not only instrumental in developing the cardiovascular system, but they also help build immense core stability.

As mentioned above, the deadlift is simultaneously a bulking as well as a cutting exercise. It strengthens the supporting muscles of the waist, lower back, hip, and glutes. The taxing nature of the deadlift, especially when it is performed with high intensity, makes it a huge calorie burning exercise. It helps develop a shredded and solid abdomen.

Still not convinced…

The Favourite of All Strength Athletes

The deadlift is the foundation of all powerlifts, including the clean and jerk and the snatch.

It is the single most effective exercise for building strength, size, power, and explosiveness. It’s no wonder that strength athletes across several sports, including runners, strongmen, powerlifters, and even the best bodybuilders, consider it to be the number one exercise in their routines.

Types of Deadlifts

There are quite a few variations of the deadlift, including the Romanian (or stiff-legged) Deadlift and the Quadriceps Deadlift.

However, we will only be considering the Conventional Deadlift and the Sumo Deadlift. Why? The logic is simple.

The other variations don’t require you to place the weight back on the ground in between repetitions. They don’t qualify as deadlifts in the strict sense of lifting dead weight of the floor. Both the Conventional Deadlift and the Sumo Deadlift have their unique advantages. Depending on your body characteristics, you might feel more comfortable with either the Sumo or the Conventional Deadlift in the long run. As a standard rule, it has been observed that guys with longer arms (shorter torsos) are more suited to the Conventional Deadlift. Guys with shorter arms (longer torsos) find the Sumo deadlifting setup a lot more comfortable and beneficial.

1. The Conventional Deadlift

This deadlift is considered the single greatest strength and power building tool in any athlete’s bodybuilding arsenal.

Before we go into an in-depth analysis of setup and technique for the conventional deadlift, here is a short intro to this King of all compound lifts.

Stand in front of the barbell with your shins close to the bar. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your toes pointing out slightly. Next, grab the bar with straight arms just outside of your legs and bend your knees, keeping your back flat. Don’t bend into a full squat, rather maintain a half squat position with your back flat. Next, drive through your heels (as if you were pushing the ground beneath you) as you straighten your legs. Keep the bar as close to your body as possible throughout the lift. Once you are erect, squeeze your glutes and pull your shoulders back slightly. Lower the bar back to the floor and repeat.

2. The Sumo Deadlift

The Sumo Deadlift is the only other deadlift variation worth mentioning.

This deadlift requires a wider stance, much like the stance of a sumo wrestler. The feet are spread out beyond shoulder width on each side, mimicking the stance of a sumo wrestler.

The wider stance changes the emphasis of this deadlift from predominantly on the lower back to the hips and legs. Stand in front of the bar in a Sumo stance with your feet pointing out and knees spread out wide. Keep your shins close to the bar. Grab the bar at shoulder width on the inside of your legs (opposed to the outside on the conventional deadlift). As you pull the bar up, focus on keeping the knees out wide as if you were pushing the floor apart with your feet (as opposed to pushing floor directly down beneath you on the conventional lift). At the top, straighten your knees and squeeze your glutes before returning the bar back to the floor.

Deadlifting for First Timers

Most people I’ve met are afraid to deadlift.

They’ve heard from a friend of a friend about a pulled disk or “broken back”. Or they tried it themselves once under poor guidance and failed miserably to move even the bar.

Yes, the risks of injury are very real, if you don’t know what you’re doing. However, with ample preparation, mobility work, and dedication you can deadlift beyond your wildest imagination.

For Starters, Work on Form ONLY

If you’re just starting out, your goal should be to attain perfect form with light weight or better still, no weight. And, don’t pay any attention to the sniggering meat heads in the gym. Leave them to their pea-brained devices.   

Learn the Hip Hinge

The central movement in the deadlift is the hip hinge.

The hip hinge allows for maximal glute activation. Get hold of a PVC pipe and practice bending at the hips.

Learn to sit back vs. sitting down. A great drill that you can practice mastering the hip hinge is the butt to the wall. Stand about 1 foot to 2 feet away from a wall with your back facing the wall. Hold the pipe on your back to maintain a neutral spine while you bend at the hips and try to touch the wall with your butt. When you touch the wall, thrust forward using your hips. Keep up the practice till you develop good mobility in your hips and learn to sit back rather than down.

Get to the Bar    

Once you get the hip hinge down, you can confidently move onto lifting a free barbell.

Most Olympic barbells, weighing about 20 kg or 45 lbs, are more than good enough for starters. You can start by placing the bar at a decent height from the floor using stools or bar plates to get used to the movement.

Then slowly work towards adding weight and lifting progressively heavier. Always remember to start out light and increase the weight only gradually. As your technique improves, your confidence will grow. You’ll feel more comfortable lifting heavier weights. As a general rule of thumb, increasing weight by increments of 2.5 kg or 5.5 lbs is a good way to go about it.

The Setup

• Stance

Most people will advise you to stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. I think it’s a better idea to stand with your feet only hip width apart. This is so that your arms can rest comfortably outside your legs without your legs blocking them.

• Feet

Plant your feet flat on the floor with your toes pointing out at an angle of approx 15-20°. Keeping your feet flat provides balance and stability.  By pointing the toes out slightly, it becomes easier to lift the bar without grazing it against your shins. Also, the outward position of your feet helps recruit the groin muscles. The more muscles you recruit, the better. Another key to maintaining balance throughout the lift is to place the bar above the middle of your feet. This will ensure that your shins don’t hit the bar and that you maintain a good center of gravity while lifting.

• Grip

There are two types of grips you can use: both hands with an overhand or the mixed grip – one palm facing you and the other facing away. Grip the bar just outside hip width and keep the grip narrow rather than wide. This creates a shorter distance the bar has to travel and makes it easier to lift at the top. Use a hand low grip vs. gripping mid-palm to avoid the formation of calluses. Start out with the standard grip and change to the mixed grip as you lift heavier weight.

• Arms

Keep your arms straight and lock out elbows before lifting the bar.  Don’t ever try and curl the bar; you won’t be able. Let the larger muscles of your legs and back pull the weight off the floor.

Keep your shoulders in front of the bar and shoulder blades above the bar as you position your arms. Remember your arms are only a supplementary support while your legs and back are the prime movers.

• Hips

The Deadlift is not a squat. Don’t lower your hips below your knees or even try to keep them parallel. Focus on keeping your shoulder blades on top of the bar and maintaining a neutral spine, while bending your knees. Your hips will fall into proper position.

• Head and Back

Keep your spine neutral. By neutral, I mean to maintain the natural curve in your back. Do not round the back or hyper extend it! Keep your head in line with your spine. Don’t look at your feet or straight ahead. Chest out, neutral spine and head in line with the spine is the way to go!

Technique

• Pulling weight

To successfully execute the deadlift, you should drive through your heels and push down through the floor. Remember to keep the bar close to your body throughout the entire lift. Once you pass your knees, lock them out by thrusting forward with your hips and squeezing your glutes. Aim for a vertical bar path over the middle of your feet. Lift slowly, then accelerate past your knees. Keep your shoulders relaxed at the top, don’t shrug.

• Lowering the Bar

Bend at the hips first and sit back (like with the PVC drill). Once the bar crosses your knees, bend your knees and keep the bar close to your body throughout the movement. If you bend your knees first, the bar will hit them and land in the wrong position on the floor.

• Breathing

Breathing correctly during the lift is extremely important. It ensures that you maintain balance and good posture, and that you don’t burn out or fry your nervous system during the lift. Take a big breath at the bottom, before you start your lift. Then hold it at the top. Taking a big breath at the bottom increases abdominal pressure. This in turn supports and protects your lower back. Hold the breath at the top so you maintain good posture and continue to engage the right muscles. Breathe out while lowering the barbell and then start over.

• In Between Reps

The goal of the deadlift is to lift dead weight of the floor each time, so drop the weight and take a second to regroup and brace for the next repetition.  Don’t try and bounce the weight of the floor and cheat your deadlifts.

Final Word

Start light and work on proper form and technique before you decide to add massive weight on either side.

Aim for high sets with low repetitions. An ideal sets to reps ratio to start with is the classic 5×5 format.

Complete five high-intensity repetitions for five sets with about 1-2 mins between each set. Don’t go for high repetitions to start with. Fatigue will set in quick, and you will not be able to maintain proper form. As you progress, you will feel more confident, and you will walk taller knowing that you’re building real world strength and power. Good luck, and remember- safety comes first.  

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