Conventional Deadlift A-Z

Like it or not, deadlift is one of the best exercises you can do in your life. It is a full body lift, one of the most natural movement patterns mother nature has designed for us. Human beings pick heavy stuff off the ground for thousands of years.

Powerlifter? No brainer here, you must deadlift, it is your 3rd powerlift.

Strongman? You can bet your ass one of the contest movements is going to be a heavy conventional deadlift for reps.

Bodybuilder? No other exercise can pack so much meat on your back.

Crossfitter? You need functional and strong posterior chain for most of your exercises related to crossfit competition.

Average desk jockey? Chances are pretty high, after a few months of moderate deadlifting with proper form and increasing resistance, your lower back pain, hip pain, neck pain, all go away plus you lose some fat as well.



Conventional deadlift is trully a full-body lift. I remember taking my all-time max a couple of years ago. It was a true max which lasted good 5-6 seconds. The next few days I was sore in my neck, traps, mid back, lats, lower back, glutes, hams, quads and even calves.

5 sets of 5 on squats can be heavy but 5 sets of 5 on heavy conventional leave you really exhausted and gasping for air.

"Just pick the damn bar off the floor", well, I never liked this attitude as it is risky and does not allow for maximum poundages. The truth is, like anything else in life, if you want to be a super strong and efficient conventional puller, you have to master the technique and perform thousands of perfect reps.



Below is the prefect set-up and pulling guide.

(note: what I give you here is a set of guidelines; you have to modify them a little to fit your body type, leverages, strength & weaknesses)



SET-UP
Approach the bar. Your stance should be roughly at your hip width. Bigger lifters tend to stand a bit wider, smaller lifters a bit closer. But hip width is a pretty good starting point because you have perfect vertical transfer of power. Bar directly over your mid foot. If you look down at the bar, it should be directly over your mid foot which means the bar will be couple of cm from your shins. Feet parallel to each other or toes slightly out, everybody is different. If you squat with your toes straight forward or slightly out, chances are the same position will be the best for you when pulling conventional. When you squat wide with toes out almost 35-45 degrees it means you have a great external rotation in hips and can utilize your glutes better, so toes a bit out when pulling might work for you well.

GRIP
Bend down and take your grip. Just outside of your legs, directly under your shoulders. When someone is looking at you from the front view, your arms should be perfectly straight and vertical. For most people this would mean index finger on the start of the knurling. Go with straps, hook grip, or over-under. I used to pull over-under for years, recently I switched to hook and straps. When doing rep work and mutliple sets, I use straps, when heavy singles and doubles I use hook grip. Yes, it is painful but I am not going to tear the underhand biceps, do not have the torso windmill effect and most imprtantly I gain extra few cm pulling the slack from the bar and my torso starting position is a bit higher which is a stronger position for me.

TIGHTEN THE CORE
Core is your abs, obliques, lower back and lats. The tighter you are, the stronger the pull. Period. When you grab the bar, squeeze the bar, try to break it and rotate your elbows towards your torso. At the same time, brace your abs as if someone is trying to punch you in your stomach, pull the slack out of the bar (try to pull it but without the bar leaving the floor) and lock your lats. If you did all that and did that correctly, you should be tight as hell, the bar sligthly bent and ready to move, your scapulae locked in place and your torso rigid and tight.

HIPS
There are too many articles, IMO, over-analyzing the hip position. The hips will be below your shoulders and above your knees. When you start to pull, the hips will move anyway to their strongest position to maximize leverage. Long-legged, long-armed people will have hips relatively higher when starting the pull, longer torso, short-legged people will have hips relatively lower and their torso more upright.

STARTING THE PULL
With your upper body locked and core tight, take a lot of air into your belly (zero to your chest otherwise you lose torso tightness); push abs against the belt and "load" your hamstrings. What that means is that when you start pushing away the floor with your quads, at the same time you are trying to pull the bar towards you and load the posterior chain, mainly hams and glutes. This should help you the first couple of cm off the ground.

MID-PULL
Just around the knees, your mid and upper back and glutes start kicking in, your quads extend your knees. Remember, the bar is still very close to the body, if the bar leaves your body your bar path is inefficient and your deadlift is weaker. The bar sould graze your legs all the time.

LOCKOUT
Once you pass the knees it is then all hip hinge. As the bar passes your knees, you lockout your knees and push your hips forward as fast and as poweful as you can. Your knees lockout a split second earlier, then you push through your hips squeezing your glutes and lockout the pull. You do not overextend, everything is locked: knees, hips, upper back. The pull is finished.



"Damn, how am I going to remember all that when pulling!?" Well, you have to create your own cues routine. Here is mine:

Approach the bar with feet hip wide and bar over mid foot.
Grab the bar, try to break it.
Elbows towards torso, locking lats.
Pull the slack.
Air into belly and belt.
Push away and pull back.
Hips through powefully.




And here are some deadlift myths busted:

"You have to look ahead".
Yes and no. The head should be wherever convenient for you. Looking straight ahead or at some point a few feet in front of you.

"Your lower back must be arched".
Bullshit. Your lower back is neutral. All the way through the pull.

"Your upper back must be straight".
Bullshit. Some rounding of the upper back is ok and is going to happen on heavy pulls. Some people less, some more. More importantly, lock the lats and scapulae.

"Deadlift is dangerous for your lower back"
This is my favourite one. If you injured your lower back deadlifting, well, you did it wrong. The axis of rotation is in the hip joint, not the lower back. Lower back is the stabilizer during deadlift, not the primer mover. Your lower back can be tender after heavy deadlifts, never sore. Your glutes should be sore. They are the primer movers, they are the biggest muscles on your body. Grow some big poweful glutes and strong abs to protect your lower back.


Shoot me questions if you have any.


cheers :-)