If there is one exercise that has caught a lot of heat over the years, it’s the deadlift. People either really love the deadlift or they’re convinced that deadlifting will break your back. Sadly for the people in the latter group, picking things up from the ground is an essential part of life. Once you lose the ability or develop a fear of picking things up from the floor, you’re now missing an entire part of life. Whether it’s picking a child up, picking up a laundry basket,, or moving furniture we need to retain the skill of picking things up from the floor. Any exercise performed incorrectly leads to increased risk of injury, even sit ups and push ups. I have a few ideas why the deadlift can be a trouble exercise for people more often than others.
- There is no eccentric (lowering) position of the lift. The squat and bench press begin by lowering the bar. This creates an awareness that the bar might be too heavy and most people can’t mentally get past that feeling. The deadlift removes that barrier and allows people to think they can lift more than they actually can.
- Assisted Technique. There are a lot of ways to overload the deadlift that many people just aren’t ready for. People will use a belt, wear straps, elevate the bar, and do touch and go reps. This is all an effort to increase the load being lifted, but there is an aid assisting with the overload. Other exercises don’t have as many of these options.
- Poor mobility. Some people might not currently possess the mobility required to deadlift from the ground at the start. That doesn’t mean they won’t be able to in time, but simply forcing the body to do it will not fix the issue.
The goal of this article is to break down common issues we see and create some alternative options and make people feel safe when they deadlift. There are few exercises that offer as much benefit.
Common Technique Issues
These are the most common technique issues we see with our clients at Showtime and how we help our clients fix them.
- Lack of Tension. A good deadlift creates a ton of tension between the person lifting, the barbell, and the floor. This helps the bar move in a straight line and ensures that we’re using the muscles on the hips, abs, and upper back to begin the pull instead of momentum and then having the low back take the brunt of the load. A tip that can help is to begin your lift as normal, then get to the point you would normally start pulling the barbell and pause and count 1-1000, 2-1000, go. This will help create more tension and align the hips into a better start position.
- Too Heavy. This seems common sense, but the when the load is too heavy it will compromise technique and people will go into survival mode to finish the lift. Again people will fight harder on a deadlift than a squat because there is no eccentric so the fear of getting crushed is gone. If you find a weight that you can do for sets of 5 reps, that is challenging your technique but still manageable then you’ll gain more benefit than trying to will a barbell to break the floor.
- Mobility Restrictions. As more people have desk jobs we’re seeing more people commonly dealing with tight hips and upper crossed syndrome in the upper body. These two things will make getting into position for a deadlift very difficult. When you force the body into the exercise, it will affect which muscles are being used and firing patterns during the lift. Over time, this leads to injury.
- Feet/Hands not Even. When people get in a rush they’ll forget basic things like where their feet should be or one hand will be 2-3 inches wider than the other. All of these things will create rotating bar which increases the distance you have to lift and also places a lot more torque on the lower back.
- Too Excited. The deadlift can get people way too excited for a big lift and when they can’t keep calm for the big lifts all the know how goes out the window. Remaining calm for a big lift is a great way to keep safe during the lift.
Alternatives
These are alternatives to the traditional deadlift from the floor. By doing these you can begin to work the movement pattern and use the muscles you would recruit during the deadlift.
- Pin Pull. We will start people on pin pulls with the bar about 1-2 inches below the knee on the safety pins in a power rack. This allows us to meet each person where they’re currently able to lift from. Each week we use this, we will find where they’re comfortable and try to drop the pins a half inch at a time. This helps them break the lift down into more manageable segments. This variation will teach the person to keep the upper back tight to create enough tension to move the bar.
- Weight on Mats. We will start with the bar and weights on about 3 inches of mats. This is different from the pin pull because from the pins, the bar will not flex, but off the mats it will. Similar to the pin pull, we find where the person can perform the lift safely and feel comfortable and then over time lower the mats until they’re able to lift from the floor. This variation will emphasis using the hips and upper back to begin the movement.
- Hex Bar. Some will argue the hex bar has no use for the deadlift. I strongly disagree, but I also believe it’s not a failsafe option as others think. With this bar, the weight is distributed all around the person instead of in front. The hands are in a neutral position which is easier for most to keep their shoulder blades pulled down and back.
- Sumo Kettlebell Deadlift. This is the ultimate beginner exercise for teaching the deadlift. If someone doesn’t have the hip mobility to pick it up from the floor, we will put the kettlebell on a 6 inch block to help them reach it with good form. This has been great for our youth athletes and also our older adult clients.
The deadlift is one of the best exercises for your whole body. It works every muscle from your feet to your hands. If you’re having trouble performing the lift with confidence, please reach out to a professional coach to have them assess what is causing the issue. Avoiding exercises out of fear is limiting inside and outside of the gym. We have helped many people from first timers in the gym to world record deadlifters and in both scenarios it’s usually just little adjustments needed to unlock a big difference. If you’d like to use the deadlift to get a stronger grip on your training, email nick@showtimestrength.com
