Deadlifting is essential if you want to one day achieve a great physique in the gym. However, it is an exercise that is not usually done very often due to how difficult it is to get a correct technique.
The deadlift is one of the 4 basic multi-joint exercises that exist in bodybuilding (the others are bench press, military press, and squats). It is an exercise that consists of lifting a weight that is usually very heavy by grabbing it with the arms and lifting it up to the abdomen by propelling ourselves with our legs. Said like this, it seems easy, but it is very common to see a lot of mistakes that can injure you.
You may also be interested in: How to Lift More Weight in the Gym
A poorly performed deadlift can lead to everything from back injuries, to shoulder injuries, to leg and wrist injuries. In addition, being an exercise where a lot of weight is put in and few repetitions, there is much more risk of injury than in other exercises.
On the other hand, a well-performed deadlift strengthens virtually every muscle in the body, especially the back, forearms, and back of the leg. It will also help you secrete a lot of growth hormone, which you already know is key in muscle gain.
From doncomos.com you will learn how to perform a perfect deadlift, so that you can get the most out of it and avoid injury.
What do you need to deadlift?
- A bar and some discs.
- Patience.
Instructions for Deadlifting
- How to proceed:
Before we talk about the deadlift technique, let’s see how we are going to orient it for training. I recommend doing deadlifts only every 15 days because of how exhausting it is, I recommend doing it the day you train your back, since on leg day you already have the squat as a big exercise and on chest and shoulder day the military press and bench press. We are going to do 2 sets of warm-ups with light weight and many repetitions to prepare the body to perform the exercise. Then we are going to do 3 sets of work, two of them approximation, increasing the weight progressively until a final set with a lot of weight and few repetitions (from 1 to 5). We will have to make strength progressions and set ourselves to exceed a deadlift strength goal, since the more force the more muscle. - Phase 1: The grip:
As we can see in the photo below, you have to bend down bending your knees to grip the bar with both hands. The back is not hunched and we are very close to the bar, with the toes under it. The grip should be shoulder-width apart and in lifts with a lot of weight, we can use a mixed grip (one hand with a pronated grip and the other with a supinated grip), but as a general rule we will use the pronation grip. We must also lower the butt as much as we can since we are going to pry it off. - Phase 2: Raise:
Now we must pull upwards with all our strength, making force with the legs and abdomen to raise the bar. We will keep the bar close to us so as not to lose power, the back should never arch and the arms really only hold the bar (the force is really done with the leg), but they must hold tight to prevent it from falling to the ground. Once we get on top, we fit the bar into the abdomen and we will have finished the movement. - Phase 3: Lower:
We start from the position of the image, now our goal is to lower the bar back to the bottom, to perform a new repetition. You should lean forward a little without arching your back and at the same time bend down using your legs to the floor in order to place the bar on the floor. If you are going to do more than one repetition, as soon as you touch the bar to the floor, without letting go, go back to phase 1 and repeat all the phases of the exercise.
Tips for Deadlifting
- Patience: There are people who despair because even if they manage to put a lot of loads on the deadlift, they don’t achieve a perfect technique. You see them arching their backs, they don’t get the bar in well, they don’t go down well… That’s because you’re putting on too much weight, which even if you get benefits from it, you could get injured. To do this, it is better to be a person with patience and move only the weights that you are able to move with perfect technique, which you will polish little by little.
- Trap on Lowering: If your gym owner allows it and you only go for one rep, you can afford a little trap that will prevent you from lowering the bar to the floor. When you come all the way up in the deadlift, instead of lowering the bar to the floor, release it and drop the barbell. You just need to be careful with your feet and not breaking the gym floor, which is common when you’re handling heavy loads.