The deadlift is one of the best exercises you can do for overall strength, power and muscular development. It’s a key lift in DoubleYourGains’ 3-5 Strength Training Program.
But it’s also one of the most important lifts to make sure you are doing CORRECTLY…. otherwise you could injure yourself quickly because you can start lifting heavy weights on this exercise almost immediately.
With this in mind, here is your ten step checklist to mentally go through every time you reach down and put your hands on the bar before every deadlift rep:
- Look Up — towards the ceiling, and not at the mirror. This will keep your back flat and in the proper position, instead of rounding…
- Sit Back – Imagine sitting back into a chair way behind you with your butt…
- Lengthen Your Spine — Also, imagine your spine is stretching and elongating to help keep your back straight even more…
- Brace Your Abs – Pretend you’re about to get punched in the stomach and tighten your abs to protect them and then inhale air into this spot and hold it…
- Maximum Tension — From the floor up, tighten everything else: grip the floor with your toes, tighten your legs, glutes, squeeze the bar, arms, make sure everything is tight…
- Grunt – Further increase your intrabdominal pressure with a small grunt…
- Stand Up — Imagine your arms are simply chains attached to the weight… keep your shoulders down and slowly “push the floor away” as you grind the weight from the ground all the way into a standing position…
- Finish Crisply – When you reach the top, lock your knees, stand erect and let a bit of air out (while staying tight!) and inhale again…
- Lower It – If you want to build muscle size then lower the weight with tension. If not, then sit back again like you’re sitting into a chair and let the weight virtually “drop” — yet follow it down without trying to control it much…
- Repeat – Rest a few seconds then before your next rep mentally repeat the checklist from 1-9…
Use this ten step checklist on the days you decide to deadlift while doing the DoubleYourGains 3-5 Beginner’s Strength Training Program.
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Great list Caleb,
although I would like to add that looking up is not always optimal… What you want is a straight spine, and when you look up, you bend your neck in a unnatural way. Looking up can be a great tool to use though when learning how to fire the hips and glutes as you say, so it definitely has its place.
Cool site, I wonder why I haven’t see it before now.
Peace!
Alex