It happened yesterday, it will happen today, and I am certain it will occur tomorrow

Lift 395lbs on the double overhand axle, an extreme example of what i am talking about

You can pretend you don’t want it; you can label yourself any way you want. You can arrange your goals any way you want, and you can try to play square peg in the round hole.

I am talking about picking things up from the ground. Maybe it’s a shoe, maybe it’s a baby, and maybe it’s a purse, suitcase, or box. It does not matter; you do it all the time.

The deadlift or what was once known as the “dead weight lift” is unavoidable life movement. This means it makes sense to train it as a Gym Movement. I have not had a single day where I did not bend down to lift something.

There is an amazing volume of BAD information surrounding the deadlift. Let’s review the top offending pieces of information.

· The deadlift is bad for your back

· The deadlift is a “lower back” exercise

· The deadlift should only be trained by power lifters

· Your should lift with your back

· You should lift with your legs

· Your deadlift should be slow

· Your deadlift should be explosive

· The deadlift is “only good for strength, and will not build mass”

· The deadlift is excellent for mass gains

Hopefully you see the contradictions above. Nearly every fitness authority has an opinion of the deadlift, and few people seem to be able to agree on common threads. Well, I am no different. I have opinions too.

If you are reader of this blog for any period of time, I am led to presume you already deadlift, in one form or another. You may be mistaken in thinking this is a commonly preformed drill across the country. I have recently made a point to stick my head in to a large local gym in my area, and out of 5 consecutive days I did not see one person doing anything resembling a deadlift. So I am led to believe this exercise is fairly rare in its true form.

On that note, dead lifting in a commercial gym seems to be a sure ticket to being asked to leave. It appears many gyms in this country to do not appreciate the benefits of the exercise, and have grown tired of thundering sounds as a lifter drops the bar from lockout.

And some of you wonder why I own my gym…

“Adam, I am afraid I will hurt my back if I go deadlift”

I can understand some beginning apprehension; maybe the sight of a barbell loaded to 450 pounds is intimidating to you. Don’t sweat it; I never said anything about heavy weights, or even barbells.

You pick things up every day. You can’t avoid it. So my first question to you- how do you do it? Do you have ten thousand reps of a rounded, twisted, contorted back position? If you do, than yes I do think the barbell deadlift can hurt you on day 1.

You have to start where you are at. Its fine if your upper back is rounded in to a hump, or you stand lope sided, or have an elbow that doesn’t straighten out. We start with where you are right now today. We will move towards better one step at a time.

Let’s challenge some bad belief systems

· The deadlift is bad for your back: No movement is inherently good or bad for you, at least not in a broad sense. To determine what is good or bad, you have to specifically test it. Additionally you must understand too much resistance can make any movement inappropriate and even dangerous. So are deadlifts bad for your back? Impossible to say without dealing with YOU specifically. My observation, nearly every human being who is able to stand is able to execute some kind of bend or hinge. The degree is specific to the individual. Work within your limits

· The deadlift is a “lower back” exercise: Not exactly. You should not feel strain on the lumbar during a standard deadlift. STOP if you experience pain or discomfort anywhere, especially in this region. It is possible you have exceeded your mobility-ability, you have allowed too much effort to degrade your form, or you have moved to a mechanically disadvantageous position. Remember PAIN is an action signal.

· The deadlift should only be trained by power lifters: Well power lifters are not the only human beings lifting things off the ground, so this statement has no legs to stand on. NOW, should every human being aspire to lift as much weight as possible in the deadlift? No, of course not.

· Your should lift with your back & you should lift with your legs: no this is incorrect. Your exact leverages and the choice of implement will determine exactly how you lift the object. At 6’3” I deadlift differently than a woman who is 5’0” tall. Instead of focusing internally on what is doing the moving, focus on moving the implement from point “A” to point “B” while advancing to the point of mechanical advantage.

· Your deadlift should be explosive & Your deadlift should be slow: rep speed and cadence should be determined by YOU, using your own feedback as guidance. There is no general magic factor which we can use to make a “best” blanket statement concerning rep speed. I do not deal in “OK” and “Good”; I deal in “Best”. Test it!

· The deadlift is excellent for mass gains & The deadlift is “only good for strength, and will not build mass” Mass and strength adaptations are dependent on several factors, it is not just the movement pattern. Load, speed, tempo, total volume, density, and recovery factors are all important. To say a movement is “good” or “bad” for strength or mass is not accurate. If I deadlift 25lbs, I am not going to gain significant mass or strength. If I deadlift 600lbs over and over, I will not be able to stop my body from gaining strength and mass.

Where do you start? Let’s try EASY, let’s keep it easy the entire time. Here are my tips for you, a beginner to dead lifting.

Try the following set up.

· A light weight implement is preferable.

· Starting the implement off a platform is preferable; I have the object above end range of movement for hip flexion. For some people this means the object is shin height, some people is knee height, some people is crotch height. The starting point is not the priority! Do not get hung up on how short, or how long the range of movement is. Do not push your ROM, you will not get “more flexible” you will “fuck your back up” which is a technical medical term.

· A few good reps trump lots of shit reps. When in doubt, pull the plug and live to play another day.

A fairly logical progression, remember you must test everything before you buy in

· Start light on a box (dumbbell or Kettlebell)

· Smoothly work your lower as your ROM increases

· The single bell Kettlebell deadlift off the floor is a great drill for many beginners, if this is testing well it can be one of the best drills to teach proper hip hinging and hip extension.

· Once the trainee is able to comfortably get in and out of position with the KB deadlift, progress to the barbell. In my humble but correct opinion is it foolish to start people off with 25’s or 35’s on the bar unless they are very short. A lower bar position requires much greater mobility; do not exceed their mobility-ability!

I do not care what your profession is, what your life style is like, or who you think you are- You have to lift things off the floor. Why not train this pattern and get better at doing it? I know you have no interest in winning the next world title, but a 1.5 body weight to double body weight pull is an attainable goal which you can easily reach.

Adam T Glass ”I deadlift a lot.”

Tagged as: articles, Deadlift, Gym Movement, perpetual progress