The Deadlift

Every couple weeks I will discuss some of my favorite exercises, as well as exercises that I think work best for certain goals. So to start, I chose my favorite exercise, the deadlift.

I have already mentioned on this blog that this is one lift that everybody should do some form of. The benefits can be tremendous from an athletic standpoint, as well as from a muscle building standpoint.

Athletically, it works your posterior chain (glutes and hamstrings), which is chronically weak in young athletes who are more quad dominant. This will also act as an injury prevention exercise because a lot of knee injuries involving the ligaments of the knee can be prevented by strengthening the hamstrings. The posterior chain can help with speed development, which any athlete should want more of. It will also strengthen the core because of the stabilization necessary while executing the lift.

From a muscle building standpoint, how many other exercises work almost every muscle in your body? Other than the Olympic lifts, which are more technical and harder to learn, I can't think of a better exercise to increase overall muscle mass.

Now if you have never done deadlifts before, you need to find a good coach to teach the lift to you. There are a number of things I would look for while putting somebody in position to deadlift that I will not dive into extensively today, but one thing that I see with my athletes is that they are not able to maintain a neutral spine when going to start the lift. This can be caused by a number of things, like a lack of ankle or hip flexibility. If either of those are the case, then I would give a few corrective exercises to help that area.

As far as programming, beginners can deadlift two times per week. Once you get the form down start with 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps. I really don't like going higher than 8 reps because if form breaks down on this exercise it could be detrimental for days after the training session.

Work your way up to deadlifting your weight for 6-8 reps, then start using more weight and less reps one time per week. Try 5x5 for 4-6 weeks. Then try 10x3 for 4-6 weeks. As long as you keep your form tight and are continuing to increase weight, just keep lifting.

Nothing, in my opinion, gets me more amped up than deadlift day. So when you know you are going to deadlift, get in the gym, crank up your headphones, don't look at anybody else, and be focused on every rep. If you go to a gym that does not allow deadlifts, let them know you will not be back.

As much as I love the deadlift, it shouldn't be the only lower body exercise you use. Be sure to have a single leg exercise every lower body day, or if you are training 3x per week, at least two of those days should have a single leg exercise after the deadlift.

Be sure to leave any questions or comments down below, or hit me up on Facebook and leave them there.