Dead lifts...

• Variations

• Common mistakes

• How often?

• How heavy?

Here’s why Benefits The deadlift works more muscles than any other exercise, including the squat. The lift engages all of the major muscle groups. If you need to do one exercise, this is the one to do. The deadlift works your lower and upper body, including your back muscles, to create a stronger and more impressionable physique.

3 Variations

1. Sumo Deadlift Like the sumo squat, the sumo deadlift involves placing your feet at a wider stance with your hands inside of your feet.

The sumo deadlift can be performed with an emphasis on the quads or hips and provides a range of motion which allows you to lift heavier loads – but remember, practice makes perfect

2. Romanian Deadlift (Stiff Legged Deadlift, Straight Leg Deadlift) The Romanian deadlift, sometimes called the straight legged dead lift, focuses on using the hamstrings in contrast to other deadlifts which focus on your lower back.

When performing this deadlift, the back should remain straight with all bending coming from the torso. This means instead of bending the knees the legs should be stiff throughout the lowering and lifting phases of the movement.

3. Conventional Deadlift The conventional deadlift is what you should start with if you’re new to deadlifting.

When performing this deadlift your hands are just outside your feet, standing at about hip width apart.

Conventional deadlifts are done with a barbell or set of dumbbells and act to target and work the lower back, calves, forearms, glutes, hamstrings, lats, middle back, quads and traps.

Common mistakes The most important aspect of your form to pay attention to is the shape of your back.

Avoid rounding your back as this will put your spine and back muscles under extreme tension.

When you round your back, you wind up putting the majority of the load on isolated areas of your back.

The right way is to keep your back and spine straight all the way up to your neck.

Your neck and back should be aligned.

Your grip should preferably be shoulder width apart.

Don’t fully extend your arms at the elbow to avoid placing too much weight on your elbow joints.

Slightly bent elbows will distribute the weight throughout your arms and body without placing too much strain on the joints.

Another misconception when dead lifting is to look up to the ceiling with your chin up. Actually the chin should be tucked in with the head in line with the rest of the spine.

How often I recommend doing dead lifts twice weekly, Once on leg day and the other on back day.

Vary the reps and form with each routine, between 4-8 reps.

On back day do traditional Olympic styled dead lifts and on leg day do Romanian or stiff leg style to further isolate the hamstring and butt muscles.

Allow at least 48 hours recovery between deadlift days.

How heavy:

Lift heavy for the most benefits Doing light deadlifts is better than not doing any at all, but to get the most out of it, you need to do them with heavier weights. Heavy is relevant to your current strength level and body weight.

A good indicator that you’re lifting heavy is that you’re only able to do eight reps per set at the most. If you find you’re able to continue after 8 reps, increase the weight.

6-8 reps using heavy weights with good form will yield amazing results given that other aspects of your health and fitness are in order.