Tip #1: If you want to pull a lot, you need to pull properly.

Let's start with a real life example. When Pete, the commercial director of our club, started training a year ago, he mastered the deadlift 40 kg. 364 days later, he confidently lifted 180 kg. Here is an example from real life.

With that in mind, start perfecting your deadlift technique with 8 easy steps:

Starting position:

1. The legs are slightly narrower than the shoulders, the neck is near the shins.

2. Chest forward, inhale deeply, tighten your abs as if expecting a blow to the stomach, and lower yourself back, keeping your back arched and shoulder blades tightened. I teach my clients to pull the pelvis back until they can reach the bar. Don't sit down stupidly.

3. Grab the bar and squeeze it as hard as you can, keeping your shoulders pulled back and down to tense lats. This helps stabilize your back. You should also keep your glutes and hamstrings tight.

4. Choose a point on the wall 3-4 meters in front of you and keep your eyes on it throughout the movement.

Climb:

5. Keeping your elbows off, press your heels into the floor. Lift the bar off the floor, making sure that the pelvis and shoulders rise at the same time (I often see the pelvis go first - this is the path to injury).

6. As you approach lockout (full extension), end the lift with a glute contraction, bringing your pelvis forward. Many end up wrong, with the top of the body pulling the bar back, arching the spine.

Lowering:

7. This part of the exercise is difficult for some people. Start the movement not from the knee joints, but from the hip. Sit back (as if on a chair), lowering the neck along the legs.

8. Remember to always keep your back fixed, arched, and never let your shoulders round forward.

Another tip: imagine that each repetition is a separate set. Most of the guys after a few repetitions loosen up and begin to beat the barbell off the floor. The reps are getting worse and worse and even my spine is starting to hurt.

The deadlift is not just called a deadlift. After lowering the barbell to the floor, regroup, inhale again, tighten your abs, roll out your chest, take your shoulders back and so on, repeat everything perfectly.

➜ Tip #2: Pull often and hard

No, I do not mean that the deadlift should be done every day. But, if you want to pull a lot, then you have to, you know, pull.

I I recommend doing cravings at least once a week, preferably on a Monday when you are well rested. Next, pull should be done with a small number of repetitions. Strength, especially at the very beginning, is more related to the central nervous system, which is why beginners first add in working weights, and then in muscles.

I редко назначаю больше пяти повторений в подходе. If you do more, then the technique worsens, especially for beginners. There is also enough evidence in the sports literature that low rep training teaches the body to transmit nerve impulses better, turn on more motor units, and improve muscle coordination.

A three-month program to improve the deadlift.

I usually create programs with the individual in mind, but a simple example to get started might look like this:

First month: trap bar row

Week 1: 5x5
Week 2: 4x5
Week 3: 6x5
Week 4: 3x5

Second month: sumo deadlift

Week 1: 4x3
Week 2: 3x3
Week 3: 3x3, 2x5
Week 4: Pulling the block between the legs, 3x10

Third month: Classic deadlift

Week 1: 3 rep max (or 1 rep max)
Week 2: 4x4
Week 3: 4x5
Week 4: 3x4

After 12 weeks of heavy deadlifts, I recommend taking a week or two off the deadlift.

➜ Tip #3: Vary Your Exercises (Just Not Every Workout)

While I understand the importance of incorporating a variety of deadlifts into your programs (especially the ones you are lagging behind), you shouldn't change the exercise every week. In my opinion, it is better to do cycles lasting 3-4 weeks, changing the traction option about once a month.

➜ Tip #4: Eliminate weaknesses

Some people (myself included) lift the barbell off the platform too slowly. Others find it easier to take off, but harder to lockout after the bar has passed the knees. In any case, you need to determine what you are doing worse and work on it.

Much depends on the length of the limbs. For those with long arms and legs, the deadlift seems to be easier, but in fact they often have trouble lockout. If this applies to you, try adding explosive pulls and heavy pulls from plinths, with partial amplitude, to fix it.

For those with a longer torso and relatively shorter arms and legs, the liftoff is more of a problem. You will be helped by thrust from an elevation, with an increased amplitude (stand on a stand 2-10 cm high). When you return to a regular deadlift, the liftoff will be better. Also, the sumo option will suit you more, as it reduces the distance traveled by the barbell.

➜ Tip #5: Take off your shoes

Without shoes, you are 1-5 cm closer to the ground, i.e. the barbell passes 1-5 cm less. Also, without shoes, you press your heels more, which allows you to more effectively engage the muscles of the buttocks and hamstrings.

If you are training in a gym where clients are not allowed to take off their shoes, it is better to use sneakers for deadlifts or other light shoes that will not interfere with you, like leg shackles.

➜ Tip #6: Avoid Wrist Straps

Not everything is so clear here. On the one hand, many people use wrist straps all the time. Block pulls with straps? I вас умоляю. On the other hand, grip strength really prevents someone from progressing, in this case, wrist straps should be used. In our club, we usually use straps in deadlifts with a wide (snatch) grip.

It is better to pull with a mixed grip, changing hands in each approach and using chalk. If you cannot use magnesia in your gym, look for another gym or use it in secret. Put it in a plastic box in your bag and sprinkle a little bit on your hands. After yourself, of course, wipe the bar.

➜ Tip #7: If you want to get stronger, train with the strong

So, I have no scientific evidence, but I personally believe that testosterone drops by 144.37% every time another howl of a trendy pop singer is heard on the radio. How can you lift a heavy barbell when next to you are skinny metrosexuals pumping biceps in a squat rack, and housewives puffing on treadmills?

Rule of thumb: if there are more Smith machines in the gym than power racks, you're more likely to win the lottery than become super strong.

➜ Tip #8: Do a back room

To become stronger in the deadlift, you need to strengthen the entire chain of muscles of the back surface of the body well. Unfortunately, machine leg presses, leg curls, and leg extensions won't help. When I work hard on the bent-overs with the barbell on my back, the pull always increases. For me, this is almost a “marker” - when the working weights in the slopes increase, I can predict the growth in the deadlift.

For you it might be the box squat, for someone else it might be the Romanian deadlift. The point is to find that exercise, the result of which "defines" the deadlift.

back exercises, hamstrings and other pelvic girdle muscles, such as pulling the block between the legs (in my opinion, one of the most underestimated exercises in general), should make up the majority of your ancillary work.

➜ Tip #9: Do unilateral exercises

Unilateral exercises help lift heavy weights. When my clients get better at single leg exercises, they always see improvements in the deadlift and squat.

As my colleague Mike Boyle has repeatedly pointed out, single-leg exercises work those one-sided muscles that are not included in two-leg exercises. These muscles are very important for stabilizing both the knee and hip joints. In short, if you don't strengthen them, you won't be able to lift anything heavy. So do unilateral exercises and thank me later.

➜ Tip #10: Get your glutes working!

We all know (or should know) how important a proper warm-up is. What's more, I've also written about "fillers," the light, muscle-activating stretches I do between sets of the same exercise. So instead of listening to music or staring at the blonde working out next door, you can also make some healthy moves while resting between deadlift sets.

Most of us pay the least attention to the muscles of the buttocks. Due to the fact that we sit on them for 8 to 12 hours every day, these muscles are weak and crushed. If we remember that these are the strongest extensor muscles of the pelvic girdle, it becomes clear how their condition affects the amount of weight we lift in the deadlift. In other words, one of you lifts less in the deadlift, because it does not include the gluteal muscles in the work.

I advise you to do a couple of simple movements to activate the gluteal muscles between deadlift sets. The result will be an increase in weight on the bar in the deadlift.

Lean against the wall, lift one leg (without rounding your back) and press the heel of the second leg into the floor. Hold this tension for two seconds, squeezing the gluteal muscles of the leg you are standing on. Then repeat the same with the second leg and do only five sets per leg.

Lie on your back, rest both heels on the floor and slightly raise the pelvis, squeezing the buttocks.