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Hello everybody, today I'm going to talk about the exercise par excellence to build muscle mass
and a great exercise to improve our strength: the deadlift.
Before we start with the technique, I want to make clear that the discs and bar distance to the ground is VERY important.
Usually, the equipment at the gym is not olympic, such as this disc.
With this type of discs, we start the exercise with a low range of movement, and because of this, a lack of strength is produced.
This is because we start the exercise in a lower, unfavorable position.
For this exercise it is ideal to train with olympic discs such as this one, which is 55 pounds.
With this type of equipment, we can start the exercise from a good position, about 21-23cm to the ground,
the mandatory height in powerlifting. When we see people compete in powerlifting, they do it at a certain height, which is regulated.
An example of deadlift with a short ROM is the deadlift with a wide grip, because we start from a lower position.
With this type of exercises, the initial position of the deadlift is greatly improved.
And with exercises such as the rack pull, where the ROM is longer, the final part of the exercise and the grip improve,
because it allows us to move more weight.
This is an example of the first type.
And an example of deadlift with a long ROM, the rack pull, that is, elevating the bar more than the mandatory height.
When deadlifting, stability is a must. That's why I always recommend doing it using flat shoes or doing it shoeless.
Using weight-lifting shoes means a shorter ROM, because we start from an upper position.
Why don't I recommend using shoes with air chamber? Because as soon as we start lifting heavy weights, they will make us unstable.
The deadlift is an exercise where pretty much everything is involved: lower and upper body.
People usually think that you're only training the lower back when deadlifting, but this is false.
When deadlifting you train your upper back the most, because it is in charge of maintaining your back still and supporting the weight.
But not only this, you also train your biceps, which prevent our arms from separating.
And in the legs, you train your quads, the gluteus, femoral, etc.
Regarding the initial position of the deadlift, it is exactly the same as the back squat one.
In a back squat, we hold the bar behind the back, and when going down, we push the butt backwards
and block the lumbar and dorsal back. This all applies to the deadlift too, but holding the bar down.
See? Same body position, different bar position than on the back squat.
Some aspects to take into account regarding the deadlift initial position:
First, bar should be close to the tibias and the body weight should rest on the heels.
The position must follow this order: head, hip, knee and ankle.
Head can be in a neutral or hiperextension position, hip, knee and ankle.
It is very common to see people with their hip lower than their knees, or the head below their hip... not correct.
It is also very important to start from a position where the back is fully straight, the butt to the outside and the hip blocked
and maintaining tension at the vertebral column. We should also take the chest and the the scapulas out.
If we are doing all these steps, we are starting from a proper position for deadlifting.
Grip in deadlift is fundamental, but as I already did a video regarding this matter, you can check it to learn more about it.
Deadlift is an exercise which involves knee, hip and back extension at the same time.
But it is very common to see people who perform a knee extension first, then the back (or vice versa).
That is not correct. It must be a simultaneous and synchronized movement.
One of the main errors when deadlifting is staying too much time on a starting position.
This makes us lose elastic strength and causes fatigue before even starting the movement.
The ideal thing to do is set ourselves in the correct position, pick up the bar and perform the deadlift.
If we stay too much time in this position, we get tired before deadlifting.
Another common error is not using the arms as mere hooks, but using them to help us lift the weight.
This is very dangerous, because it can lead to bicep sprain. It usually happens when doing mixed grip, when blocking the scapulas.
But some people even start the movement with their arms flexed. This is something to avoid.
Another error is the back position. Some people tend to flex the lumbar column. This must be avoided.
Lumbar column must be always blocked. The moment we feel the back is not blocked, we must stop the movement.
If we are doing the movement correctly and when adding more weight we feel like the back is not fully blocked, we must stop inmediately.
Another error: doing the exercise by pulling bit by bit. When people lift more weight than they should, they do the movement like this.
This is not correct either. The exercise should be performed in a fluid way and in one movement only.
If you are doing it little by little, the risk of injury is very high. It's not worth it.
Now I'm going to give you a couple of tips I find very useful.
First one consists on augmenting the intraabdominal pressure during all the movement. To do so, you have to inhale as much as you can and get your belly out.
Something like this. We first exhale,
then inhale as much as we can during all the movement, without letting it go.
Next tip (only for experts) is adopting a kyphotic posture during the exercise, always in the dorsal column, never in the lumbar one.
When we have some experience in deadlifting, lowering the shoulders a bit allows us to gain more ROM and will let us perform better in the future.
But, again, I only recommend this to experienced people who lift a lot of weight.
If you're new to deadlifting, stick to the tip of having your back straight all the time.
Next tip: maintain the bar near to your body during all the exercise. It is very common for novices to have the bar far from their body during the deadlift.
This is wrong, because the further the bar is from our body, more tension is applied to our lumbar back,
and the nearer the bar is from us (tibia, knee, etc.), the better we can handle the weight we're lifting.
Something like this. The bar is touching my body during all the movement.
Another tip: 'pushing' the ground with our legs, not trying to lift the bar only by using the back.
It is fundamental to get this straight. We have to think that lifting the bar is the same as squatting.
Our objective is pushing the bar with our legs, and not lift it with our back.
If you are self-conscious that you have to push the bar from the ground, you're going to improve a lot.
Regarding the deadlift training planning, it is an exercise which requires an enormous central nervous system activation,
and also a great muscular implication. My recommendation is to do between 1 and 2 heavy sessions per week.
You can do some accessory exercises during the week or deadlifting but with lighter weights, but don't do more than 2 effective sessions per week
because our performance is going to get worse.
Deadlift is an exercise which transfers to nearly all exercises.
When doing a standing row, back must be straight. We are training this position when deadlifting.
It does not only improve back exercises, it also improves bench press exercises, as the chest contraction starts in the back by blocking the scapulas
and it also improves exercises like the squat, because it requires a similar position to the deadlift and also a completely straight back,
so there's a transfer to pretty much every other exercise. This happens the other way round too,
as for example, squatting is basic if we want to improve our deadlift.
Why? Because although the squat implies nearly the same muscles as the deadlift, it is an exercise which allows more work stimulus,
we can do it more frequently than the deadlift. From my point of view, I think that the most effective and efficient way of improving the deadlift
is increasing the weekly volume of squats and doing 1-2 deadlift effective sessions per week.
I think that it is the optimal way of improving.
Although I was going to film the different ways of deadlifting, I've decided to talk about two: the sumo deadlift and the 'stiff-legs' deadlift.
I don't particularly like any other variant, in fact, I don't quite like the stiff-leg way of deadlifting as I don't find it useful.
I'll talk about the sumo deadlift. It is like the normal deadlift, but having more distance between the legs.
We work the back a little less, but there is more leg work involved, specially the abductor.
See? The same, but with more distance between legs.
The stiff-legs deadlift makes us less flexible, due to myotatic reflex.
It is done this way:
Well, I hope you find this video useful.
If you liked it, you can subscribe to my channel.
If you have any question, feel free to ask it in the comments or by a PM.
See you soon!