Goalora
Support
← All exercises

Barbell Deadlift

intermediate · hinge

Barbell Deadlift

Setup

Set the bar on the floor over the middle of your feet, about one finger's width from your shins. Stand hip-width apart and use full-size plates, or blocks, so the bar starts at the standard height.

Execution

  1. Hinge at the hips and bend the knees to reach the bar, gripping just outside your shins.
  2. Drop your hips until your shoulders are slightly in front of the bar, chest open and back flat.
  3. Breathe in, brace your belly, take the slack out of the bar and only then add force.
  4. Push the floor away and drive the hips forward at the same time, keeping the bar sliding against your shins.
  5. Exhale when the bar clears your knees and finish standing tall with the glutes squeezed and no lean-back.
  6. Lower by pushing the hips back first and only bending the knees more after the bar passes them.
  7. If the back starts to round or the bar leaves your shins, end the set and put the bar down on the floor.

Breathing

Breathe in and brace before every pull, then exhale after the bar passes your knees. If you have high blood pressure, heart disease, a hernia or you are pregnant, do not hold your breath: exhale on the way up and use a much lighter load.

Quick cues

  • Bar over the middle of your feet.
  • Take the slack out first.
  • Push the floor, do not yank.
  • Imagine pressing your heels into mud.
  • A rounded back ends the set.

Common faults

  • Fault: Yanking the bar up from a slack start

    Fix: Pull until you hear the plates settle, hold one beat and only then drive the floor away.

  • Fault: The hips shooting up first so it becomes a loaded good-morning

    Fix: Cut 20% off the load and think about pushing the floor away with your legs for the first half of the pull.

  • Fault: The bar arcing out away from the shins

    Fix: Set the shoulder blades down, squeeze the lats and wear long socks so the bar can stay in contact.

  • Fault: Leaning back and shrugging at the end of the pull

    Fix: Finish at standing with the glutes squeezed, because the lean-back only loads the lower back.

  • Fault: Dropping the bar from the top onto the floor

    Fix: Lower the bar back down the same path you pulled it, which is both gym manners and floor care.

Equipment

barbell

Muscle groups

back, legs, glutes, arms