Cable Deadlift

Execution

1. Push your hips back first and let the knees bend just enough for your hands to reach the handles; chest open, lower back flat, and the hands only hook the handles rather than pull.
2. Inhale and brace your core while at the bottom, before you start standing up.
3. Exhale, push through your heels, and extend your hips and knees together to stand tall, arms hanging relaxed at your sides.
4. Keep your head and chest up through the whole movement, not looking down at your feet.
5. Once fully standing, inhale and push the hips back to lower under control to the starting position; end the set the moment the back starts to round.

Quick cues

• Hands just hook in, don't pull.
• Push the floor to stand, don't yank the cable.
• Chest stays up the whole rep.
• Hips and knees finish together.
• Hips travel back first, knees follow.

Common faults

• Fault: Pulling the handles up with the arms and shoulders instead of standing up with the legs

  Fix: Think about pushing the floor away with the legs first, letting the arms stay a passive hook the whole time.

• Fault: The lower back rounding at the bottom position

  Fix: Reduce how far you lower, only going down to where the back can stay flat, and drop the weight one increment.

• Fault: Leaning back too far once standing

  Fix: Stop at a neutral standing position and squeeze the glutes instead of arching further to finish the rep.

• Fault: Standing too far from or too close to the towers, pulling the cable at the wrong angle

  Fix: Stand centered between the towers so the cable path is close to vertical at the bottom before you start.