Car Deadlift

Execution

1. Hinge your hips back and bend your knees to take a firm grip on both handles, chest open, lower back flat.
2. Inhale, brace your core, and lock that back angle in before you start pulling.
3. Drive through your heels, extending the hips and knees together to stand tall, arms just holding on rather than pulling from the shoulders.
4. At the top, pull your shoulder blades together and drive your hips through to finish standing tall.
5. Exhale at the top, then lower the frame to the ground under control by hinging the hips back down.

Quick cues

• Grip tight first, then pull.
• Push the floor, don't yank the handles.
• Chest stays open the whole pull.
• Hips and knees finish together.
• Squeeze the shoulder blades at the top.

Common faults

• Fault: Hips shooting up first, turning the back into a lever for the top half

  Fix: Drop the load and drill it with a lighter frame, keeping the back angle fixed until the hips and shoulders rise at the same rate.

• Fault: The lower back rounding through the first part of the pull

  Fix: Drop the load one increment, brace the core harder before pulling, and stop the set if the back keeps rounding.

• Fault: The handle height sitting too high or too low for the lifter's build

  Fix: Switch to the handle height closest to your normal barbell deadlift stance before adding load.

• Fault: Trying to save a rep that has already lost control mid-pull

  Fix: Let go of the handles and let the frame settle to the ground right away, instead of grinding through a bad position to finish the rep.