The deadlift... it just sounds like a scary exercise right? Possibly difficult, too complex, and a pain inducer? Well don't judge a book by it's cover because this can be one of the easiest, and most effective exercises in your toolbox. All you need to do is squat down, hold on, and stand up... well sort of. Lets cover the nitty gritty first before we give it a go...
The deadlift is a superior strength exercise for the posterior chain with excellent carryover to real life functionality – whether it's sports performance, sumo wrestling, or simply picking up your luggage for NYE. This exercise can seriously improve damn near anything! **(not sure what a posterior chain is? Message me or search for my next blog post on this topic)**
It is one of THE BEST muscle mass building exercises due to its effectiveness on the muscles in the posterior chain, upper back, and forearms (grip strength especially).
Not only can it be used as a strengthening exercise, but it is an awesome corrective exercise for bad posture as well. This single movement can provide the stiffness needed to minimize anterior pelvic tilt and thoracic kyphosis. Before we continue however, what needs to be understood about this exercise is that all of these benefits rely solely on whether you can perform the exercise correctly or not. Now picking something up and setting it back down doesn't sound too difficult, right? Well you would be surprised at how often people perform this exercise wrong, or how common certain technique errors are made during this movement.
I will not go into teaching technique in this blog post, I have already taken care of that in this video I posted on YOUTUBE. In this video I only cover the conventional (regular) deadlift exercise. There is also the sumo deadlift, trap bar deadlift, romanian deadlift, and suitcase deadlift.
The reason I chose to cover the conventional deadlift (DL) first is because it is the most common form of the DL used, while it is also the most technically advanced and potentially dangerous of all the DL movement types. With the force load being in the front of the body (anterior side of spine), there is going to be an increased amount of torque/sheer stress placed on the vertebra and lower back musculature. Additionally, the bar is further away from your body's center of gravity (COG). In order to get down to the bar and maintain one’s COG while maintaining a neutral spine position, you've got to have excellent ankle, hip, and thoracic spine mobility. If you can't simply squat down, grab a hold of the bar, and maintain a near perfect starting position with a neutral spine then you should NOT be attempting this exercise until you're able to... and by that I mean flexible enough to do so. Here's why...
Common problems that arise when you do not have sufficient ankle mobility, or are not able to dorsiflex:
1. You can’t create a “space” to which the bar can be pulled back toward the shin. You can observe this space by drawing a line straight down from the front of the knee to the floor. If you are not able to pull the bar back and close this space, then your bar path becomes curved and only increases the amount of torque and movement difficulty, which could lead to injury right from the get go.
2. Those who can’t dorsiflex will have hypertonic plantarflexors (calves). These individuals will struggle with proper hip-hinging technique, and by struggling they will compensate decreased hip flexion for lumbar flexion so that they can keep from falling forward. This adds even more torque and sheer stress to your lower back; risking a pulled muscle, or worse a ruptured disk.
Now onto hip flexion.
You need to be able to effectively flex at the hips, heck whether it's for deadlifting or just living a lifestyle with easier functionality, this is important. Meeting a 90 degree hip flexion is the standard and you would be surprised at how many people simply cannot reach this point without some sort of assistance, that's how stiff we've become in a society filled with desk jobs, videogames, and large amounts of sitting. Not being able to reach this 90 degree flexion only leads to more lumbar flexion, which in turn rounds your back out and you again risk injury.
Lastly we have the thoracic spine.
Ankle mobility: check, hip mobility: check, thoracic spine mobility: ??? ...When in a starting position, if you're back is rounding out and you can't literally pull your shoulders back to puff your chest out, then you lack the needed mobility in the thoracic spine. Optimal thoracic spine mobility brings our COG within our base of support and helps ensure we don’t lose a neutral lumbar spine position as soon as we begin the movement, while adding external loading to our spine (picking up the bar).
Evidently, having mobility throughout your body's kinetic chain (remember the big three: ankle, hip, thoracic) is essential in performing the conventional deadlift with a safe, fluid, and effective movement pattern.
Now you might ask yourself, "what if I lack mobility in any or all these sections of my body?" How do I know? What do I need to do to improve my flexibility/mobility? ...Contact me about how you can obtain a free movement evaluation and we'll get started on the technique process as soon as these questions are assessed and answered. Once we move into the application phase we will approach the deadlift just like we would in weight loss, and that's by taking baby steps. Through flexibility and range of motion training, to a series of exercises that lead up to the deadlift you will be on your way to THE STRONGEST VERSION OF YOU in no time!
Thanks for reading,
Coach BJ, cscs, usaw
Sources:
http://hb3.seikyou.ne.jp/home/t-matsu2/E.p2.ch3.4-1.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TICw7J08jik
Eric Cressey's top 3 deadlift movement blog post
The deadlift is a superior strength exercise for the posterior chain with excellent carryover to real life functionality – whether it's sports performance, sumo wrestling, or simply picking up your luggage for NYE. This exercise can seriously improve damn near anything! **(not sure what a posterior chain is? Message me or search for my next blog post on this topic)**
It is one of THE BEST muscle mass building exercises due to its effectiveness on the muscles in the posterior chain, upper back, and forearms (grip strength especially).
Not only can it be used as a strengthening exercise, but it is an awesome corrective exercise for bad posture as well. This single movement can provide the stiffness needed to minimize anterior pelvic tilt and thoracic kyphosis. Before we continue however, what needs to be understood about this exercise is that all of these benefits rely solely on whether you can perform the exercise correctly or not. Now picking something up and setting it back down doesn't sound too difficult, right? Well you would be surprised at how often people perform this exercise wrong, or how common certain technique errors are made during this movement.
I will not go into teaching technique in this blog post, I have already taken care of that in this video I posted on YOUTUBE. In this video I only cover the conventional (regular) deadlift exercise. There is also the sumo deadlift, trap bar deadlift, romanian deadlift, and suitcase deadlift.
The reason I chose to cover the conventional deadlift (DL) first is because it is the most common form of the DL used, while it is also the most technically advanced and potentially dangerous of all the DL movement types. With the force load being in the front of the body (anterior side of spine), there is going to be an increased amount of torque/sheer stress placed on the vertebra and lower back musculature. Additionally, the bar is further away from your body's center of gravity (COG). In order to get down to the bar and maintain one’s COG while maintaining a neutral spine position, you've got to have excellent ankle, hip, and thoracic spine mobility. If you can't simply squat down, grab a hold of the bar, and maintain a near perfect starting position with a neutral spine then you should NOT be attempting this exercise until you're able to... and by that I mean flexible enough to do so. Here's why...
Common problems that arise when you do not have sufficient ankle mobility, or are not able to dorsiflex:
1. You can’t create a “space” to which the bar can be pulled back toward the shin. You can observe this space by drawing a line straight down from the front of the knee to the floor. If you are not able to pull the bar back and close this space, then your bar path becomes curved and only increases the amount of torque and movement difficulty, which could lead to injury right from the get go.
2. Those who can’t dorsiflex will have hypertonic plantarflexors (calves). These individuals will struggle with proper hip-hinging technique, and by struggling they will compensate decreased hip flexion for lumbar flexion so that they can keep from falling forward. This adds even more torque and sheer stress to your lower back; risking a pulled muscle, or worse a ruptured disk.
Now onto hip flexion.
You need to be able to effectively flex at the hips, heck whether it's for deadlifting or just living a lifestyle with easier functionality, this is important. Meeting a 90 degree hip flexion is the standard and you would be surprised at how many people simply cannot reach this point without some sort of assistance, that's how stiff we've become in a society filled with desk jobs, videogames, and large amounts of sitting. Not being able to reach this 90 degree flexion only leads to more lumbar flexion, which in turn rounds your back out and you again risk injury.
Lastly we have the thoracic spine.
Ankle mobility: check, hip mobility: check, thoracic spine mobility: ??? ...When in a starting position, if you're back is rounding out and you can't literally pull your shoulders back to puff your chest out, then you lack the needed mobility in the thoracic spine. Optimal thoracic spine mobility brings our COG within our base of support and helps ensure we don’t lose a neutral lumbar spine position as soon as we begin the movement, while adding external loading to our spine (picking up the bar).
Evidently, having mobility throughout your body's kinetic chain (remember the big three: ankle, hip, thoracic) is essential in performing the conventional deadlift with a safe, fluid, and effective movement pattern.
Now you might ask yourself, "what if I lack mobility in any or all these sections of my body?" How do I know? What do I need to do to improve my flexibility/mobility? ...Contact me about how you can obtain a free movement evaluation and we'll get started on the technique process as soon as these questions are assessed and answered. Once we move into the application phase we will approach the deadlift just like we would in weight loss, and that's by taking baby steps. Through flexibility and range of motion training, to a series of exercises that lead up to the deadlift you will be on your way to THE STRONGEST VERSION OF YOU in no time!
Thanks for reading,
Coach BJ, cscs, usaw
Sources:
http://hb3.seikyou.ne.jp/home/t-matsu2/E.p2.ch3.4-1.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TICw7J08jik
Eric Cressey's top 3 deadlift movement blog post