Editor’s Note: This article was written in collaboration with the folks at Barbell Logic Online Coaching. If you’d like their Deadlift Field Guide, sign up for their weekly email The Friday Five. If you’re reading this in your email, you can sign-up here.
Lean the body over, take hold of a heavy weight, and raise it from the ground. In weight-lifting circles this is known as the ‘dead-weight’ lift or ‘hands-alone.’ It is exactly such a lift as a lot of powerful laborers or porters would naturally select if they wished to determine which the strongest man among them was. —Super Strength (1924) by Alan Calvert
The deadlift is arguably the most instinctually satisfying weightlifting exercise. As Alan Calvert, the father of the modern barbell’s design, alludes to above, it parallels a movement we already perform in our everyday lives: hoisting a heavy object off the ground. And it works the whole body, transforming the human physique into a very effective machine. Calling as it does upon the back, hips, arms, shoulders, grip, and more, what Calvert said of the deadlift almost a century ago still remains true: “[It is] possibly the most common test of strength in all the world.â€
To fully enjoy the satisfactions and body-building benefits of the deadlift and use it as an effective, injury-free training tool, you will need to spend some time learning how to perform it correctly. There is more to it than bending over and picking up the bar or the traditional advice to “grip it and rip it†you’ll often hear at your local gym. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll cover the deadlift from every angle so that you can lift safer, heavier, and happier.
Tags: Exercises