Exercise Spotlight – Barbell Deadlift

The Barbell Deadlift is undoubtedly one of the best all-round gym exercises however it gets a bad name as we all know someone who has hurt their back doing it! With a bit of know-how or guidance and some attention to detail you can master your technique and keep making safe, low risk strength gains. It gets your full body working in co-ordination to generate really high force outputs. It effectively trains the lower body, particularly the hamstrings and glutes. It gets your core working hard to keep tight and transfer the force you generate from the ground to the bar. You are normally able to use the most amount of weight so there is the potential to create a huge hormonal stimulus and accelerate the rest of your strength work.

Exercise Suitability:
Beginners: ✔️
Advanced: ✔️

What are the key technique points?
- Stand with feet around hip width apart so that the bar is directly over the middle of your feet.
- Pull your arms long (or shoulder blades down towards your pelvis) in the opposite motion to shrugging to grip the bar just outside your legs.
- Pull your hips down, take a deep breath to fill your belly with air to lock everything tight in place.
- Start by pushing your feet through the floor working hard to brace and maintain back position.
- Finish the movement as it passes the knees by squeezing your glutes.
- Lower the weight under control, tipping from the hips first like a Romanian Deadlift.

Implement the deadlift with all of the other major strength movements into your program, have it all taken care of and receive access to the rest of our video library by joining our online coaching service. 

I've made pretty big progress compared to the previous 12 months when I did my own programming, so I am a believer in the system - Paul