Charlie Baker has a simple cure for the blues: spend time outdoors. There’s nothing a hike in the mountains of Colorado can’t fix. It’s something he used to do with his wife Patty, until she died in a boating accident. That was 8 years ago. Hiking the trails they used to climb together is his way of remembering her. But, for the last 3 months, he’s been distracted by the new accountant in the office, Carla. She moved in three cubicles away from him, a transfer from the Oregon office. Charlie is fairly certain she has no idea who he is. So far, their interaction has been limited to standing at the snack machine that continued to reject his worn bills, while she waited behind him. Despite this, she is stuck in his mind, an image burned into his memory, an image that he continuously traces and paints over with brighter colors each time.

On one hand, Charlie feels guilty for having such feelings, but, on the other hand, he feels he should move on with his life—Patty would want him to be happy, after all. These thoughts turned in his mind while he climbed the gradual incline of the trail that leads to an overlook of the whole town.

When near the top of the trail, Charlie finds what appears to be a Neti pot embedded in a boulder. As he reaches for it, a plume of smoke arises from the spout, taking shape of an emaciated, spindly man. Is this a genie lamp? Charlie thinks to himself.

“Oh god please, get me out of here,” the figure moans. The genie's eyes are vacant, yet overflowing with desperation.

“I’ve been stuck in this rock for centuries. If you get me out of here I’ll grant you any wish.”

This brings Charlie pause. From what he learned from fairy tales, the standard for a situation like this is to grant three wishes. To be polite, he doesn’t say anything. As he starts to walk away, he realizes that supernatural intervention may be the only way he can move on with his life.

Charlie tries to pry the lamp out of the rock but finds it more difficult than anticipated. The genie provides unsolicited advice throughout the process, which unfortunately does not help matters. With the sun starting to set and his shirt soaked with sweat, Charlie decides to head home and strategize.

Since simply yanking the lamp out of the rock is not an option, a more calculated approach is needed. Something like a deadlift. After calculating the weight of the lamp, which comes out to be roughly 290 pounds when accounting or household goods, Charlie realizes that he’ll need some training to get this done.

Charlie hikes up the trail again, returning to the rock and promising the genie that he’ll come back with a solution. The genie was not happy about this. Charlie hides the lamp with some leaves then goes to the gym to learn how to deadlift enough weight to unearth the lamp.

The Muscles Charlie will need to Use

When Charlie does a hip hinge to deadlift, he activates his posterior chain—the most powerful collection of muscles in the body.

Here are the primary muscles Charlie will use when doing a deadlift and the role of the muscles in the movement.

Erector spinae: Located in the lower back to keep the back from snapping in half.

Quadriceps: Quads help Charlie lift the bar off the ground. The four muscles that make up the quadriceps are responsible for knee extension. One of them, the rectus femoris, also aids in hip flexion.

Adductor Magnus: The hamstring’s underappreciated cousin that is responsible for hip stability.

Hamstrings: The four muscles that make up the hamstrings are responsible for knee flexion and hip extension.

Gluteus Maximus: The glutes are one of the most powerful muscles in the body. The glutes are responsible for hip extension.

Core: The core consists of the pelvic floor muscles, transverse abdominis, multifidus, obliques, rectus abdominis, and erector spinae. Charlie’s ability to work them in synchronicity results in core stability.

Pelvic floor muscles: supports your bladder, intestines, and for women, the uterus. It’s also responsible for helping you hold your pee and poop.
Transverse abdominis: aids in providing thoracic and pelvic stability
Multifidus: supports the stability of the spinal vertebra
Oblique: pull the chest downwards and compress the abdominal cavity, which increases the intra-abdominal pressure
Rectus abdominis: supports posture and lumbar spine flexion
Erector spinae: straighten and rotate the back

Latissimus dorsi: For the deadlift, the lats main function is to keep the bar close to Charlie’s body.

Moments and Moment Arms

*check out Meathead Physics for more on this topic.

A deadlift is as basic as you can get—you’re picking a weight up from the ground and putting it back down. It’s something Charlie does every day, when he walks his dog and picks up dog poop, or lifts his baby nephew off the ground.

If you’re satisfied with deadlifting poodle turds and babies from the ground, then you don’t need to read on. If you want to deadlift heavy things like a wheelbarrow full of babies or a sperm whale poop, you’ll have to think about how you are going to properly lift that thing.

To perform a safe and effective deadlift, Charlie will want the bar to be aligned with his center of gravity, around mid-foot. If Charlie tried to lift a box of kittens with the box too close to the body and again with the box at arm’s length, it will be much more difficult to lift the box that is far from the body. That’s because the longer moment arm requires more stability and strength. When exercising, don't do any more work than is necessary. Use every physical and mechanical advantage available to deadlift the most weight.

Our bodies consist of several levers. Let’s go over the three levers that will be most used when doing a deadlift:

The Back

The more parallel the torso is to the ground, the more work the back is doing. So, conventional deadlifts will be more taxing on the back than sumo deadlifts.* Sumo deadlifts are more challenging for the hips and quads.

*For our purposes, the primary difference between the two is that sumo deadlifts require a wider stance than conventional. Thus, you’re lower to the ground in a sumo deadlift and you don’t need to bend over as far to lift the bar.

The Hips

The farther the hips are from the bar, the more work the hips must do. This usually leads people to think that sumo deadlifts are easier on the hips. But, hip extension is measured relative to the thigh, not the torso. The position of the torso in a conventional deadlift may appear to need more hip extension but, if we compare hip extension at the thigh, hip extension with either lift is about the same. If there are hip mobility issues, hip extension may be more difficult when doing a sumo deadlift. The biggest difference between the two lifts is in the back. Since a person will be more upright in a sumo stance, sumo deadlifts are less strain on the back.

The Knees

The starting position of the knees is important to a successful deadlift: whether they are too bent or not bent enough. When talking about knees, a lot of people talk about the inclusion of the quads, leg drive, and shin angle. It’s a lot of talk about nothing. The quads won't limit a deadlift and, as long as the knees don’t impede the bar path, the shin angle is fine.

How to deadlift/liberate a genie with proper form

There are four things that need to happen in every good deadlift:

1. Hip hinge

2. Stability

3. Alignment/balance

4. Leg drive

There are a lot of ways to learn how to deadlift. I’m not going to list them all. The method laid out below is a user-friendly way to do it.

Hip Hinge

A person can’t deadlift if they can’t hip hinge. They can move furniture without a hip hinge but they can move it much better if they have it.

There are a lot of ways to learn to hip hinge so, for simplicity's sake, let’s focus on a drill that emulates the movement Charlie needs for a deadlift.

The Wall Drill

Stand with the back against a wall. Take a small step forward and push the butt towards the wall. Progress by inching the feet further away from the wall. Practice going deeper into the movement while keeping your back straight.*

*rounding of the lower back isn’t inherently bad, and some intentionally round their backs in a deadlift. However, in most cases, a rounded back suggests a lack of core stability and strength and can lead to injury.

Stability: Straight Arm Pulldown and Bracing

Use either a resistance band or a cable machine with a rope or straight bar attachment.

With the resistance band or cable machine attachment, start with the arms shoulder-width apart and the palms at eye level, facing down.

With the elbows slightly bent, bring the arms down to the sides. Return your hands back up to its starting position.

Inhale and brace at the start of the rep and breath out at the end of the rep.

Finally, add a hip hinge. At the bottom of the lift (when your hands pointed down), perform a hip hinge. Now your posterior chain is activated by the hip hinge, and your lats are firing to keep the bar/band steady at your sides. This is similar to how a deadlift should feel.

Alignment and Balance: Romanian Deadlift (RDL)

I believe in learning the RDL before doing a full conventional or sumo deadlift. This movement is essentially a 3/4 deadlift or a deadlift without leg drive.

1. Hold the bar shoulder-width apart.

2. Engage the lats. They should feel like they do when a straight arm pulldown is performed.

3. Hip hinge to lower the bar to about knee level, or until a decent stretch is felt in the hamstrings.

4. Lift the bar back up by pushing the hips forward. The arms remain relaxed to your sides. The bar serves as a counter-weight against the force that a person is driving against it.

Progression: Dead-stop RDL/Rack Pull

This movement is exactly the same as an RDL, but the lifter rests the bar on the safety pins/blocks between each rep. Stopping the bar’s momentum between each rep will force a person to readjust before each rep. At the bottom of each rep, ensure that the body is braced, the lats are tight, and the glutes and hamstrings are primed for firing.

Leg Drive: The Full Deadlift

If Charlie attempted to do an RDL but used his legs to lift the bar up to his knees, that’s a full deadlift. To do a full deadlift, a person adds the distance between the ground and their knees (assuming that they end their RDLs at their knees).

Details

Charlie has been training at the gym for a couple of months now. It’s the same gym that Carla goes to. He notices she deadlifts really well and approaches her for some advice.

Charlie has all the essentials—he should be able to make use of a hip hinge, braced core, and tension. Now he’ll tweak some of the finer details to make his deadlift his own.

Stance Width

Here’s a test. Jump and see where your feet are when you land. This is your stance. There are a couple of reasons why this makes sense—a jump and a deadlift both have a person exert vertical force into the ground. How a person lands in a vertical leap shows them where they feel the most comfortable exerting this force. They should start here and tweak as necessary.

To start a sumo deadlift, a person should have their shins perpendicular to the floor. The person should scoot their feet in or out as they feel necessary.

Tip: Should a person deadlift sumo or conventional?

People talk a lot about limb length, torso ratios, and hip socket anatomy when talking about the way a person should deadlift. Here’s a much more practical way of finding out how to deadlift: try both types of deadlifts for a training cycle or two and see which one feels better.

Toe Variable

In some instances, slightly pointing the toes out might help engage the glutes a little bit more. For a sumo deadlift, be careful since the more horizontal the feet are, the less stable a person will be. A person needs to experiment with their toe position too.

Grip Width

Ideally, a person wants to grip the bar at shoulder-width. In a conventional deadlift, this is usually not possible since the legs get in the way, so, go as narrow as possible. In a sumo deadlift, let the arms hang straight down.

A person can grip the bar with an overhand grip, mixed grip, hooked grip, or straps.

An overhand grip is the most limiting. Once a person gets to heavier weights they will need to use a mixed grip or straps. A mixed grip will prevent the bar from rolling out of one’s hands.

A hook grip is when a person traps the thumb underneath the bar. This will hurt initially because the thumb is being crushed between the barbell and the fist. Eventually, the nerves in the thumb will die and become numb.

A person can use straps if their grip is a limiting factor. Bear in mind, straps are not allowed in any sort of competition. A good alternative is chalk. Any pair of straps will do.

When it comes to chalk, many commercial gyms don’t allow it. In those cases, liquid chalk works just as well.

The Setup

If you have ever watched people deadlift on Instagram, you might notice some of them do some crazy shit before a big pull. A person has to find their own crazy shit to do. In a deadlift, the setup is vital. Everyone needs to find their own rhythm and perfect it.

Here are a couple of common set-up strategies anyone can start with:

Hip hinge, then tighten

1. Secure the foot position

2. Hip hinge down to the bar and secure the grip width

3. Lower the hips while keeping the back straight

4. Find a spot where tension is felt in the hamstrings

5. Squeeze the lats and create full-body tension

6. Brace and lift

Kneel down, then tighten

1. Secure the foot position

2. Kneel down by the bar and secure the grip width

3. Raise the hips and keep the back straight

4. Raise the hips until tension is felt in the hamstrings

5. Squeeze the lats and create full-body tension

6. Brace and lift

Initiating the Pull

The key to initiating the pull is tension. Without tension, the hips and lower back will rise before the bar leaves the ground and a person will look like a cheap fishing pole trying to reel in a shark. By creating tension and using leverage, the lift will be more akin to a crowbar reeling in a shark.

To create tension, a person needs to grip the bar as hard as they can, hamstrings and quads tensed. It helps some people to imagine the hamstrings as loaded springs. Squeeze the armpits shut and keep the lats tight. Brace and ease the bar off the ground. Once the bar has cleared the floor, let it fly.

From the floor to the knees, a person is using their legs to drive the bar up. From the knees to lockout, a person is using the hips.

Over the last few months, the deadlift has not only become Charlie’s favorite exercise but the one he does best. More importantly, he has gotten to know Carla pretty well. As Charlie’s feelings for her have grown, he wonders if she feels the same way. Charlie asks Carla if she would be interested in having dinner with him and she says, “Yes.”

Unfortunately, for the genie, after Charlie and Carla begin to date, Charlie forgets all about him, forever.

Deadlift form tips and cues

Here are some basic movement cues to think about when doing any deadlift:

Cue: Chest up

This cue helps a person maintain an upright posture during the lift.

Cue: Drive the floor away/Split the floor

This cue has never worked for me because, even though I understand what it’s trying to achieve, I still know the floor isn’t going anywhere. However, it’s useful for a lot of people. Envision that the purpose of the leg press is to engage the legs and get them to do the work. In a sumo deadlift, breaking the bar off the ground is less about pressing into the ground and more about spreading the ground.

Here are some basic movement cues to think about when doing a sumo deadlift:

Cue: Ease the bar off the ground

Take your time getting the bar off the ground to ensure perfect form and full-body tension.

Cue: Hips forward

Once the bar is at the knees, it’s the hips’ job to push forward to finish the lift.

Cue: Lockout

Lockout the lift by standing upright. A person doesn’t need to go any further than that. Squeeze the glutes, and maintain full-body tension. Some people hyperextend their backs during the lockout. This is unnecessary and has no benefit.

Cue: Lower the bar

Lowering the bar in a controlled manner will lead to better hypertrophy and will better prime a person for the next rep.

Common Mistakes (and simple solutions)

I feel off-balance.

In a deadlift, the barbell serves as a counterbalance. As a person lifts, their weight will transfer from mid-foot and move towards the heel. If they are off-balance, they’ll probably either fall forward or backward. Balance in a deadlift is usually naturally achieved, but sometimes a person finds themselves needing some recalibration.

The quickest and easiest way to go from zero to a successful lift is by maintaining a straight line. If a person has balance issues, they might not lift the bar in a straight line. Their weight may be too far forward or backward. In general, begin with the bar lined up with the knot of the shoelaces. Establish a stable base with the feet by digging into the floor with the big toes.

Most balance issues reveal themselves between the floor and the knee. When starting out, or when a person feels like their balance is a bit off, diagnose what is causing the problem. Here’s a couple of accessory lifts that work pretty well and help ensure that, overall, a deadlift is balanced:

Pause deadlift: perform a deadlift, but pause for a second or two just as the bar leaves the ground. While paused, reassess your balance.

Tempo deadlift: perform a deadlift, but slowly. Take about 3-4 seconds lifting and lowering the bar so you can feel any instability.

For both of these deadlifts, use very light weight, if any.

Should I do touch-and-go deadlifts or dead-stop deadlifts?

In general, do what feels best and what helps achieve keep better form. Some people get sloppy doing touch-and-go deadlifts and end up resembling an air dancer.

Where should I look when doing a deadlift?

It doesn’t matter. Do what feels natural—your neck position ultimately has no impact on how you lift the bar.

How do I improve grip strength?

The easiest and most practical grip training I can recommend for deadlifting is simply static hold the last rep of your last set for as long as you can. This is usually enough for most people. Most people don’t need direct grip strength training until they are deadlifting more than 3 times their body weight.

What gear do I need to properly deadlift?

Belt: a belt will help you increase your intra-abdominal pressure and helps you brace harder. This can be handy, so use one.

Shoes: Since the goal is to transfer force into the ground, non-compressible, flat-soled shoes are great for deadlifting. Some people deadlift barefoot. That’s fine, but if you want to compete you’ll need shoes. Also, if you sumo deadlift, shoes will offer better traction for spreading the floor than bare feet. Converse Chuck Taylors are a popular choice. Personally, I have used wrestling shoes for years.

Shin protection: If you train in a public gym, for your own safety and the safety of others, wear high socks, calf sleeves, or long pants to protect your shins. You don’t want to get a staph infection.

Hiking, Genies, and Love: How to Deadlift