[0:05] What's up, guys?
[0:06] Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.com.
[0:08] We're talking deadlift today.
[0:10] One of the best exercises you can do if you
do it right.
[0:13] So we're breaking out the checklist so we
can break this down step by step and make
[0:17] sure that you do.
[0:18] Okay, any good deadlift starts with how you
prepare your body to do it before you even
[0:23] do the exercise.
[0:24] So a couple things that I do: there's two
considerations here.
[0:27] Number one: you've got to have the feeling
that you could actually get to this bar and
[0:31] do this exercise properly.
[0:32] So what I do is a quick, little routine to
feel nice, and loose.
[0:35] I put my feet up, against the insides of the
plates, and I use them to stretch out my adductors
[0:40] in my groin because we know if you're going
to be driving your knees out – as you should
[0:44] be, as you'll see when you press this bar
off the ground, and pull it off the ground
[0:48] – I say 'press'.
[0:49] That's the key difference, too.
[0:51] You're going to want to make sure that you
have adequate flexibility here through your
[0:54] adductors.
[0:55] The next thing I do is, I feel as if I want
to keep my hamstrings engaged, and I also
[1:00] want to have my pelvis in the right position.
[1:02] So I lean forward where to grab the bar, and
I try to get myself into an anterior pelvic
[1:08] tilt.
[1:09] So I'm trying to rotate my pelvis all the
way down until it's facing the ground.
[1:14] All the way down.
[1:15] Point your junk down to the ground, keep your
hands on the bar, and then keep your head
[1:19] up.
[1:20] Look straight ahead and just feel the stretch
in your hamstrings, and feel the stretch here
[1:24] in all those attachments to your pelvis that
we know we feel like we're in that good position.
[1:28] Once I do that – just for a couple minutes
until I feel nice, and loose – the next
[1:32] thing I'll do is this pre-deadlift movement
pattern.
[1:37] That is, I stand here, I keep my hands on
my thighs – you're going to see why this
[1:40] is very important in a second – and I let
them slide down until the level of the knees,
[1:44] by doing nothing but hip hinging.
[1:46] If you just did what I showed you that hip
hinge should feel really easy now.
[1:50] So right down to here, no bending the knees.
[1:53] From here, once I get to the level of the
knees, then maintaining this low back, I just
[1:58] let my hands drop straight down by bending
nothing but the knees.
[2:01] Then I work on going back up and feeling the
first few inches of this to be nothing but
[2:06] let press as I get to the level of the knees,
and then driving through with nothing but
[2:11] the hips.
[2:12] So it's hip hinge to the level of the knees,
drop the knees down, push through the knees,
[2:17] hip hinge, and finish it all the way here,
through extension.
[2:21] Just use that movement pattern until you feel
as if you've got it down, and then you're
[2:25] ready to start lifting the bar.
[2:27] Now we're ready to actually approach the bar.
[2:29] There is something you want to focus on here.
[2:30] There are actually two things you want to
focus on.
[2:32] First of all, how far under the bar are your
feet going to go?
[2:36] And how far apart should your feet be?
[2:38] First of all, let's deal with the easy one.
[2:40] The width of your feet should be the width
of your hips.
[2:43] Now, for someone that doesn’t have a really
wide physique like me, that could be pretty
[2:47] narrow.
[2:48] You see mine.
[2:49] I'm actually inside the non-knurled areas
of the bar, here.
[2:52] For you, that could be a little bit wider,
but it doesn't matter.
[2:54] You just want to be hip width.
[2:56] As far as 'how far under the bar the feet
should actually go', there's a little cue
[3:00] I like to use here.
[3:02] I want to just see my laces on the other side
of the bar.
[3:05] So you can see right now I can't.
[3:06] My laces are actually being covered by the
bar.
[3:09] If I sneak them out, just to the other side
here, now I've actually setup the right position
[3:14] for this bar.
[3:16] Which should be about 1" away from my shin
because when I go down to the bar my shins
[3:22] will go forward to meet that bar, and that
is the proper position.
[3:26] Now, a lot of people will try to roll the
bar away, and then roll it back.
[3:30] That's sort of a pre-lift ritual, but ultimately
what they're doing is they're getting that
[3:34] bar back to that position, and they're using
the experience that they have, and being comfortable
[3:39] with moving the bar to get it there, ultimately,
in the right position.
[3:42] If you're new and you're just learning this
exercise; take one of those variables out.
[3:46] Get set to the bar and don’t change anything
else.
[3:48] Get yourself about 1" away, get ready to perform
the lift, and just go ahead and do it.
[3:54] Okay now, with the feet in the proper place,
now we've got to get the hands in the proper
[3:57] placement.
[3:58] There are two elements I want to cover here.
[3:59] It is the type of grip that we're going to
use – because we've probably seen a lot
[4:02] of different grips being used on this exercise
– as well as the width of your hands on
[4:07] the bar when you perform the lift.
[4:09] So first of all, let's talk about the type.
[4:11] You have three different options here when
it comes to how you're gripping the bar.
[4:15] Most commonly, you probably see this 'double
overhand grip'.
[4:19] There's a great advantage to this that we're
going to get into when we actually talk about
[4:22] performing the lift, but at the surface level
here, this is giving you the most balanced
[4:27] distribution of your upper body, and how you're
gripping the bar so you don’t create muscle
[4:32] imbalances by gripping the bar.
[4:34] The second option that you'll see is often
the choice when you feel as if this is too
[4:39] weak of a grip, because the bar starts to
roll out of your hands.
[4:42] So what do we do?
[4:43] We see people do a mixed grip.
[4:45] The mixed grip is one under, one over.
[4:47] The one under and one over allows the bar
to stop rotating, because as it starts to
[4:52] fall out of this hand, it's actually turning
more into this hand.
[4:55] So you're creating more stability.
[4:56] It's the same way you would grab a baseball
bat.
[4:59] Your dominant hand would be on the top here,
and the underhand, you just take that baseball
[5:03] bat, and turn it.
[5:04] That's what you're doing here, on the bar.
[5:06] However, in order to eliminate some of the
muscular imbalances that could be created
[5:11] from doing this – especially up in your
shoulder girdle – you would want to alternate
[5:14] the grips here.
[5:15] So you have a third option.
[5:17] This is the option chosen by more of the advanced
lifters that perform this lift.
[5:21] That would be a hook grip where you take your
thumb, you wrap it around, and then you wrap
[5:25] your fingers over your thumb.
[5:27] So if you look at it here, they wrap their
fingers around that thumb.
[5:31] Now I'm going to tell you, if you're going
to do this, number one: it's going to be very
[5:34] uncomfortable.
[5:35] It's going to feel like you're snapping your
thumb off.
[5:36] But in order to alleviate that you want to
grip on that first digit here.
[5:40] That first knuckle right here.
[5:42] If you go on top here you're really going
to feel like you're snapping your thumb off.
[5:46] Okay, from here I still would advise – if
you're going to do this, you're going to want
[5:49] to build up to this by starting with lighter
weights, accommodating to this discomfort
[5:54] that you might feel on this the first time
you do it, and then over time, of course,
[5:57] your body is going to become resilient to
it.
[5:59] It will be, overall, your most effective grip,
your strongest grip, and it will also not
[6:04] lead to those imbalances that the mixed grip
would.
[6:07] Now as far as the width, and how wide I want
my hands on the bar, that actually brings
[6:10] up a point from the last topic.
[6:12] That is, a lot of people think that the mixed
grip is what is responsible for leading to
[6:16] bicep tears during the deadlift.
[6:18] A lot of people are scared about tearing a
bicep during a deadlift.
[6:21] More so, it actually comes from what you're
doing with your arms, in terms of width, and
[6:24] I'll show you why.
[6:25] First of all, people sometimes want to grab
the bar wide.
[6:28] But what you're doing when you grab wide is,
you're effectively shortening the length of
[6:32] your arms.
[6:33] If we know that – if I let my arms hang
straight down, right about the width of my
[6:37] hips, or just down at the side – they're
as long as right here.
[6:41] To this point in my thigh.
[6:42] But if I widen them you can see that they
lift up, and I've just shortened them by about
[6:46] 2", or 3".
[6:47] So the shorter my arms become – because
I widen them out on the bar – the lower,
[6:52] and deeper I'm going to have to become on
every, single rep of the lift.
[6:56] And I'm not necessarily concerned about that
from the strength benefits, because that would
[6:59] be a good thing.
[7:00] I'm more concerned about the fact that most
of us don’t have the mobility to go those
[7:03] extra 2", or 3" down.
[7:05] So you're causing yourself and increased likelihood
that you're going to screw the lift up by
[7:09] going wider.
[7:10] So the ideal position here is to have your
hands just outside of those hip width feet.
[7:16] So just to the outside by about 1".
[7:18] Now you want to have enough room here for
two reason.
[7:21] Number one: you don’t want to have your
hands dragging up the sides of your thighs,
[7:26] here.
[7:27] You want the bar dragging up your thighs,
but you don’t want your hands dragging up
[7:30] because the extra friction can make the exercise:
A) more uncomfortable than in could be, and
[7:34] B)
[7:35] just become a little more awkward.
[7:36] But more importantly, the tendency, as I said,
is when you start to push you're going to
[7:41] want to have your legs pushing out.
[7:42] If your arms are too close, what happens is,
people will create an inadvertent elbow bend
[7:48] here, as they perform the lift.
[7:50] No matter if you're doing it this way, or
you're doing it this way with a mixed grip
[7:55] you might get some flexion here of the elbow
as you perform the lift, which places a high
[8:01] degree of unnecessary tension on the bicep.
[8:04] That is what, more often, leads to the ruptures
of what you see happening in the biceps.
[8:10] The same thing would apply if I were to go
do a dead hang on a pullup bar.
[8:13] I could hold there for a very long period
of time, but if you wanted me to do a flex-arm
[8:16] hang that time would be cut drastically.
[8:19] So we can actually become more efficient by
just letting the arms hang straight down,
[8:24] keep the tension all the way through here.
[8:26] Even though it's more elongated it's less
likely to tear in this position because it's
[8:29] a more stable position.
[8:31] Okay, we've got the feet in place, we've got
the hands in place, and now we've got to get
[8:34] our body in place.
[8:35] If you've followed what I've said to this
point, as you lower yourself to the ground,
[8:39] if your feet are the proper distance away
from the bar your shins will make contact
[8:43] with that bar.
[8:44] Now your grip, as you said – we've talked
about – and from here the only goal you
[8:49] should have is to get your low back in the
right position to execute this lift because
[8:52] when people talk about the dangers of this
lift it's because they're doing it with the
[8:56] wrong positioning of the low back, which can
cause a lumbar disc issue if you don’t do
[9:01] it right.
[9:02] So from here you only have two cues.
[9:03] You've got to drive your chest forward, up,
and out, and you want to drive your hips down.
[9:08] So from here the chest goes out, hips go down.
[9:12] What you'll also find is that your arms will
get the lats activating to actually pull you
[9:18] into that position.
[9:19] Think about doing a straight-arm push down.
[9:22] You're literally doing that straight-arm pushdown,
which will bring the bar further in contact
[9:26] with your shins, chest goes out, hips go down,
and I'm ready to rock and roll.
[9:31] Now the key, as I've said, the position of
the low back being flat.
[9:35] You don’t want that rounded low back.
[9:37] Don’t worry about how angled your torso
is to the ground.
[9:41] As long as the low back is in the right position.
[9:44] You may see people that are really far bent
over like this, here, or people that are more
[9:49] upright.
[9:50] That's a factor of their leg length and torso
length; whatever is right for you.
[9:54] As long as your low back is there, then you
know you're in the right spot.
[9:57] So now, when we get ready to actually pull,
guys – this is why I call this a leg exercise'.
[10:01] And it had better be a leg exercise first
if you want to avoid all the problems with
[10:06] your low back that you could potentially run
into with this exercise.
[10:10] It has to start with a push of your legs off
the ground until your hands are at the level
[10:14] of the knee.
[10:15] So if you go back to that warmup that I was
showing you, grooving that pattern; that's
[10:19] exactly what you're trying to do.
[10:20] I'm going to show you why, here.
[10:21] I'm going to break this down into, literally,
two parts.
[10:24] From the ground to the knee, and then from
the knee, up.
[10:27] So now when we get in this position here,
what you want to do – once that chest is
[10:31] out, and those arms are engaged, and the low
back is down – what you're trying to do
[10:35] here is do a standing leg press.
[10:37] I'll show you exactly why this is exactly
a leg exercise.
[10:40] You're going 'standing leg press' from here,
to here.
[10:43] Here, to here.
[10:45] Right from your hands, from there, from the
floor, to the knee.
[10:48] Once they get to the knee, that's when the
hips will start to kick in.
[10:50] Then this will become a tremendous back exercise.
[10:52] But from here, to here you're doing all the
initiation with a push of your legs, into
[10:57] the ground, as hard as you possibly can.
[10:58] I talk about, all the time, why this is a
standing leg press because the mechanics are
[11:02] the exact same.
[11:03] If my hands were down here on the handles,
and my feet were on the plate, and I push
[11:08] away; all that is happening right there, from
the legs.
[11:13] I do not bring my body closer to my thighs
in order to feel like I'm pushing.
[11:20] I take my feet and I push them away.
[11:22] So the same thing would apply here.
[11:23] You're not going to bring your body closer
to your thighs here because what that does
[11:30] is, it lifts with the hips.
[11:32] The first move is hip.
[11:34] The first move is hip.
[11:36] Lifting with the hips throws your low back
into a rounded position.
[11:39] Which, again, is asking, and begging for a
lumbar disc issue.
[11:42] This is an incredibly safe exercise.
[11:44] One of the best exercises you can do, but
you have to get this part right.
[11:48] So again, when we're in here the position
is down, chest out, hands in, here, we're
[11:53] going to do a leg press, straight to here.
[11:58] Down.
[11:59] Leg press, straight to here.
[12:01] I'm going to show you what happens to the
bar once it reaches that level of the knees.
[12:05] So now, if we can get that bar to the knees
we want to make sure that it's dragging up
[12:10] those shins every inch of the way, staying
in contact.
[12:14] If you start to see space between the bar
and you it's likely that you're not doing
[12:19] what I said before, which is keeping that
lat engaged.
[12:21] Keeping that straight-arm pushdown going to
keep the bar close.
[12:24] It's going to keep your whole upper torso
tight, and stable also.
[12:28] So now when it gets to the level of the knees
right here, by using just the legs to power
[12:33] it up, now we let the whole rest of the back
kick in.
[12:36] Now it becomes an incredible back exercise,
and a posterior chain exercise as we drive
[12:41] through, using the strong muscles of the hips,
and our low back extensors, and our traps
[12:47] to stabilize the bar.
[12:48] So we're going from here, and driving through.
[12:51] You'll notice if you do this right the timing
is simple because you're using your knees
[12:55] as the visual cue of when to kick this in.
[12:58] As soon as your hands are at the level of
the knees, boom!
[13:01] The hips kick in and the bar will continue
to travel up, in that efficient, straight
[13:05] path.
[13:06] So right against your shins, and right against
your thighs.
[13:10] That should be the goal on every, single rep.
[13:12] So it looks like this.
[13:13] From here, down, set up, to here, drive through
with the hips.
[13:22] Here, engaged, drive through with the hips.
[13:27] Now, on the way down you want to reverse the
motion.
[13:32] Hip hinge, hip hinge, hip hinge.
[13:33] Right to the level of the knee, straight knee
bend.
[13:37] Very simple.
[13:38] So we're up here, down, and then on the way
down hip hinge, hip hinge, hip hinge to the
[13:46] level of the knee, then let the knees bend,
come straight down.
[13:50] You'll see that the back stays right in the
position you need it to be.
[13:54] Guys, this lift has a lot of components to
it, but when you put them all together it's
[13:59] actually very, very simple.
[14:01] It should become a staple of your training
for many, many reasons.
[14:05] Most of which, it's one of the best total
body exercises.
[14:08] Yes, you're training the legs.
[14:10] Most importantly, if you're training legs
because it sets up the safety of the entire
[14:13] rest of the lift.
[14:15] And of course, a posterior chain.
[14:16] Overall, awesome exercise.
[14:19] There's none better than this.
[14:20] Guys, it's not the exercise.
[14:22] You can tell people "I'm deadlifting."
[14:24] And you think you're doing things right.
[14:26] It's doing the exercise right that matters
the most.
[14:29] Actually, in this case doing the exercise
wrong could actually lead to an injury that
[14:33] will keep you way from the gym for a long,
long time.
[14:35] I don’t want to see that happen to you.
[14:37] I want to make sure you get these all right.
[14:38] I hope you've found this checklist exhaustive,
but very, very helpful.
[14:42] If you want me to cover more of them I'm happy
to do that in future videos.
[14:47] Just leave your comments down below and let
me know.
[14:48] In the meantime, if you're looking for a program
that cares – not just what exercises we
[14:52] do, but more importantly how we do them – head
to ATHLEANX.com.
[14:56] Use our program selector, using the link below
this video to find a program of mine that
[15:00] is best suited to your current goals.
[15:01] All right, guys.
[15:02] I'll be back here again for a future video.
[15:04] See you.