---
title: 'BEGINNER''S GUIDE TO DEADLIFTS'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=ntr64W6ZWB0'
video_id: 'ntr64W6ZWB0'
date: 2026-07-01
duration_sec: 856
---

# BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO DEADLIFTS

> Source: [BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO DEADLIFTS](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ntr64W6ZWB0)

## Summary

This beginner's guide to deadlifts covers conventional and sumo stances, proper setup, grip options, breathwork, and common mistakes. It emphasizes pushing the floor away, using equipment like straps and belts wisely, and avoiding errors like early knee extension.

### Key Points

- **Conventional deadlift setup and execution** [00:25] — Feet hip-width apart, arms hang naturally, hinge hips back, bend knees. Grip: overhand or mixed. Take a big breath, brace core, push floor away, extend knees and hips together.
- **Sumo stance** [05:24] — Wider stance with toes out, hands inside feet. More squat-like. Use same cues as conventional.
- **Equipment recommendations** [07:16] — Flat-soled shoes (Converse, barefoot). Straps for grip when needed. Chalk for grip. Belt only after exceeding bodyweight; increases intra-abdominal pressure.
- **Common mistakes** [10:57] — Early knee extension (butt rises first), not accelerating through the lift, starting in a lax position without tension.

### Conclusion

Master the deadlift by focusing on proper setup, breathwork, and pushing the floor away. Use equipment wisely and avoid common mistakes like early knee extension.

## Transcript

what's up y'all welcome back to my
YouTube channel it's Kelly Matthews
today we're going to talk all things
deadlifting I'm going to walk you
through your form different stances
setup and common mistakes let's do it
we're going to talk about the
conventional stance deadlift first this
is how you'll see most people deadlifts
you also will see people in a Sumo
stance which we'll talk about second for
a conventional stance your feet are
going to start about hips distance apart
from there you kind of just want to let
your arms hang by your sides and then
hinge your hips back and wherever your
hands end up on the bar that's probably
about the ideal spacing for your hands
to grip the
bar when we come into position you want
to think about pushing your hips back
and bending into your knees this is not
an RDL so you don't want your knees to
be almost straight you do want to get a
decent Bend and depending on the length
of your femur and the length of your
tibas you're St dance is going to look
different based on that so some people
will be sitting really low some people
their hips will be a little bit higher
once I come into position I have a
couple options for grips overhand grip
where both of my Palms will face in
toward me or a mix grip where one Palm
will face out one Palm will face in this
will give you a stronger grip so if you
feel like you're losing your grip on the
bar you may want to play around with mix
grip or adding some wrist straps which
we'll cover a little bit later in the
video once we're ready to go you're
going to start at the
top and I want you to think about
pulling yourself down into your position
so unlike the squat we don't have an
Ecentric loading phase of this exercise
which means we're just pulling the bar
up off the ground we're just like raw
dogging it off the ground so what you
need to think about doing is activating
on your way down so that you actually
have a little bit of that mind muscle
connection before you start so push your
hips back bend your knees feel your
glutes and your hamstrings come to the
party a little
bit find your grip this is really
important you're going to take a big
breath in hold that breath in as you
pull the bar up and then you can either
exhale at the top or exhale as you drop
the bar depends on your preference so
big breath in
[Music]
as you can see between reps if I'm doing
multiple reps I do what's called a hip
pump where I kind of lift my hips and
reload that's kind of a way for me to
like eccentrically load before I start
the deadlift I find that to be really
helpful the breath work is something
that everybody should get under their
belt as they start start deadlifting and
that goes for if you're deadlifting the
bar or if you're deadlifting your one
rep max so again before you start it's a
big inhale a brace through your belly
like you're trying to you know create a
really strong
core hold that breath in and then you
can exhale as you come up to the top and
that's going to protect your back it's
going to make your lift stronger and
we'll talk about using lifting belts as
a tool to increase that abdominal
pressure which will help you lift
heavier as you're coming up from the
bottom of your deadlift the biggest
thing I want you to think about is
pushing the floor away I think a lot of
times when we're approaching the
deadlift we think of it as a pull and
you'd be surprised what your mindset
will do to the way that you approach the
exercise so if you're thinking about
pulling naturally you're probably going
to pull more with your arms instead of
thinking about really driving through
your legs leg so think push the floor
away and push your head straight up
through the ceiling okay and then with
your upper body you're not always going
to have a perfectly flat back or neutral
spine as they say you're going to see
some people round a lot as they deadlift
and that not might not be the right
thing for you but as you get heavier and
heavier into your deadlifts you'll find
that like perfect form
just doesn't exist you have to find the
best position for you where you can find
the best leverage to lift the most
weight so generally speaking we want to
think about keeping a relatively neutral
spine or a flat back but if you get a
little bit of round it's totally fine
okay it's not going to break your back
um let's go through a working set and
then I'm going to talk to you about Sumo
stance and then we're going to talk
about some equipment and common
mistakes
[Music]
[Music]
you also have the option to take a Sumo
stance which is going to be a wider
stance with your toes turned out you'll
hear a lot of Jim Bros say that you're
cheating if you do Sumo stance this is
not the case at all you want to find the
stance that's strongest for you one
thing to think about is why are you
deadlifting if you're deadlifting to
lift as heavy as possible you want to
just find your strongest stance if
you're deadlifting to train your
hamstrings train your glutes train your
adductors then that's a different story
because what we're looking at when you
Sumo deadlift is a lot more squatty than
when you do a conventional stance so
essentially if you're Sumo deadlifting
and you're squatting and they looked
really similar you're going to end up
training the same pattern multiple times
so you may want to adjust your exercise
selection or your stance based on what
your goal is for your deadlift but today
we're talking about just lifting as
heavy as we can so for the Sumo stance
you're going to turn your toes out as
much as it's comfortable for you you
want to make sure that you can get a
good amount of Leverage some people will
go real wide some people less wide again
a lot of this is just what feels most
comfortable for you but all the other
cues are going to be the same so your
hips are going to go back you're going
to bend into your knees you're going to
take a big breath in your hands will
fall right in front of your shoulders
how they naturally hang the difference
here is they're going to be inside of
your feet instead of outside side of
your feet and then from
there you're going to pull up all right
let's talk about our equipment first
thing you need to know is proper
Footwear we need a non-compressive sole
so any kind of running shoe anything
with a thick sole is not going to be
ideal for deadlifting a you're adding a
deficit you're basically making yourself
lift the bar further and you're also not
allowing your foot to really feel the
floor and generate as much strength and
force as you could if you had a flat
shoe so I wear Converse you could also
wear like a deadlifting slipper you'll
see people wear they're like a velcro
shoe um any flat so shoe like a metcon
or something of that like similar nature
that you see people wear for CrossFit
will be a good fit as well you could
also go barefoot it's entirely up to you
other pieces of equipment that you may
want to invest in as you get into your
deadlifting
journey one is great to have no matter
what lifting straps these are Versa
grips these are a little bit more
expensive than your regular lifting
straps but the regular ones you can get
on Amazon for like 10 or 15 bucks these
will help if your grip strength is
failing you so if you're doing higher
rep ranges or you're going really heavy
weight you may want to use some straps
because we don't want to be limited by
our grip strike so if you're able to
lift more with your legs but your grip
is limiting you put the straps on it's
going to help you get
stronger the next thing on that same
vein is going to be chalk this is liquid
chalk you'll also see like real chalk
that's like powdery this you put on your
hands and it's going to help you grip
the bar easier in a powerlifting
competition you are not able to use
straps okay so you're going to need to
be able ble to lift the bar you can use
chalk though so getting in the habit of
using chalk as much as you can when that
doesn't work for you anymore you can
throw the straps on last thing is going
to be your weightlifting belt I get so
many questions about when should I start
using a weightlifting belt what kind
should I use and if you're brand new in
your finish Journey you don't need a
belt you want to get a lot of reps
before you even consider putting on a
weightlifting belt what this is going to
do is it's going to give you some
compression around your trunk and when
you
breathe when this is really tight on
your belly when you take a breath in it
allows you to increase that
intraabdominal pressure it almost acts
like a surrogate AB almost so you'll
find that when you put the belt on
you're going to be able to lift a lot
more weight but like I said if you're
newer to your fitness journey throwing
on a belt right away is actually going
to be a disservice you so a general rule
of thumb is if you can't deadlift more
than your body weight don't put a belt
on yet but the way we're going to use
this is when you take that breath when
we're here he going to take a big inhale
you'll feel your belly expand all the
way around like a balloon and you want
to hold that there so I'm going to take
a big breath
in and being able to push against that
belt is going to allow me to lift a
little bit heavier here this is a lever
belt there's also velcro belts there's
also ones that you just Buckle like a
normal belt and you kind of just have to
find the one that you like the best I
prefer the lever um but you want to make
sure that there is a level of thickness
to it a really thin belt is not going to
give you much help let's talk about
common mistakes I see in the deadlift
the first one is going to be not
extending at the knee and the hip at the
same time or early knee extension and
what that looks like
is coming up from the bottom the first
thing that's going to happen is your
butt's going to stick up in the air so
when I try and pull this bar up I get
here and then I basically just turn it
into an RDL okay the goal with a
deadlift it's not going to be perfect
every time but your goal should be to
stand up to the point where your knees
and your hips extend at the same time
okay so what that looks like in practice
is driving
straight up to a stand that's really all
you need to think about you don't have
to over complicate it just think about
standing straight up and sending your
head through the
ceiling second mistake I see is people
don't accelerate through the lift so you
feel the bar come off the ground and
you're like oh I did it and you quit
this is something that will as you get
heavier cause you to fail more and more
lifts especially a one rep max so you
want to think about accelerating all the
way through the lift okay so if the bar
is sticky on the ground give it a second
keep pulling don't quit on it and once
it lifts then you really have to
accelerate and push as fast as you can
every single deadlift you do on the way
up outside of tempo work you're going to
want to push as fast as you can
regardless of how heavy the weight is
the last one is starting in a LAX
position this is like one of the worst
things you can do not only is it going
to limit you with how much weight you
can lift but you're going to end up
probably with some sore joints so what
that looks like is starting here with no
tension in my upper body not thinking
about my breath and just like yanking
like this before you start you want to
take the
tension you want to put some tension
into the bar so there's a little space
between the plate and the bar so it
doesn't you know slide on there
completely snug so the the bar can move
around what you want to do is take that
movement out before you
start so here I'm almost acting like I'm
going to lift it before I start so
you'll see that bar gets really tight
with the plates and that will just allow
you to start in a much stronger position
and you're not going to like jam up your
shoulders and get stuck on the ground if
you ever decide to do a power lifting
meat the one thing you need to know is
the judges are just going to judge when
you get to full lockout at the top so as
soon as they give you the go-ahead you
can lift anytime you want you're going
to come all the way up lock your knees
out lock your hips out they'll say
down bring the bar down to the floor and
that's it all right y'all that's it for
the deadlift today I hope you had fun I
know I did if you want to see more
Fitness content from me please subscribe
to my Channel or you can find me on
Instagram and Tik Tok @ Kelly Matthews
I'll see you guys
[Music]
soon