[00:00] All right, my friend welcome. My name is Dr. Anthony Balduzzi. I'm the founder here at the Fitfall the project and I'm with my head trainer Stewart Carter and we're going to cover how to properly do the barbell deadlift which is by far one of the most effective total body exercises. I mean if you
[00:15] have to pick one thing to do in your workouts, it's either squats or deadlift since Stewart and I because we're taller, lankier guys. We tend to like the deadlift best but this is one of the exercises where you got to have your form right. So in this video we're going to cover all the fine form points
[00:28] and show you how to get the most out of this exercise, especially if you're a guy over 40, you need to get the form nailed. So let's dive on in and you're going to learn a ton and let's get this demo rolling. Fitfatherproject.com All right so to start the barbell deadlift, I'm going to have
[00:44] Stewart here. He's going to demo some but he's all set up and now the first thing we need to look at is before Stewart even addresses the bar, he has a nice shoulder width stance with his feet and he is already standing nice and upright. He has this tight core chest is here, backs in position because
[01:00] deadlift is all about posture and making sure we have the right posture. So the next thing you want to look at is grip so Stewart's going to go down and he's going to address the bar here and there are three main types of grip that we'll use on the deadlift. The first is a hook grip where Stewart's
[01:13] thumb is actually wrapped over top the bar and the advantage of the hook grip is that you really feel like your arms are cables and you're pulling with your lats which is something you want to really feel when you're doing the deadlift. The disadvantage is your grip is a little weaker. You don't have that
[01:27] thumb wrapped around the bar to provide support. So it's something that you want to play with and see if it's right for you. If you're doing higher wrap lighter deadlifts, the hook grip can be a great tool. Other than that there's a standard conventional grip where the thumb is wrapped underneath the bar
[01:41] and it's a good just standard grip and it's a nice balanced grip and it's something that a lot of people can start with that kind of grip if you're doing the deadlift but our personal favorite for Stewart and I in the way we both deadlift is we use a mix grip or some people call a monkey grip
[01:56] where one hand is actually supinated underneath that means your palm is facing forward and this is the strongest grip that you can have of those three because with the hand under here, both the bar
[02:08] you're able to grip the bar a lot more because you have fingers in both directions and you're going to be able to lift a lot more weight using a mix grip. Now the important thing with a mix grip is that if you're doing multiple sets, you want to make sure that you're switching arms occasionally with the mix grip so you maintain balance with your deadlift and your posture. So the first
[02:22] thing that Stewart's going to do now that we have a grip right is he's going to roll the bar into his shins and this is a hugely important part of the deadlift setup. We want that bar to stay as tight to your body as possible because as Stewart begins to stand up, he's going to keep the bar tight in
[02:35] his body and that's going to make the deadlift a lot safer. So Stewart did his first rep. Now as he comes right back down, we're going to talk about how we're going to break the deadlift conceptually into two motions. The first pull is the pull where Stewart's going to pull to his knees, boom,
[02:49] right to here, his paws, the next pull Stewart's glutes come through. So it's a two-step motion, right back down, Stewart, you can keep on deadlifting. The pull to the knees, the bar stays tight right the knee and then the second he hits that knee, Stewart's thinking about firing his glutes through.
[03:04] So it's pull with the back up up up up up at knees, glutes come through and nice and stand up. Now notice, Stewart's back is in a nice strong flat position. He's not getting this turtle shell thing going on, he's not letting his background, he's keeping his core tight, his back tight,
[03:20] and he's coming up, glutes are firing through. Nice straight stand up position here. So next rep at Stewart's at the top, I want to just note, boom, at this position pause Stewart, he is in a straight line, the barbell is tied to his body, his spine is neutral, that means his head is in line with his back,
[03:37] his head's not forward, his has not back and as he comes down Stewart maintains that neutral spine and keeps his back tight. So these are some hugely important form points for the deadlift. This can be one of your best mass builders and just overall total body compound exercise, you just got to
[03:52] make sure you're doing it right. So to really recap the form points, why don't we want to pick our grip, maybe the mixed grip. Two, the deadlift is divided into two parts, the pull up to the knee and then the glutes come through. Three, we're maintaining this good neutral spine like Stewart has here,
[04:08] keep point number four is we're lowering slowly and we're using a weight that's nice and manageable. So Stewart, he's done like a million of these, we can pause him for a second here. Overall, I hope this video tutorial helped you on how to do the deadlift properly. Again, this is a great
[04:22] exercise and if you enjoyed this, I want to invite you to subscribe to our Fitfeller Project YouTube channel and we just have great tutorials that I know you're really going to like and I also want to invite you to check out our Fitfeller Project website because we have an amazing 24-minute
[04:34] fap running workout, incorporates exercises like this into a 24-minute workout that you can do anywhere. So I hope you like this, subscribe, looking forward to seeing you around the channel and Stewart and I will catch you next time.