Deadlifts

Performing the Lifts
Beginning position

• Feet should be flat on the floor about shoulder width apart in the conventional style and slightly farther apart in the sumo style.
• Grip bar with a closed, alternate grip (one palm facing you the other away from you).
• Knees should be flexed as in a full squat position.
• Bar should be as close to the shins as possible.
• Back should be flat.
• Head should be up or in a neutral position.

Upward movement

• Begin pull by extending at the hips and knees, such that the hips and shoulders move at the same rate, keeping the back flat, with the shoulders above or slightly in front of bar.
• As the bar passes your knees, thrust hips forwards and your shoulders back.
• The hips and knees should be fully extended, and your shoulders back (as opposed to rounded forward).

Downward Movement

• In the downward phase, release the tension in your muscles so that gravity alone allows the bar to descend to the floor.
• Rules in powerlifting competition require that you maintain a grip on the bar so as to control its descent.
• Do not attempt to lower the bar at an extremely slow rate, as the eccentric stress is taxing and causes undue micro trauma and vertebral stress.
• The lift ends when the bar is motionless on the floor in front of you.

Points to Remember

• Your back should be flat throughout the movement.
• At no portion of the lift should your back or shoulders be rounded o keep the bar as close to the shins as possible during the initial pull, and as close to your thighs as possible after the bar passes your knees.
• Feet should always be flat on the floor, with your center of gravity over the back half of your feet.
• Exhale through the sticking point of the pull (some lifters find it advantageous to exhale forcefully as in screaming).
• Do not jerk the bar off the floor. The pull should be a smooth, max effort from the beginning.
• Pay attention to good form. If your technique begins to break down from the sheer weight on the bar, you predispose yourself to injury. Rounding of your back, knees buckling inward and initiating the pull with your back instead of legs and hips are examples of common technique errors that are potentially damaging.
• Because of the many muscles involved in the lift, you may require more rest between sets than normal.

Reference - Disa Hatfield, B.S

Stiff legged deadlift – A more effective approach

In my recent blog I just explained about a better way to squat, a overall leg builder. But this time I just thought of revealing a small trick about developing a really overlooked muscle – “The hamstrings”.

It was about 2 years ago, I saw a person. I saw his face for 2 seconds and till the end of our conversation just saw his humongous legs. Especially his hamstrings. So during the end of our conversation, I asked him about his ham workout. He told stiff legged deadlifts in all workouts. I asked,” can u demonstrate it for me? ”. He did not hesitate and showed me how he did that. He kept two small plates on the floor. Placed his toes on it and did the normal dead lift.

The very next day I tried it the same way he told me to do. I felt my hamstring working right from the first rep. But in the traditional stiff legged dead lift I will fell my hamstring during the end of the set. From then on I never did the traditional stuff. And my under developed hamstring came proportionate to my quads in a matter of 3 months. Just thought this might be useful to those who desperately wanted to improve their hamstrings. So here we go….

So now let me explain the exact way to execute it and then explain you why this thing works better than the traditional way of doing it.

How to do?

Place two 25 pound plates touching each other (one for each foot). They should be right beneath the barbell you will be using for the exercise and placed side-by-side so you can set your feet on both of them.

Stand in front of the barbell with your feet half on the plates and half off. The front parts of your feet will be on the plates and your heels will be on the ground.

Now bend over and pick the bar with an overhead grip. Keep your knees in a locked position but with a little bend. Always look forward while coming up and going back down.

Pick up the bar slowly from the ground without any momentum till your upper body goes little bit above parallel to the floor and don’t go any further in the motion. The real stretch of this exercise is between this positions and the starting position. If you go any further up to an upright standing position you loose tension on the hamstrings and the intensity of the workout is reduced.

Come down slowly, being absolutely sure to keep the arch in your lower back. Hold that stretch at the bottom position for a moment or two then reverse the direction without bouncing.

Repeat this for some 8-20 reps. If you do this correctly with control without cheating, I am sure you will not be able to walk without a support after your workout.

Try this and you will be amazed with the results.

Scientific reason for the effectiveness of the position:

To understand the effectiveness of the workout let us see the anatomy and biomechanics of each muscle involved in this movement.

The stiff legged deadlift places maximum stress on the muscle at the maximum stretch position. So in order to intensify the workout and for maximum gains we must maximize the stretch at this position.

The hamstrings are tied up with the hips and gluteus, so bending the hips places a very good stress on the muscle. So that’s how the traditional workout was formed. But if we watch closely the calves are also tied up to hamstring and while stretching the calves we stretch the hamstrings also. So if we place our toes in an elevated position we automatically stretch the lower part of the hamstrings. And if we bend our hips and reach down we stretch the middle and upper parts of the hamstrings. So we stretch all the parts of the hamstrings together and place maximum load on the muscle. When such load is placed on the muscle the hamstring has no other go but to respond to the stress and grow big to withstand the stress on the next workout session.

So try this for yourself and I am sure you will be wonderstruck with the results.