How Having Poor Deadlift Form Can Cause Massive Injuries
Dec 28th, 2010 | By Todd Bowman | Category: Exercises, Gain Muscle, Total Body Workouts, Training How To
Are you deadlifting? If not, why the hell not? Is it because your deadlift form sucks and you got injured? This article is about to change all that.
The deadlift is the 2nd most powerful compound full body exercise you can perform. Unfortunately most guys or girls don’t even include the deadlift into their bodybuilding or strength training routines or worse I see many guys having poor deadlift form and get injured as a result.
If you’re not doing deadlifts as a regular part of your workout routines, forget about gaining any real strength. If you’re serious about gaining muscle, size and strength you simply cannot avoid doing the deadlift. Period.
Benefits Of Deadlifts
Because deadlifts are a compound exercise they workout your entire body from head to toe. You simply cannot expect to gain strength, definition or size without doing the 2nd most effective exercise that there is. Isolation exercises are great but not at the expense of doing the deadlift.
More specifically deadlifts workout your:
- Butt (glutes)
- Abdominal stabalizing muscles and obliques
- Calves
- Qudricepts
- Arms (biceps, forearms and grip strength)
- Back (tapezius and lower/middle back
Types Of Deadlifts
There are many types of deadlifts and each one has their own technique. Here are some common types of deadlifts listed below.
- close stance deads
- wide stance deads
- wide grip deads – works starting strength
- sumo style deads – ultra-wide stance, close grip
- deads off a box – works starting strength
- rack pulls or pin pulls – workout lockout, can be done from any height
- chains or bands – added to deadlifts or rack pulls
- dumbbell deads – 2 dumbbells required
- trap bar deads – special trap bar required
- stiff-leg deads – hamstring training
- one leg dumbbell deads
- one leg stiff leg deads
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| Poor deadlift form is on the left as you can see the shoulder blades are over the bar as & not in a straight line, like on the right. |
How To Deadlift Properly
Setting Up For The Deadlift
Knowing where to place your feet, how far to stand from the bar and where to grip, all tie into having proper deadlift form. Let’s take a look at these in more detail.
Stance: Your feet should be slightly farther than shoulder width apart for doing standard deadlifts. If you’re doing other types of deadlifts as mentioned above, you’ll adjust your foot width accordingly. Curl your toes towards the cealing. This helps to distribute more of your weight on your heals. This allows for your back to remain straight.
Also your feet should be pointed out about 1 inch.
Grip: Your grip should be about 20 inches across or just slightly outside your knees. I prefer the double overhand grip as this puts less strain on your bicep than with the olympic grip.
Posture: Your back should remain 100% straight. Your head, spine should be in a straight line about at a 45 degree angle from the floor.
Barbell Position: The barbell should be off the floor about 8 inches or as much as would be normal for a 45lb plate. If you’re using lower weight then put some blank plates on the ground to make up for lost height. This ensures you’re not bending too far down to lift the barbell.
The position of the barbell away from your shin should be about 4-6 inches. Your feet should be about halfway under the bar when looking straight down.
Arms:Your arms are critical. Do not bend your arms for any reason. They must be locked completely straight or you run the risk of tearing muscle fibers in your biceps, especially on the initial liftoff.
Performing The Deadlift
When you’re lifting you should be pushing through the floor with your heels of your feet and moving your hips forward. You should feel most of the stress and tension in your upper back, butt and hamstrings. You should never feel tension in your lower back.
Shoulders over the bar: Your shoulders should be directly over the bar, not too far forward or not too far back. This alone can prevent all kinds of injury. Deadlift form starts on the setup!
Pull the bar in a straight line: When lifting the bar up it should come up 100% perpendicular to the floor in a straight line.
Push through the ground from your heels: You need to put more weight on your heels. If you lift your toes up this will happen automatically.
Squeeze your gluteus muscles: This helps to dramatically decrease the tension on the lower back and discs and prevents back injuries.
Lockout: When you lockout, this means your hips, knees are no longer bent but completely straight. Remember don’t over extend bending too far backwards as this can result in even more injuries. Keep proper deadlift form by staying in a straight line off the floor with good posture.
Common Mistakes Of Deadlifting
Many common mistakes with not having correct deadlift form can lead to serous injuries.
Rounding of the back
Many guys will curve their spine right before they start lifting the weight. Your back should be in a straight line with your hips and head. Typically poor deadlift form happens as a result of curving their upper back which puts more strain on your lower back, which causes injuries. The types of injuries that can occur from deadlifts, squats and other compound exercises are much more severe because not only do these exercises work your entire body, but because of that, you can typically lift a very heavy amount of weights.
The more weight you lift with improper deadlift form, the more extensive your injuries will be. That simply means longer recovery times, which equels out to a loss of all your muscle gains and work you’ve put in. Don’t let it happen.
By using muscle memory in the form of doing, little to no weights for a couple weeks when starting out, this will help you focus on perfect deadlift form rather than the amount of weight you can lift. The weight will come and when it does, you better have proper deadlift form, or you’re screwed.
Remember: Focus more on your deadlift form than on weight. The weight, benefits and gains will come. The form must be practiced.
Don’t say I didn’t warn ya!
Hips too low
This common deadlift mistake happens at the very beginning. You want your hips on the same plane or paralell with your knees. If you bend further down, it becomes more of a squat. But if your hips are too high, you have a tendancy to lean too far forward which puts your knees too far over your feet, which then causes you to round your shoulders and puts too much strain on your lower back.
Make sure your hips are on the same plane as your knees, not too high, not too low.
Arms jerking (bent) at the beginning
A common deadlift form mistake involves jerking the bar when first lifting the barbell off the ground. I see guys do this all the time. When breathing in and setting up for the deadlift, they’ll inhale, take in a belly full of air and because their elbows are slightly bent, jerk upwards. This puts a tremendous amount of strain on your uppper and middle spine area.
Keep your ebows locked.
Shrugging at the top
By shrugging at the top many guys will over extend and be leaning too far backwards. You entire body from heal to the back of your head, should be straight like a line from the floor. You should be 100% perpendicular to the ground. By over extending and leaning too far back, you can end up hyper extending your back which can cause big time injuries.
Click Here A Workout Routine That Incorporates Deadlifts, Squats & Compound Exercises In A Powerful Way
I really hope your deadlift form improves as a result of reading this article and more importantly I hope that you get started incorporating the deadlift into your workout routines!
Tell me below, how has deadlifting helped you in your fitness routines?
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