Deadlift workout

The deadlift workout doesn't use the max out routine. Rather, I only use single rep sets and I alternate between using lifting straps and not using them.   Lifting straps are tough and thick cloth straps that loop around your wrist and wrap around the bar to enable you to lift maximum weight loads and place great amounts of tension on your back and leg and shoulder muscles. Without lifting straps, the tension focuses more on your forearms and hands. I've had a pair of Harbinger lifting straps that have held up for close to a year. Maybe in a year or two I'll have to get new ones, but they're the longest lasting straps I've  ever used.

Deadlift workout

Warm-up without straps and when the weight gets too heavy to grip, switch to straps.

1 rep max out set with straps

1 rep max out set without straps

1 rep max out set with straps

1 rep max out set without straps

1 rep max out set with straps

1 rep max out set without straps

1 rep max out set with straps

The reason for no multi rep sets is that since lifting the weight without straps will always be less than lifting with straps, the lighter weight will help us to achieve maximal lifting efficiency.  It will get our bodies to an optimal operating temperature, it will lubricate our joints and pump blood into the muscles.

The flooring you deadlift on is your most important piece of equipment. It has to be concrete or two forty five lb plates placed next to each other. One foot goes on plate and the other goes on the other plate. The feet are placed on the plate so no part of the heel or toes are sticking through the handle holes in the plate.

I either wear just socks or go barefoot when deadlifting.  Any piece of rubber in between your feet and the ground will cause your posture to be imbalanced.  This will put severe stress on one part of your body and will most likely lead to injury if not now definitely down the road.

The form for the deadlift is mostly the same with or without straps. The only  difference is the  grip. With straps you're going to thread one end of the strap through the eyelet at one end of the strap. This forms a loop in the strap. Stick your hand through the loop. If the straps are padded,  the padding goes on the back of the wrists. Now you should have a length of strap with which to wrap around the bar, so wrap it around the bar and get it tight as you possibly can without putting severe tightness and stress on your wrists. You're going to wrap so your hand holds the winding in place on the bar so the wrapping layers should almost be on top of each other like a big clump wrapped around the bar. It doesn't have to be perfect. Just make it small enough so you can grip your  palm and fingers around all of the wrapping. Do one hand at a time. To adjust the tightness in the strap, grip the wrapping and twist it away from you for extra tightness.  Twist the wrapping towards you for loosening the tension.

The grip for deadlifting with no straps is done using a hook grip. First make sure your hands and the bar are dry. I don't use talc to help my grip because I'm trying to place the load on my forearms and hand grip rather than on my back. Now wrap your fingers around the bar and tuck  your thumb in between the bar and your fingers. Grab your thumb with your fingers and pull it in tight towards your palm. The bar should be resting close to the base of the thumb where it meets the hand.  Do one hand at a time.

Don't do a mixed grip. That's where one hand goes over the bar and the other goes under. It puts the body in an imbalanced stance. This could lead to bicep  tears, misaligned vertebrae in your spine, and misalignment in the hips.

The hook grip is used to help keep us in alignment  by placing both hands over the bar. Once you start lifting more, the straighter your body is the more you will be able to lift.

Deadlift form

Stand close to the bar right in the middle of it. On most bars there are marks to set off different parts of the bar. Use those to gauge where the middle is. Now bend over at the waist and latch your hands onto the bar with straps or hook grips.

Hand position on the bar is crucial to a successful lift.  If you spread the hands too far apart from each other, you lower your head and upper back thus increasing the distance your head has to travel to reach knee lockout at the top which means you're doing more work. If you position your hands to close to each other, when you lift up to knee lockout your hands won't clear the sides of your hips.

Bend at the knees into a partial squatting position and tip toe into the bar so your shins are resting against the bar. If you're wearing shorts, you should wear socks that go all the way up to your knees because the gnarled hand grips on the bar can tear into the skin on your shins and knees.

Position the feet  so they are slightly more than shoulder width apart. The closer your feet are to each other the more you will be able to concentrate the load in a smaller area of space and that means you'll be able to lift more. But you still have to leave a big enough gap between your legs so the insides of your thighs don't rub each other on your way to the top of lift. Also point the toes slightly outward.

Now for the breathing. You take in huge gulps of air to extend your belly out and put as severe an arch as you can into the lower back. The reason is twofold.  As you extend the belly out, the top of your head is moving higher in height. This shortens the distance your head has to travel to a knee lockout at the top. The other reason is the arch in your lower back that gets deeper and deeper with every breath of air you suck in is the only thing preventing your back from rolling over and lifting with a hump back. This position, lifting with a heavy weight, has a pulling effect on the spine and can lead to injury.

Now that you've taken a couple breaths and pushed your belly out as far as it could go, hold your breath. This is going to form a corset of air around your spine which will lock your lower back into the arch you setup for it. Close your eyes and with as much explosive force as you can muster, lift the bar off the ground with your legs, lower back,  arms, and upper back  all at once. As you get the bar closer and closer to the knees, the lower back is used as the primary mover so it is important to squeeze the glutes and activate them as soon as possible.  Once you get three to five inches above the knees, place the bar on the  quadriceps and drag the bar upwards using a squatting motion.  Keep holding that huge chunk of air in your gut.
Just as you do in squats, you're going to try and spread the floor apart with your feet. This is going to activate your glutes and quadriceps thus letting them scoop the upper body to the top to a knee lockout position. Once you reach the top, your shoulders will naturally fall into a lockout position. Never use the shoulders to lift. Let your glutes and quadriceps carry you to
lockout. Continue to hold the air in your lungs.

The lockout position for the spine is straight up and down. Don't bend the spine backwards past perpendicular to the floor. I know you see all the big time power lifters bending all the way back but that's just for competition. If you constantly bend all the way back you risk compression of the lower spine and injuring it. Stand straight up and down.

Now put the bar back on the ground by letting it  drag  downwards on your thighs and once it passes the knees, bend at the knees until the plates hit the floor.  Finally let the air in your lungs out.


Now for the more difficult variation of the  deadlift which will help you bust through plateaus.


Acute angle deadlifts

These kind of deadlifts use the same form as regular deadlifts. It's extra important you instill and maintain a severe arch in your lower back when doing these kind of deadlifts because the back is being put into a more rounded stance with a greater potential for injury.  The only difference between regular deadlifts and acute angle deadlifts is you're going to stand on top of four forty five lb plates. One stack will have two plates stacked on top of each other and one foot goes on that stack. The other stack will have two forty five lb plates stacked on top of each other as well and you stick the other foot on top of that.  Position the plates so your heels and toes don't poke through the handle holes in the plates. Stand so the feet are slightly pointed outward.

Standing on top of the plates like this puts your upper back and shoulders in a more rounded position and this will place severe tension on them and hopefully elicit an adaptive response.

You're going to alternate these acute angle deadlifts with  the regular deadlifts I outlined above.  One day you'll do regular deadlifts.  Then you'll give yourself 48-60 hours rest and do acute angle deadlifts on the next workout.

The main key point about deadlifting is that most of what ensures a good lift is your ability to  spring up from a crouching position and  position the bar high enough up the leg to minimize the use of the lower back and involve the use of squatting motion as soon as possible to lift the bar up to knee lockout position.

The acute angle deadlift helps with this movement because it emphasizes the use of shoulder and lower back muscle to spring the bar up to an acceptable position high enough along the leg so you can immediately involve the legs in a squatting motion.