How to do the deadlift
The deadlift is the simplest lift to describe and the easiest to do badly. You pick a loaded bar off the floor and stand up with it. Everything that makes it hard happens in the two seconds before the bar moves.
- Type
- Lift
- Level
- Intermediate
- Equipment
- Barbell
- Works
- Glutes, Hamstrings, and Spinal erectors
- Also worked
- Lats, Traps, Quadriceps, and Forearms
- Also called
- Conventional Deadlift and Barbell Deadlift
Set up
- Stand with the bar over the middle of your foot, roughly a hand's width from your shins.
- Take a shoulder-width stance with toes slightly out, then bend at the hips and grip just outside your legs.
- Bend your knees until your shins touch the bar without letting the bar roll forward.
- Lift your chest and pull the slack out of the bar until you hear or feel it settle against the plates.
The rep
- Take a breath, brace hard, and pull your shoulder blades down to engage your lats.
- Push the floor away with your legs and let the bar drag up your shins.
- Once the bar passes your knees, drive your hips forward to stand tall.
- Lock out by standing straight — do not lean back or shrug at the top.
- Return the bar to the floor by pushing your hips back first, then bending your knees.
Cues that help
- Squeeze the oranges in your armpits — that is the lat engagement that keeps the bar close.
- Push the floor away rather than pulling the bar up.
- The bar should never travel forward. If it does, your hips started too low or too high.
Common mistakes
Jerking the bar off the floor
Yanking a slack bar spikes the load on your spine before your muscles are tight. Pull the slack out first, then pull.
Hips rising before the bar
If your hips shoot up and the bar stays put, you set up too low and your legs gave out before they could contribute. Start with hips higher.
Deadlifting every session
The deadlift is more taxing to recover from than any other lift. Once or twice a week is plenty for almost everyone.
How to progress it
Deadlift progress usually comes in bigger jumps than bench and then stops abruptly. Treat 5 kg (10 lb) increases as normal early on, drop to 2.5 kg (5 lb) as soon as bar speed slows, and be willing to cut back 10 to 15 percent and build up again rather than grinding the same weight for weeks.
How to track it
Log the working set that mattered — usually the heaviest set of the session. Because deadlift sessions are often one hard top set, the record is short and the trend line is clean.
Log your deadlift
Opens the lift form with Deadlift already filled in. Free account, no card.
Deadlift questions
Mixed grip or double overhand?
Use double overhand as long as you can hold it, because it keeps your shoulders symmetrical. Switch to mixed grip or hook grip only on the sets your grip would otherwise fail.
Should my back be flat?
Your spine should stay in roughly the position it is in when you stand — a small natural arch. A back that changes shape mid-rep is the thing to avoid, not a specific angle.
Do I need to touch the floor every rep?
For conventional deadlifts, yes. Stopping short turns it into a rack pull, which is a fine exercise but not the same one, and mixing the two makes your log meaningless.