Click Here for Free Bodybuilding and Fitness Magazine Subscription
Maximize Your Deadlift
"Who Else Wants To Learn The Strength Training Secrets Of How to Build Super Strength in Record Time?"
If you have been spending your training time on standard bodybuilding style exercise - congratulations you have developed half the muscle tissue in your body. But if you want to take your body to the next level of power and development, you have to deliberately go after it with a specific mix of training.
Unless you build in power and strength training with specific exercises, you will never reach your full potential for power, strength, and yes, SIZE.
Go to Strength Training Secrets
How To Maximize Your Deadlift
by Magnus
The deadlift is one of the basic mass builder exercises, it is often regarded as the king of exercises because it works all the muscle groups at once (It targets the both the upper and lower body). Although, a compound exercise but it is often listed among back exercises. It is essential for adding thickness and mass to the lower back (which most bodybuilders lack) but It can also turn into a back breaker if done with improper form.
Many bodybuilders avoid the deadlift because of a lower back injury. When I started bodybuilding, I was very eager to deadlift my body weight. After a couple of months, I was able to increase my bench press and my squats but I was finding it difficult to increase my deadlift. I was eating upto 3000 calories and downing 1 gram of protein per body weight everyday, I was even told to eat more. After researching and getting some advice from pros, I found out that I wasn't deadlifting right at all. The best way to maximize your deadlift is to improve your form.
Most of the guys I do see in the gym don't perform the deadlift correctly, some are not even deadlifting at all. The deadlift is an exercise that is easy to do with improper form. Rounding the back is one of the mistakes that most people make during the deadlift. Not performing this exercise correctly can place unnecessary stress on your back. In this article, I will reveal all the techniques to assist you in maximizing your deadlift.
You have been told not to use lifting belts but some experts will recommend that you should use lifting belts because it helps reduce the stress on your back. A weight lifting belt can actually prevent you from hurting your back, most times I use them during heavy lifts on my last set. I will insist that you stick to the one that works best for you. To maximize your deadlift, you need to learn how to perform the exercise with good form. Here are some tips on how to perform a deadlift.
HOW TO DEADLIFT
1. Stand with your feet slightly wide apart. Your feet should be under the bar. Grabbing the weight with your feet under the bar can actually make it easier to pull and can also prevent you from straining your spine during the movement.
2. Grab the bar with either over-hand grip or mixed grip. The floor should be the starting point, that is why it is called deadlift (lifting a dead weight). To those who usually start the movement at the top, you are performing another form of deadlift - Romanian deadlift. The regular deadlift begins when you bend to pick the weight from the floor.
3. Bend your knees until your shins touch the bar, Chest up, and get up with the bar. Your back should remain straight during this movement. Rounding you back can place unnecessary stress on your spine. Do not attempt to curl the weight up. Curling the weight can tear your biceps. Your hand should remain straight throughout the movement. Do not hyper-extend your spine at the top. Doing this can injure your lower back.
4. Gently lower the weight down and repeat. Lower the weight down in a controlled manner until it touches the floor. Do not hit the floor with the weight, focus on the eccentric part of movement. Keep your back in a neutral position throughout.
Here are some of the tips I used to maximize my deadlift to 500lbs. You can use some of them and you can also incorporate some into your next workout.
WARM - UP
Before you walk to the bar, make sure your body is ready for the big lift. Adequate warm-up can increase the flow of nutrients and blood to the muscles. It can also prevent injuries. I usually perform body weight squats, barbell row with an empty bar, good mornings and just anything to increase the heart beat.
ADD MORE PLATES TO THE BAR
The only way you can maximize your deadlift is by adding more plates to the bar. You can't keep deadlifting the same weight week in and week out and expect your body grow just like you can't keep doing the same thing everyday and expect to get different results. The body is designed to adapt. You need to force your muscles to grow by adding more weight, increasing your reps and performing extra sets. Make sure you improve every workout.
DEADLIFT TWICE A WEEK
Deadlifting twice a week is one of the things that helped me increase my deadlift. I discovered that my deadlift increased the moment I started deadlifting twice a week. Some will say it is overtraining but since experts have said that it takes the muscles 48 - 72 hours to recover fully from a last workout, I don't think there is anything wrong hitting them twice in a week. You really need to change from deadlifting once a week to twice if you want to maximize your deadlift. I usually deadlift on Tuesday where I lift heavy - 3 sets of 5 reps and Thursday - 4 sets of 15 reps.
PERFORM OTHER BACK EXERCISES
To increase your deadlift, you need to have a strong lower back. Performing exercises like squats, barbell row, hyperextensions and other variations of deadlift like Romanian deadlift, sumo deadlift, and stiff legged deadllift can actually help you increase your deadlift.
DEADLIFT FIRST
Exercise sequence is very important in bodybuilding. Deadlift is an example of compound exercise because it involves more than one muscle group. You should perform the deadlift first during your back day when your energy tank is still full (when you are still fresh).
REST MORE BETWEEN SETS
The truth is that rest can hugely affect your muscle growth. Resting longer between sets allows you to perform more reps and even extra sets which can increase your muscle growth. I usually rest for 90 seconds when training smaller muscle groups like biceps, triceps, abs, and 3 minutes when training bigger muscle groups like back, leg, and chest.