Dead lifts tips required

[IFR33K]

Recently began lifting again, after a long, long lay off.

Anyway, require some tips when it comes to dead lifts.

When stretching down with the bar in my hands, should my legs be straight, or should they be slightly bent at the knees.

When I attempt to do them with my legs straight, I feel as though my knees want to hyper extend.

Thanks in advance.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

You should be starting with the bar on the floor, arms basically straight, feet shoulder width apart with the bar over the centre of your foot. As you stand up your knees should straighten first, then straighten your hips until you're standing up straight. Your back should be locked in an arch the entire time.
When you put the bar back down you edo exactly the same in reverse.

Here's your starting position:

As you can see he's bent at the hips and knees with his back arched. It's the lower back arch that stops you getting back injuries, if it starts to round in the other direction, thats when bad shit happens. Notice also the vertical line from the middle of the foot up through the bar to the shoulders- that's the path the bar should travel in.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

You can do it straight legged (straight legged deadlift) or with a very slight bend in the knees (romanian deadlift) These are more to work hamstrings though

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Yeah there's loads of variations, but I was assuming your normal classic deadlift as its the most fundamental & important variant.

 

[adamkungl]

Important thing is to keep the bag arched in, regardless of your leg stance, I assume?

 

[Pete Cash]

Does anyone like deadlifting. My friends hate it but its probably my favourite lift.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Important thing is to keep the bag arched in, regardless of your leg stance, I assume?

Yeah it's the only safe position to have your spine in for bearing serious weight. If you look at a squat with correct form the bosy position is actually almost exactly the same with the bar travelling along the same line, except you're pushing from underneath instead of pulling.

Does anyone like deadlifting. My friends hate it but its probably my favourite lift.

I prefer squatting these days, but I still love deads. Nothing like those two exercises to really get your whole body straining and give you a massive endorphin/testosterone hit!

 

[abpanther]

I just started doing these last week (just started training again), first time I've ever done them.

First week I did very light and just concentrated on technique, second week I pushed it.

Man the next day I felt all the muscle soreness around my lower back, you could feel the pump, it was awesome!

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Yeah I'd say deadlifts are the single most taxing lift that you do in the gym. I only do one set per session for that reason, at heavy enough weights thats enough to pretty much empty the tank. everything else is 3 sets.

 

[The European Polynesian]

I just started doing these last week (just started training again), first time I've ever done them.

First week I did very light and just concentrated on technique, second week I pushed it.

Man the next day I felt all the muscle soreness around my lower back, you could feel the pump, it was awesome!

I'd take it easy mate. You build a consistent movement pattern in one week. I would suggest a program like StrongLifts or Madcows where you slowly build the weight up, start off really light and allow yourself the chance to get the technique down. On these programs you will make constant progressions each week.

The single most important thing when starting at the gym is building a knowledge of technique in squat/bench/deadlift + overhead press and rows.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

I'd take it easy mate. You build a consistent movement pattern in one week. I would suggest a program like StrongLifts or Madcows where you slowly build the weight up, start off really light and allow yourself the chance to get the technique down. On these programs you will make constant progressions each week.

The single most important thing when starting at the gym is building a knowledge of technique in squat/bench/deadlift + overhead press and rows.

Strong advice from a guy who should know , although I wouldn't start on Madcow, it's more of an advanced beginner/intermediate programme, it's what Mehdi from Stronglifts recommends moving onto after progression starts to stall on the basic Stronglifts programme

I'd highly recommend investing in a copy of Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe as well- has a LOT of detailed info on all your fundamental barbell exercises, with a lot of emphasis on learning the correct technique and heaps of stuff about the biomechanics of it too, plus a great section on putting together programmes.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

The single most important thing when starting at the gym is building a knowledge of technique in squat/bench/deadlift + overhead press and rows.

Me and a lot of the guys I know who train tend to use power cleans instead of rows, any reason you'd go rows instead?

 

[abpanther]

I'd take it easy mate. You build a consistent movement pattern in one week. I would suggest a program like StrongLifts or Madcows where you slowly build the weight up, start off really light and allow yourself the chance to get the technique down. On these programs you will make constant progressions each week.

The single most important thing when starting at the gym is building a knowledge of technique in squat/bench/deadlift + overhead press and rows.

Yeah I looked into StrongLifts, however I just don't like the 5x5 set up, I prefer to do more reps. It did give me some good info though on the compound exercises I should be doing as the core of my workouts.

While I pushed it I was still doing 8-12 reps so it wasn't like I was maxing out early and compromising on technique or reps. I was only adding like 5kg at a time, nothing major.

I am doing all of those exercises and have definitely spent a lot of time reading and researching the techniques, I believe I am doing them well. Even when I used to train like 5-7 years ago I really used to pay attention to my technique, I'm making sure to do the same with some of these compound exercises that I haven't done before (e.g. deadlifts, squats, etc)

When you say rows, are you referring to barbell rows?

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Yeah I looked into StrongLifts, however I just don't like the 5x5 set up, I prefer to do more reps.

What are your main goals? If you're primarily looking to gain strength, then 5 reps is about optimum, if you're doing 8-12 you're probably going too light. Don;t worry too much if you feel like you can do more reps early on-, just concentrate on form and progressively up the weight, as the weights get heavier, it'll get harder. Ultimate it's not so much about what you like doing as about what works best for your goals... comfort zones are and unproductive places to be!

 

[abpanther]

What are your main goals? If you're primarily looking to gain strength, then 5 reps is about optimum, if you're doing 8-12 you're probably going too light. Don;t worry too much if you feel like you can do more reps early on-, just concentrate on form and progressively up the weight, as the weights get heavier, it'll get harder. Ultimate it's not so much about what you like doing as about what works best for your goals... comfort zones are and unproductive places to be!

My goals are to gain muscle and tone, I"m not looking to become a bodybuilder or powerlifter, just wanna gain size and muscle across my body. I got to 100kgs and that's a bit too much for me, I'd like to get down to around 95kgs, but more muscular.

From what I have read the toning comes more through diet, I have now been watching what I eat, cutting out too much carbs and rubbish food.

When I trained 5-7 years ago I got good results with that set/rep system, I would do 4 sets for each exercise and aim to fail at 12-10-10-8 (roughly). I was always told back then that more reps meant more toning but I think since then I've realised that may be a myth.

Believe me I'm not about comfort zones at all, I have no problem pushing every set to the max if that is what's required. At the moment my first set is 12 reps and it's tough, second one may fail at 11 or so, then I generally go up in weight and fail at around 10 and then 8.

I dunno it's just what I've always done and been told, to me doing 5x5 just doesn't seem like enough, and that's not me bailing out or anything

 

[abpanther]

All advice is appreciated BTW

 

[adamkungl]

Why doesn't 5x5 feel like enough? Do it heavier...

 

[abpanther]

Why doesn't 5x5 feel like enough? Do it heavier...

Im referring to the reps not the weight

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Im referring to the reps not the weight

If you add more weight 5 reps should feel enough.

 

[The European Polynesian]

Yeah I looked into StrongLifts, however I just don't like the 5x5 set up, I prefer to do more reps.

The thing is when doing compound exercises for high reps, especially as a beginner is you will get lazy and lose focus on correct technique. You should be concentrating on each rep as if it was a single. Also, the large compound exercises are so big that doing 5 reps of a deadlift might be the equivalent of doing 10 reps of a curl or something.

Most important thing is rep quality.

When you say rows, are you referring to barbell rows?

Yes.

Me and a lot of the guys I know who train tend to use power cleans instead of rows, any reason you'd go rows instead?

Number 1 reason: because you need 6 months under an olympic lifting coach to learn how to power clean even adequately enough to gain any benefit from them. You should learn how to front squat perfectly so you can get into that catch position (it's much more complex than it looks) before you even try to clean anything.