Biggest Mistake While Doing the Deadlift
The deadlift is the single best exercise for your back. If you want to be able to lift incredibly heavy loads, if you wish to strengthen your core, especially your lower back, then the deadlift is the best exercise, bar none. While other exercises will work different parts of your back, the deadlift calls into action the greatest number of muscles, thus giving you a full body workout while helping you develop great amounts of strength. However, the deadlift can be a tricky exercise to master, in that the order in which you stand has to be correct or you will imbalance your body and make injury much more likely. In today's article we are going to examine the single greatest mistake people make when practicing the deadlift, and help you avoid it.
When you prepare to lift the bar, you must assume the starting position. This entails having the bar cross over the midline of your foot and touching your shins. You must squat down so that your chest is raised and your lower back slightly arched so that your rear end also lifts. Do not exaggerate this position, but seek to feel some tension in your body.
When you lift, the order of joints that straighten are knees, then hips, and then your back goes vertical. When dealing with heavy loads, people often make the mistake of having the bar leave their shins before they even lift it. What is going on? Since the weight is heavy, people will tend to straighten their legs first before they even lift the bar. This means that the quads are removed from the action, so that the hips have to do all the work. Not only that, but they must compensate for the quads and do so through a greater angle of motion. The back becomes more horizontal, and the exercise becomes twice as difficult.
Instead the trainee must focus on only straightening the knees when they are lifting the weight. This allows the quads to do their part, lifting the load up past the knees at which point the hips can begin to straighten out. This allows the workload to be equitably distributed amongst the different body parts, allowing you to maximize the loads you can lift safely and giving you a full body workout. Anything less than this is a waste of time, and liable to injure you in the process.
When you prepare to lift the bar, you must assume the starting position. This entails having the bar cross over the midline of your foot and touching your shins. You must squat down so that your chest is raised and your lower back slightly arched so that your rear end also lifts. Do not exaggerate this position, but seek to feel some tension in your body.
When you lift, the order of joints that straighten are knees, then hips, and then your back goes vertical. When dealing with heavy loads, people often make the mistake of having the bar leave their shins before they even lift it. What is going on? Since the weight is heavy, people will tend to straighten their legs first before they even lift the bar. This means that the quads are removed from the action, so that the hips have to do all the work. Not only that, but they must compensate for the quads and do so through a greater angle of motion. The back becomes more horizontal, and the exercise becomes twice as difficult.
Instead the trainee must focus on only straightening the knees when they are lifting the weight. This allows the quads to do their part, lifting the load up past the knees at which point the hips can begin to straighten out. This allows the workload to be equitably distributed amongst the different body parts, allowing you to maximize the loads you can lift safely and giving you a full body workout. Anything less than this is a waste of time, and liable to injure you in the process.
