5 Tips to Boost Your Deadlift
If there’s one thing I love in this world, besides Commando quotes (whenever someone says, “Right?”, I love responding, WRONG!) and Trumoo, it’s deadlifts. Being as tall and lean as I am, there is absolutely no reason why it’s always come naturally to me. Whenever someone hears how much I deadlift, the response is always, “But you wouldn’t expect…” Yeah, yeah, I know. I don’t have the typical build. But it’s actually kind of cool. Like being left-handed…and telepathic.
ANYwho, I had a conversation with a client the other day about cueing the deadlift (gotta love clients that are genuinely interested in learning about different cues and the meaning behind them). He obviously had been hearing the ones I gave him and had read a few online in his own study. It got me thinking about my favorite cues that seem to get people in the right positions with little effort. I thought I would share a few quick ones here. Enjoy!
#1: “Pretend like this is the heaviest weight you have ever lifted”
I like this one when someone is doing anything less than 90% of their 1RM. Often times, with a weight that you know you can lift, you won’t generate as much tension as you should. You walk up and you’re like, “Alright, I got this. This is child’s play.” And then you end up using less-than-stellar technique, even if it FELT ok.
Think about the last time you lifted a maximal weight, in any lift. Did you get amped up? Did you tighten up your entire body in the fear that it would be torn in two? That’s how you approach EVERY lift, especially with the deadlift. Lift it like you mean it. Don’t go through the motions and end up with some silly injury that could have probably been avoided. Strength is all about generating tension.
#2: “Drive the knees out to the elbows”
I didn’t start doing this until this past February when Charlie Weingroff took us through a deadlift tutorial at a hip hinge seminar. But man, I loved it and have used it ever since. I didn’t realize how much glute action I was leaving on the table!
When you drive the knees out, you get a little hip external rotation, which sets glute max and glute medius on fire. Seeing as the glutes are a tremendous driver of a solid deadlift, they need to be engaged as much as possible. Thinking about getting them to the elbows (which is not likely if you are human, but if there are any chimps reading this, that’s fantastic) provides a good mental reference point.
#3: “Grip it and rip it”
I’m sure you’ve heard that phrase before. But it holds a lot of truth when it comes to deadlifting. One of the biggest mistakes that I used to make with my deadlift was I spent a year and a day at the bottom, amping myself up to whatever was on my iPod (usually Disturbed, Sisqo, or T.I.) and basically just fidgeting around and killing my strength potential. All of the elastic energy that I created on the way down, I let it go to dead.
I realized this when I pulled 500 last June. I was so confident that it was going to fly off the floor, but for some reason, I still fidgeted around for 4-5 seconds at the bottom and ended up nearly missing the lift. It was a wake-up call after reviewing the tape. I now generate as much tension as I can on the way down, lock in the scapula and lats for a quick second at the bottom, and pull. No funny business. And my lifts feel a lot better. Go down there with confidence and do the darn thing!
That’s what she said.
#4: “Make a double-chin”
Picture a top-level 100m sprinter coming out of the blocks.
How do they look?
Can you see their face?
No, because they are building up to their top-end speed and generating some serious acceleration. If they were to shoot their head up right away, they would kill that acceleration and get roasted. I decided that must have been what I was doing when I ran track and got blasted in the sprints…*
Deadlifting happens to be a fantastic exercise for sprinters, as it develops all of the powerful posterior chain musculature. Let’s just say you won’t find any good sprinters with a flat butt and no legs. You have to have those glutes and hammies!
I never used to pay attention to my head position when I deadlifted, but after reading things around the industry, I decided to give this “neck-packing” thing a try. And I felt a lot more “solid”.
Basically, just make a double-chin right before you pull, so that you end up looking about a foot or 2 in front of you at the top. It’s a little weird at first (everyone loves making themselves feel fat), but you will quickly get used to it if you aren’t using this cue already. When you leave the head up, you lose your spinal alignment and without proper alignment, it’s tough to display your full strength and stay injury-free.
(photo courtesy of rearickstrength.com)
I know people love looking at themselves in the mirror as they pull, there’s nothing wrong with that, but I think it’s cooler to be standing upright with a PR in the hands, seeing my enemies driven before me, and hearing the lamentations of the woman.**
Ok, got a little carried away there…but you see what I mean.
#5: “Push the ground away from you”
I forget where I first heard this, but this cue alone has helped several of my clients reach new heights with their deadlift.
When it comes to cueing, whenever you can give an external cue (something related to the environment, like this cue) versus an internal cue (something related to a body movement…”extend the hips”), you will more than likely get a better response from whoever you are trying to coach. This is particularly true if that person is not the most kinesthetically aware. I think one of the biggest challenges we face as trainers, and one of the ways we can improve the fastest, is cueing. I have obviously been discussing it this entire post, and only one cue (making a double-chin) would fall under the internal cue category. If anyone has a way to make that more of an external cue, please let me know!
External cues have consistently been proven to work better when it comes to motor learning, strength, coordination, and performance. I love when I can come up with a good external cue for a client, because there is always an “Ohhhh, now I get it” response.
With deadlifting, you are obviously focused on pulling the bar off the floor, but by focusing on driving the ground away from you, you create even more tension and “spring”. The result will be a more powerful pull off the ground. This could be a huge help if you are having trouble getting a weight off the ground. I know this is a cue I will really be honing in on, as I missed the last lift at the meet I did this past May. That thing just didn’t budge. I know I have the strength for it, I just didn’t create the tension I needed to, in order to get the bar started.
There are tons of other cues you can use for deadlifts, those just happen to be some of my “go-tos”. I would love to hear what cues have helped you and/or your clients with deadlifts!
TO DEADLIFTING GREATNESS!!!
Take the Leap,
Kasey, CSCS
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*I am testing my 100m, 200m, and 400-meter dashes tomorrow! I have actually not done a maximal, timed effort sprint since I started deadlifting 4-5 years ago, so I am very curious where my numbers are at now. I will share them on the blog.
**That was from Conan the Barbarian. Amazing line and works in any situation.