Don't Let This Mistake RUIN Your Deadlift!
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You know the five step deadlift setup, and you’ve memorized it well - stance, grip, shins, chest, and pull. However, you very well might be screwing up steps four and five, i.e., the “squeeze your chest up to set your back” and the “pull - dragging the barbell up your legs” steps.
Let’s fix this.
If you don’t know the five step deadlift setup, be sure to watch the included video.
What This Error Looks Like (i.e., What NOT to Do)
When people make this mistake, they do so because they’re combining steps four and five instead of treating them like the distinct steps that they are and should be. In other words, if you are squeezing your chest up and then moving right into the pulling motion, you’re making this mistake.
This fool has combined steps 4 and 5 and has thus created a host of problems for himself. don’t be this guy.
It’s an easy bad habit to accidentally acquire, and it causes a number of problems for the lift. You’ll drop your hips, the bar will roll forward of mid-foot, it will continue to swing forward as it leaves the floor (if it’s light enough that you can get it off the floor in this suboptimal position), and you’ve now made your deadlift significantly harder than it should’ve been.
The Solution
This problem can occur in any of the pulls from the floor - deadlifts, snatches, cleans, even rows - and the solution is the same for each lift.
Remind yourself to pause between step four and step five.
It’s not much of a pause, mind you, but simply waiting a half second to a full second between the setting of your back (step four) and the start of the pull (step five) nicely fixes this error and thus prevents all of the subsequent problems that accompany it.
Try the following mental sequence the next time you deadlift:
1. Stance
2. Grip
3. Shins
4. Chest
—Pause—
5. Pull
Don’t be lazy during that pause - you should be applying a lot of tension to the bar since you’ve just set your back in extension. If you record yourself on video, during step four, you should see the bar bend upward slightly in the middle and you should hear a click as you pull the slack out of the bar, and you have to maintain that tension during this short pause. Watch the included video to see this in action.
Remember: “Chest - pause - pull.”
As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.
-Phil
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