TWO Signs You're Accidentally KILLING Your Deadlift... (Starting Strength Coach Explains)

Within the first five seconds of the video below, I commit two rather hideous mistakes. Watch those first five seconds and see if you can identify the two errors.

Did you notice the mistakes?

The Two Mistakes
The first error I committed was that of not getting tight against the barbell when setting my back and therefore trying to yank the bar off the floor when I started to pull.

In other words, when you squeeze your chest up to set your back in rigid extension, you should be putting a lot of tension (i.e., upward pull) on the bar. I didn’t do that, and this caused me to try to yank or jerk the bar off the floor - a tactic that falls apart quickly as the weight gets heavy.

The second error I committed was that of releasing my breath - releasing my Valsalva maneuver - at the top of the lift. Breath is support, so I should have simply held my breath for the extra half-second that it took me to set the bar down.

Holding your breath at the top of the deadlift isn’t difficult, of course, but the habit of releasing your breath at the top can be a tough one to break, so let’s fix this error as well as the previous one.

The Solutions
The solution to the problem of releasing your breath at the top of your pull comes courtesy of fellow Starting Strength Coach Mia Inman (click here for her excellent article).

The cue is simply: “Lift silently.”

During the actual lift, your mouth shouldn’t make any noise (since you already inhaled before starting the lift). Therefore, remind yourself that your mouth should be silent until the bar is back on the floor.

The solution to the problem of not applying tension to the bar during the setup (and thus yanking the bar at the start of the pull) is opposite that of the previous solution.

The cue is “Get loud.”

When you squeeze your chest up to apply tension to the bar, the bar will get pulled up slightly due to the slop between the shaft of the bar and the collars of the bar as well as due to the slop between the sleeves of the bar and the plates sitting on the bar.

Because of this slightly upward movement, you will hear - if you do this correctly - a click when this happens. We often refer to this movement as “pulling the slack out of the bar” or even “pulling the click out of the bar.”

When you squeeze your chest up, you’ll feel the tension in your arms (it should feel as though your arms are being stretched out), you’ll feel the weight of the bar in your hands, and you’ll hear the bar make noise.

You want that noise.

Yes, you’ll still hear some rattling as the plates shift when you pull the bar off the floor (and the more plates on the bar, the more you’ll hear that), but you should absolutely hear the bar make noise before you pull it off the floor.

Combining Things
To bring it all together, the single cue becomes: “Loud - then silent.”

Get loud - make that bar make noise when you apply tension to it.

But then - be silent. Don’t let your mouth make noise until the bar is back on the floor.

As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.

-Phil

PS: Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

• Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

• Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

• Get our free weekly email - containing useful videos, articles, and training tips - HERE.

• Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

• Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)

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At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?

The Jerk: Landing Positions

(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 07/02/21)

We’ve covered the three landing positions for both the snatch and the clean in past articles, and not surprisingly, there are also three landing positions for the jerk. Again, each has its own advantages, so let’s briefly cover them:

POWER JERK

Landing Position: Partial squat

Jonny performs a power jerk.

Advantage: The power jerk is the simplest to learn as your feet do not travel far from their original position. Your feet don’t move very much as they barely leave the ground and then immediately land in a squat-width stance. You receive the bar overhead with your hips and legs in a partial-depth squat position. Due to its simplicity, the power jerk often serves as an intermediate step on the way to learning either the squat jerk or the split jerk.

Note: If your feet never leave the ground during this movement, many coaches will call this a push jerk to distinguish it from a power jerk (but some coaches use the terms interchangeably).

SQUAT JERK

Landing Position: Squat (i.e., full-depth squat)

Jonny performs a squat jerk.

Advantage: Of the three landing positions, the squat jerk allows lifters to drop the farthest under the bar, which means the barbell doesn’t have to be lifted as high before locking it out overhead. With this in mind, there is great potential with the squat jerk, but this potential is tempered by two drawbacks - first, the lifter needs excellent flexibility to achieve what is essentially a narrow-grip overhead squat position in the receiving position for this jerk, and second, the lifter has relatively little stability from front-to-back due to the lack of a split (see the split jerk below), so the squat jerk is extremely unforgiving of jerks that are slightly forward or backward.

SPLIT JERK

Landing Position: Split stance

Jonny performs a split jerk.

Advantage: The split jerk allows the lifter to drop further under the bar than the power jerk without requiring the ability to drop into the squat jerk position, and due to the front-to-back split, the split jerk is more stable. For this reason, the split jerk is - by far - the most commonly executed jerk in training and competition.

As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.

-Phil

PS: Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

• Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

• Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

• Get our free weekly email - containing useful videos, articles, and training tips - HERE.

• Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

• Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)

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At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?

Why You Must NOT Use Your Shoulders in the Deadlift

Let’s quickly discuss a problem lifters often have in their deadlift - specifically a problem with their shoulders. There are two places in the deadlift that these errors can show up, and either way, the result is that of unnecessary and counterproductive movement of the shoulders.

With this in mind, let’s identify and fix these errors in short order.

Error #1
You’re performing your setup correctly - you have a stance with the barbell over midfoot, you’ve taken your grip, and you’ve bent your knees to touch your shins to the bar.

Then, as you endeavor to squeeze your chest up to set your back in extension, you accidentally retract your shoulder blades, i.e., you try to pull your shoulders back (Figure 1).

figure 1: Joy has accidentally retracted her shoulders during her setup. this is no good.

This is great for the bench press, but it’s terrible for the deadlift for several reasons. One, you’ve introduced slack into the setup - you are now in a position which you will not be able to maintain (nor do you need to) under a challenging load. You might be able to maintain that retracted position when the weight is light, but you certainly won’t be able to when the deadlift gets heavy, so you’re wasting energy putting yourself into this position.

Two, you’ve introduced an unnecessary variable to your setup since you’ve put yourself into a position that won’t work when the weight gets heavy. You’re practicing something that doesn’t work when it matters the most.

figure 2: This . . . is much better.

Three, it’s counterproductive as this movement pulls you down closer to the bar, i.e., you end up giving yourself artificially shorter arms, which is never an advantage in the deadlift. You want your arms to be as long as possible (Figure 2) when pulling heavy weights from the floor.

Error #2
The second type of shoulder mistake happens at the top of the deadlift when a lifter tries to shrug the shoulders upward when locking out the deadlift (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Becky has made the error of shrugging at the top of her deadlift. Don’t do this.

Again, this is unnecessary as a finished deadlift occurs with the chest lifted - but not the shoulders. Also - and again - it’s counterproductive because you can’t shrug upward when the deadlift gets heavy, so you’re wasting energy by trying to do so, and you’re again practicing something that won’t work when the weight becomes challenging (Figure 4).

figure 4: becky understands how utterly pointless it would be to shrug during her 300 lb deadlift . . . so she wisely doesn’t try to do something that silly.

The Solution
First of all, record and then watch yourself on video to see if you’re committing either one of these mistakes as lifters who make these mistakes are often unaware of the problem.

Next, simply remind yourself: Don’t do anything with your shoulders.

(Watch the video below to see these errors and their solutions in action.)

At no point in your deadlift do you need to be thinking about your shoulders. The five step set up process - stance, grip, shins, chest, and pull (watch the video below to see this in action) - has no step dedicated to doing anything with your shoulders. Likewise, you should finish the deadlift by standing tall, but standing up has nothing to do with your shoulders, so simply cue yourself to “stand tall” or to “lift your chest” and don’t try to do anything with your shoulders.

What If I’m Still Committing These Errors?
If you still find yourself retracting your shoulders when setting up to pull, remind yourself that when you squeeze your chest up to set your back in extension, you want to be as far away from the barbell as possible (while still being connected to the bar via your grip, of course). In other words, squeezing your chest up to set your back should stretch out your arms - not shorten them.

With this in mind, you can use the cues “long arms,” “stretch out the arms,” or even “get away from the bar.”

If your shrugging error is particularly persistent, you can use the cue “shoulders down” when locking out your deadlift. Using the cue “don’t shrug” will generally not be as useful - giving yourself something to do (such as “shoulders down”) tends to be more productive than an avoidance cue such as “don’t shrug.”

As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.

-Phil

PS: Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

• Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

• Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

• Get our free weekly email - containing useful videos, articles, and training tips - HERE.

• Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

• Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)

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At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?

How to Unrack a Heavy Bench Press By Yourself

When the bench press gets heavy, it becomes difficult to unrack the barbell if you’re lifting alone. Hopefully, you’ve got your safeties set correctly to protect you from disaster (e.g., a bar landing on your face), but the safeties won’t provide what a good spotter does - a nice, smooth unracking process.

“Heavy” is, of course, relative - your bench press might be 105 lb, 405 lb, or something in between, but the problem remains the same. The barbell starts behind your shoulders, resting in the hooks, and you need to get the bar forward several inches until it is positioned directly above the shoulder joint.

At light weights, covering this horizontal distance is no trouble at all, but at heavy weights, it can pose quite a challenge.

The key is to not simply use your shoulders to move the barbell through that horizontal distance but instead to use the leverage provided by your entire body. With this in mind, take your grip and then follow the steps below.

Be sure to check out the included videos to see this process in action - it helps tremendously.

Step 1 - Elbows out and back slightly (Figure 1)

figure 1

Step 2 - Hips up (Figure 2)

figure 2

Step 3 - Straighten the elbows and unrack the bar (Figure 3)

figure 3

Step 4 - Hips back down to the bench as you bring the barbell into position directly above your shoulder joint (Figure 4)

figure 4

Again, be sure to check out one of the included videos to see this process in action, and as always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.

-Phil

PS: Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

• Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

• Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

• Get our free weekly email - containing useful videos, articles, and training tips - HERE.

• Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

• Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)

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At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?

Do This . . . NOT This: Lifting Etiquette

(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 06/25/21)

Discussing lifting etiquette may not be particularly exciting, but if you’ve ever received a bad hand-off on a bench press or had someone stand right in your line of sight on a press, you already know it’s important, so let’s briefly cover a few key points: 

Gentle hand-off on the bench press
If you’re spotting someone on the bench press, be smart, and be kind. Provide just enough assistance on the hand-off to help the lifter guide the barbell into place over the shoulders, but don’t provide any more assistance than that. Too many spotters lift up too hard and ruin the lifter’s setup in the process.

This . . . is NOT how a spotter performs a good hand-off.

“Working in” with another lifter
It is perfectly normal to share a bar, rack, and/or platform with another lifter (and it makes lifting more fun as well). If you lifted in high school or college, you’re already used to this, but this might be a new concept for those who started lifting later in life. For the squat or press, this situation tends to work best if the lifters are somewhat close in height (set the pins for the shorter partner as the taller partner can always get lower to unrack the bar), but pretty much everyone can bench with someone else, and this is certainly true for floor pulls like snatches, cleans, rows, and deadlifts as well - especially if there’s a deadlift jack available.

Not sure how to break the ice with another lifter? Just walk on up and say, “Can I work in with you, bro?”

Don’t coach someone else
Just don’t. It’s a bad idea. It’s all sorts of a bad idea.

Get out da way
It’s ludacris to stand in the way of a lifter’s focal point, so don’t position yourself directly in a lifter’s line of sight if you can avoid it. This is not a big deal on most warm-ups, but it is rather important on work sets. If you’re about to walk by or are about to lift directly across from Bob, who’s performing his work sets of press, simply wait until he finishes the set, and then go about your life.

This . . . is NOT the greatest place to stand while someone is pressing.

Brush the chalk off your bar
You use chalk when you lift because you have a brain, and due to this brain, you also probably realize that chalk absorbs moisture (which is why you use it). Because of this, you’ll always want to brush the chalk off of your barbell when you’re finished lifting to help prevent rust formation.

Put your equipment away
. . . or you owe the gym a dozen donuts . . . at least if you train with us at Testify. It should go without saying that you should put the equipment back where you found it (benches, barbells, weights, collars, etc.), but sometimes, it still needs to be said.

Wipe down your bench when you’re finished
Simply spray a rag or paper towel with whatever cleaner your gym uses and quickly wipe down the top surface of your bench. By doing so, you’ve ensured that no one else is subjected to the salty remnant of your sweaty backside.

As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.

-Phil

PS: Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

• Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

• Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

• Get our free weekly email - containing useful videos, articles, and training tips - HERE.

• Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

• Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)

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At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?

This Simple Tactic Fixed His Squat & Deadlift in One Rep

How can a cue actually help improve every lift?

Let’s dive in.

What Aspect of a Lift Does This Cue Help?
Today’s cue is useful at the beginning of the lift. It can be used over a broad range of lifts - from squats to deadlifts to bench presses to snatches - but it is specifically useful to address technical issues present at the start of the lift.

figure 1: becky demonstrates the error of breaking at the hips before before the knees at the start of the squat.

Here are a few examples of when today’s cue could be useful:

• In the squat, you tend to break (i.e., bend) at the hips before the knees as you start your descent (Figure 1) instead of bending the hips and knees simultaneously.

• In the deadlift, you try to yank or jerk the barbell off the floor (which causes all manner of problems).

• In the bench press, you pop your shoulders and the bar slightly upward before starting each rep’s descent.

• In the press, you “wind up your hips” and reach backward with your hips before pushing them forward at the start of the rep.

• In the snatch, you have the same problem as in the deadlift, and you try to yank the bar off the floor (instead of accelerating it smoothly).

The Solution
The cue is simply “Smooth start.”

As with many solutions, this may seem a bit underwhelming, but the execution of it is both important and potentially profound in terms of its impact on your lifting, so let’s discuss how this applies to the errors above.

figure 2: becky correctly bends the hips and knees simultaneously as she starts her descent.

• Squat: Cueing “smooth start” or even “slow start” allows you to focus on simultaneously bending both the knees and hips as you initiate the descent (Figure 2). Remember that this is a cue for the first few inches of the lift’s movement, and that’s where this simultaneous movement needs to happen in the squat.

• Deadlift: You now are focused on pulling smoothly and not trying to yank the bar off the floor. This allows you to keep your back rigid and pull in a nice, vertical path.

• Bench Press: The error of “popping” the shoulders up before starting the descent tends to be a quick movement, so cueing “smooth start” helps eliminate this bench press twitch.

• Press: “Slow start” can again be a useful variation of the “smooth start” cue as both cues will tend to slow you down a bit at the start, and this allows you to focus on only pushing the hips forward (and thus not allowing them to move back).

• Snatch: As with the deadlift, cueing “smooth start” encourages you to gradually accelerate the bar at the start of the pull instead of jerking the bar off the floor. The “slow start” variation of today’s cue can work when learning how to snatch and clean, but this cue usually needs to be abandoned as the weights get heavier, whereas “smooth start” remains useful at all weights.

Be sure to watch the included video (click here or scroll up) to see this cue in action, and as always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.

-Phil

PS: Whenever you want even more Testify in your life, here are some free resources:

• Book a free intro and strategy session with us HERE.

• Pick up a free copy of Testify’s Squat Guide: 12 Tips to Improve Your Squat Now HERE.

• Get our free weekly email - containing useful videos, articles, and training tips - HERE.

• Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

• Subscribe to Testify’s YouTube channel HERE.

(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)

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At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Interested in getting stronger, looking better, and having more energy?