When Deadlifting Heavy, Don't Stand Up & Try This Instead

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

Are you trying to stand up when you deadlift? This seems counterintuitive, but trying to stand up is ruining your deadlift. Starting Strength Coach Phil Meggers explains and demonstrates.

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.

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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 Testify Chronicle - April 14, 2025

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

THIS WEEK'S SUBMISSION

From our video 9 Brutal Truths About Lifting Weights That Seniors LEARN Too Late (click the title to watch):

wvjon75
Its great what you're doing! Shout out to the lady deadlifting 265 at the end!

Phil
Thanks very much, and I’ll pass that on to Sharon as well!

TESTIFY ONLINE COACHING

Interested in getting stronger working one-on-one remotely with us? Click here to book your free strategy session.

Get Stronger. Live Better. Start Today.

ARTICLES & VIDEOS

Convert Kilograms to Pounds Quick & Easy (Math Trick & Examples)
How to convert kilograms to pounds quickly and easily without a calculator and without multiplying by 2.2! Use this for physics, chemistry, and math homework, or use it when lifting weights. Click here to watch.

 

What’s in Your Gym Bag? A Quick & Dirty Guide to Personal Lifting Gear
What gear should you have with you in your gym bag (or at home) when it’s time to train? Click here to read.

 

Blast from the Past: Are You Breathing WRONG When You Deadlift?!
Your breathing is destroying your deadlift, and you probably don't even know it. In the 3rd video in our Saturday Shorts series on fixing the deadlift, Phil covers how to breathe correctly in the deadlift. Click here to watch.

 

Blast from the Past: THIS is Destroying Your Deadlift
We pinpoint what's causing all of your deadlift problems and explain how to address this issue. Click here to read.

TESTIFY 3/4 SLEEVE SHIRTS ARE UP!

Baseball season is here, so represent your favorite team - well, gym - in style!

PLUS - you get four different options to choose from!

Click here to head to the Testify Store.

WHAT'S COMING UP

The annual Testify Strengthlifting Challenge was a great success this weekend, and we are immensely thankful to everyone who helped out! Loaders, judges, table officials, those who helped setup and tear down - we could not have hosted this meet without you all!

Below are a few of our upcoming events, and you can find out what else is on the calendar by heading to our events page at www.testifysc.com/events.

Testify IronFest VII

  • June 20, 2025

  • IronFest is a team-based strength meet wherein the contested lifts will be the squat, press, bench press, and deadlift. Competitors will form teams of 2 lifters/team and perform all 4 lifts; each lifter will perform one upper body lift and one lower body lift, and each lifter will receive 3 attempts for each lift.

  • Click here to register or for more information.

Deadapalooza! The Annual Testify Deadlift Festival

  • August 15, 2025

  • Deadapalooza is a strength meet wherein the only contested lift is - you guessed it - the deadlift. There will be one bar (possibly multiple bars if numbers dictate), and the meet will be conducted in a "rising bar" format, so the weight on the bar only goes up! It's a ton of fun, so come on out!

  • Click here to register or for more information.

Benching Bonanza! The Annual Testify Bench Press Jubilee

  • November 21, 2025

  • Benching Bonanza is a strength meet wherein the only contested lift is - not surprisingly - the bench press. There will be one bar, and the meet will be conducted in a "rising bar" format, so the weight on the bar only goes up! It’s a great time for all involved, and we hope to see you there!

  • Click here to register or for more information.

THIS WEEK’S CONDITIONING

Option 1
“Prowler Base”
1. Load up a manageable weight.
2. Sprint 40m at 85% intensity.
3. Rest until breathing and heart rate slow down. (45 sec – 2 min)
4. Repeat 5-15 times.

Courtesy of “Death by Prowler” (on Starting Strength).

Compare to 2025.02.24.

Option 2
Bike/row:
4 x 800m

Rest 3 minutes between each round. Score = slowest time.

Compare to 2025.01.20.

Option 3
Outdoors:
10 rounds:
25 yd yoke carry
Rest 1 minute

Indoors:
10 rounds:
30 yd yoke carry (15 yd down-back)
Rest 1 minute

Compare to 2024.12.23.

Option 4
10 x 50 ft farmer carry
Each carry is 25 ft down and 25 ft back and is for time. Rest 1 minute between carries.

Women: 97# per handle (80# of plates)
Men: 137# per handle (120# of plates)
(Note: Each handle weighs 17#.)

Compare to 2024.12.23.

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

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.

What’s in Your Gym Bag? A Quick & Dirty Guide to Personal Lifting Gear

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

What gear should you have in your gym bag (or at home) when it’s time to train? Let’s dive in, and we’ll provide plenty of additional resources for each item along the way.

Heads up - the last item in this article is the most important, so keep reading.

Lifting Shoes
Lifting shoes have a rigid, non-compressible sole, a slightly elevated heel, and one or two metatarsal straps. They provide an extremely solid base of support and therefore permit efficient force transfer between you and the floor.

Big deal. Big. Huge.

For a more in-depth treatment of lifting shoes and the rationale for using them, click on the article below or watch the included video.

LIFTING SHOES: The Complete Guide to the Best and WORST Shoes! (Lifting Gear Series)

A number of manufacturers make quality lifting shoes - Nike, Do-Win, Inov-8, and Adidas are just a few of the more well-known brands. Below are some of the shoe recommendations and links we usually send to new members as a starting point for shopping:

Note: I would not recommend the Adidas Powerlift or any other lifting shoe with a compressed foam sole. The Powerlift is fairly popular due to its price point and is certainly still better than non-lifting shoe options, but the sole is not as rigid as we’d like, and quite simply, there are better options (such as its sibling, the Adidas Adipower 3).

A final note - Chuck Taylors are not lifting shoes. They are squishy and therefore provide lousy force transfer between you and the floor. Walk in Chucks. Don’t lift in Chucks.

Lifting Belt
A quality lifting belt helps you provide rigidity and stability when lifting. As a result, it allows you to have efficient force transfer from the things generating force in a given lift all the way to the barbell - e.g., transferring force from the hips and the legs in the squat through your rigid midsection (i.e., trunk) up to the barbell sitting on your back.

Some people can use a belt with a 4” width, and some people need a 3” belt (or even a 2.5” belt). For more information on belt widths as well as everything else belt-related, check out the article below or watch the included video.

LIFTING BELTS: The Complete Guide and What NOT to Get! (Lifting Gear Series)

A quality belt will last years - possibly your entire training career - so invest in a good one. With this in mind, here are a few belt options we typically recommend:

Knee Sleeves
Most people will come to appreciate and benefit from knee sleeves at some point in their lifting careers. They provide warmth and compression to the knees (specifically for squatting), and your knees will probably appreciate this greatly.

Sleeves are typically made of neoprene and most often come in 5 mm or 7 mm thicknesses. Skip the 5 mm option and go with the 7 mm sleeves.

For a more in-depth treatment on knee sleeves, check out the article below or watch the included video.

KNEE SLEEVES: The Complete Guide and the BEST Way to Put Them On (Lifting Gear Series)

Below are a few solid options for sleeves that we commonly recommend to our members:

Wrist Wraps
Wrist wraps (or simply “wraps”) provide support for your wrists, come in pairs, and each wrap typically includes a thumb loop at one end, the elastic body of the wrap, and then a velcro closure system at the other end of the wrap.

Since wraps provide stability to the wrist joint, they are very useful for pressing movements (e.g., press and bench press) and are also sometimes used when snatching, cleaning, or jerking.

For more information on wrist wraps, check out the article below or watch the included video.

WRIST WRAPS: The Complete Guide and How NOT to Put Them On! (Lifting Gear Series)

18” and 24” are the most common lengths, and here are some solid options:

Lifting Straps
Straps (not to be confused with wraps) are very useful for pulling movements such as deadlifts, rows, and possibly even snatches (don’t ever use them for cleans - it’s a good way to break a wrist).

When you start training, perform all of your deadlift work sets with either a hook grip or a mixed grip (and chalk, of course). Over time, however, you’ll find that straps can be a useful tool when training the pulls.

You can easily make your own straps in about 2 minutes, and we cover that in the video below (these are the straps that I use and that we make for our members).

If you prefer to buy your straps instead of making them yourself, IronMind provides some good options:

Here’s a quick video that covers how to use straps:

A final note on straps - don’t purchase or use cloth straps. They will eventually tear, and it will inevitably happen at a very unfortunate moment.

Fractional Plates
You’ll want to make smaller jumps on the press and the bench press over time, i.e., smaller than the typical 5 lb jump permitted by two 2.5 lb plates. Females and older lifters will also want to make smaller jumps on the squat and deadlift, and such increments are also useful for the Olympic lifts. 

With this in mind, get yourself a set of fractional plates. We cover this more in the video below:

We have several sets of the 44Sport fractional plates (click here) at Testify, and they are used daily. They are a solid option, but there are many other choices out there as well.

Chalk
If you train, use chalk. Chalk absorbs the natural moisture and oils of your hands (and that of whatever doofus used the bar before you at the commercial gym) so that you have better friction - much better friction - between you and the barbell.

If you deadlift without chalk, stop kidding yourself. You’re not training - you’re just wasting time in the gym.

If your gym doesn’t provide chalk, bring your own. If your gym doesn’t allow chalk, sneak it in anyway or find another gym. It’s that important. The difference between chalk and no-chalk on your deadlift may well be over 100 lb.

We use Spider Chalk (click here) at Testify as the blocks are very dense and remain intact longer than other brands. If you need to be sneaky about your chalk use, I’d recommend liquid chalk (click here).

Training Log
Your training log is your most important piece of equipment.

Everything else - shoes, belt, wraps, barbell, etc. - can be replaced, but your training log contains your personal training history. It’s the one thing that can’t be replaced.

Because your log contains your history and thus where you’ve been (in the training sense), it’s also the guide to where you want to go.

A simple composition notebook will serve you very well (click here), and below are two articles and a video to get you started on properly keeping a training log.

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.)

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?

Are You Breathing WRONG When You Deadlift?!

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

Your breathing is destroying your deadlift, and you probably don't even know it. In the 3rd video in our Saturday Shorts series on fixing the deadlift, Starting Strength Coach Phil Meggers covers how to breathe correctly in the deadlift.

(A Blast from the Past video originally published on 11/12/22)

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.

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 is Destroying Your Deadlift

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 04/07/23)

You’ve got deadlift problems. Perhaps your deadlift swings away from you when you break the barbell off the ground. Maybe you spend too much time between reps with the bar sitting on the floor. It may be that you find yourself moving your butt up and down in the neverending quest to find that just right position for your hips before you start the pull. The possibilities are endless.

Hey. Relax. It’s not you. It’s the floor.

No, I don’t mean you need a more robust lifting platform, or that there’s actually something wrong with your floor. I mean that the deadlift rests on the floor between reps - which makes it different from the squat, the press, or the bench press - and it’s this seemingly insignificant detail that might be causing you to ruin your deadlift.

Because the bar sits on the floor between reps, it permits you to perform all sorts of ridiculous antics while it’s down there. You rock forward, you lean on the bar, you rock back, you take three thousand breaths before setting your back for the next rep - the list of potential shenanigans goes on. In short, you perform all sorts of unnecessary tomfoolery, and this is extremely detrimental to your deadlift.

You’ve never even dreamed of doing this sort of nonsense in the squat. Because you are supporting the bar all of the time in the squat, you are highly motivated to be efficient between reps. Of course you stay balanced over your midfoot between reps - holding several hundred pounds on your back while balanced on the balls of your feet seems rather silly, so you never do it. You also spend relatively little time between reps - enough time to take a breath or two and get tight again - because you want to get the set over with and get that heavy bar off your back sometime today.

When you do silly things between reps of your deadlift - and this sort of thing happens all the time - you cause several problems. First - and this is the big one - all this unnecessary movement greatly reduces your chances of getting in the correct position for the next pull. Second, you exhaust yourself. The bottom of the deadlift is the only resting position for a deadlift work set, but it’s a lousy resting position, and you already know this. You’re crouched over, so your back and legs get tired down there, and it’s not much fun breathing in that position for very long. Third, you make your work set take much longer than it should. Get the set done, already.

How can you fix this problem? Keep it simple and be religious about your 5-step setup.

The 5-step setup applies for the first rep, of course, but it is especially important for all subsequent reps. Here’s a quick recap (watch the included video for a better and more complete understanding), but it’s steps 3-5 that we’re going to focus on in the next section:

5-Step Deadlift Setup

  1. Stance: Shins 1” inch from the bar. Narrow stance with toes slightly turned out.

  2. Grip: Bend at the hips to grab the bar while keeping your shins as vertical as possible - do NOT touch the bar with your legs yet. (also, never push down on the bar, i.e., don’t rest with your own weight on the bar)

  3. Shins: Bend your knees (i.e., drop your butt slightly) until your shins lightly touch the bar.

  4. Chest: Squeeze your chest up to set your back.

  5. Pull: Drag the bar up your legs.

We use the 5-step setup for every rep, but for every rep after the first one, steps 1 and 2 are already completed. They’re already completed because you’re going to set the bar down right over the middle of your foot (“stance”), and you’re not going to let go of the bar (“grip”). If you set the bar down a little out of position, that’s not a problem - simply roll the bar to the correct spot over the middle of your foot. Keep your shins OFF the bar while doing this, make sure that you are balancing on your midfoot (not the balls of your feet), and don’t push down on the bar (if anything, keep a little upward tension on the bar).

Is this fool setting up for his 1st rep . . . or has he just finished his 1st rep? you’ll never know, and that’s the way we like it.

Think of it this way: Set the bar down so that it looks like you’ve just completed steps 1 and 2 of your very first rep. If Lawrence takes a picture of you at this moment, he shouldn’t be able to tell if you’re about to do your first rep or if you’ve set the bar down after a rep.

If you do this, then the rest of the setup for that next rep is simple. It’s steps 3-5: shins lightly to the bar, squeeze the chest up, and pull.

Keep it simple, and keep it repeatable.

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.)

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?

Convert Kilograms to Pounds Quick & Easy (Math Trick & Examples)

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

How to convert kilograms to pounds quickly and easily without a calculator and without multiplying by 2.2! Use this for physics, chemistry, and math homework, or use it when lifting weights.

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.

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?