2 Fatal Deadlift Mistakes: 1 Solution (Simple and Fast)

Are these two errors destroying your deadlift? Find out and fix them in under 2 minutes.

(A Blast from the Past video originally published on 08/05/23)

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STOP Making This Deadlift Mistake With Your Legs!

(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 01/05/24)

Are you “kicking” the bar away from you with your shins when you deadlift? It’s killing your pulls, so knock it off. Let’s fix it real quick-like.

There are a number of reasons a deadlift can swing away from you, and we’re going to discuss one of them today: the error of accidentally pushing the bar away from you with your shins (i.e., “kicking” the bar with your shins) during the setup process. Two versions of this error are quite common, so let’s address them both, and this is explained and demonstrated in the included video as well.

Version #1: Bringing Your Shins to the Bar Too Aggressively
This error occurs during step 3 of the 5-step deadlift setup process. You can watch the included How to Start Lifting: Learn to Deadlift video for a more in-depth treatment of this setup process, but the quick version is as follows:

Step 1: Stance - narrow with shins 1” from the bar

Step 2: Bend at the hips to take your grip

Step 3: Bend your knees to touch your shins to the bar

Step 4: Squeeze your chest up to set your back

Step 5: Pull - drag the bar up your legs

If you bring your shins aggressively and quickly to the barbell during step 3, you may inadvertently kick the bar away from you (i.e., it will roll forward a bit).

To solve this problem, simply use the cue “shins to the bar softly” or “shins lightly to the bar.” The idea is to bend your knees just enough to bring your shins in contact with the bar - and no more than that. Next, squeeze your chest up (step 4), and then pull (step 5).

Version #2: Dropping Your Hips When You Set Your Back
This error occurs during step 4 of the setup process - the “squeeze your chest up to set your back” step. If you set your back aggressively (and by the way, good for you if you do!), you might accidentally drop your hips, which causes your shins to move further forward, which causes the bar to get pushed forward.

It’s worth noting that this can be fixed after the fact; you simply raise your hips back up a bit and roll the bar back to its original location, but we’ve now added more variables and steps to our setup process, and it’s better not to make this mistake in the first place. What to do?

When squeezing your chest up to set your back in rigid extension, use the cue “chest up AND hips up.” Of course, you’re not actually trying to raise your hips - you’re just using the “hips up” part of the cue to make sure the hips stay in place and don’t move downward. We use this cue quite regularly, and it has worked wonders for a number of lifters.

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:

• Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

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Antonio and the Deadlift

(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 12/02/18)

Do you know about the Italian physician and anatomist Antonio Maria Valsalva (1666 - 1723)? Probably not, and that’s O.K., but every time you lift, you perform a maneuver - the Valsalva maneuver - that is named after him. To Valsalva is to hold your breath against a closed glottis, or perhaps more simply, to take a big breath and “bear down.”

You Valsalva instinctively when you are trying to push a stalled or stuck car, you Valsalva when you’re constipated and trying to poop, and fighter pilots Valsalva as part of their Anti-G Straining Maneuvers (AGSMs), which are performed to avoid passing out when subjected to high G-forces in the cockpit.

Now, let’s chat about the Valsalva maneuver and the deadlift.

You’ve been coached on the setup for the deadlift, so you’ve got the 5 steps down pat:

• Stance - take a relatively narrow stance with your shins about 1” from the bar.

• Grip - take a narrow grip on the bar (DO NOT MOVE THE BAR).

• Shins - bend your knees to bring your shins into contact with the bar (DO NOT MOVE THE BAR).

• Chest - squeeze your chest up to set your back in rigid extension (DO NOT MOVE THE BAR).

• Pull - drag the bar up your legs.

jill correctly holds her valsalva at the top of her deadlift.

Most people will Valsalva right before (or during the process of) squeezing the chest up. Excellent. They will usually hold that Valsalva all the way up to the top of the lift - the lockout. Excellent again.

And right here - right at the top - this is where we tend to see a hiccup in the process. Some lifters (especially newer lifters) have a tendency to release their Valsalva at the top of the deadlift, i.e., they blow out their breath at the top. If you are one of these lifters - if you tend to release your breath at this point of the deadlift - there is only one thing to do.

Stop. That. Now.

james (left) and Loren (right) both know how important breath is when it comes to stability.

The Valsalva, the holding of your breath against a closed glottis and with tightly contracted abs - provides stability to the lift. Put simply, breath is stability, and stability is a wonderful thing to have when pulling heavy weights off the floor and setting them back down again.

So, if you tend to release your breath at the top of your deadlift, work on fixing it. Specifically, start by focusing on keeping your Valsalva while warming up the deadlift. The weight is lighter at this point, so you can spare some extra mental energy for this endeavor. Breath only when the bar is on the floor - not while loaded.

And be sure to thank Antonio the next time you complete a successful set of deadlifts.

We hope these tips help you get stronger and live better!

-Phil

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

• Follow Testify on Instagram HERE.

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• 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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(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?

7 Things Successful Lifters Do Before Pressing HEAVY (plus BONUS tip)

Here are 7 things that intelligent, wise – crafty even – lifters do before pressing, and while we’re at it, we’ll cover a bonus tip at the end that you might not usually think about.

#1 Grip
Make it narrow.

This isn’t the bench press. If you reach straight out in front of you as if you’re Frankenstein’s monster, you’re doing well. To oversimplify it (slightly), guys will have their index fingers right on the edge of the knurling, i.e., close to the smooth part of the bar but not on it, and gals will place their index fingers right on the smooth part of the barbell with the rest of their fingers on the knurling.

There’s a little more variability in reality, but this is a good place for most people to start.

#2 Grip . . . Again
Support the bar in the base of your palm – not up by the pads of your fingers.

Simply pronate your grip slightly so that the base of your palm is pressing hard against the bar and then squeeze the bar tightly. Your wrists will be nearly straight (but not completely) – so if your wrists are bent back at 90°, rack the bar and fix your grip. Squeezing the bar tightly helps tighten up the muscles in your forearms and keeps the wrists from bending backward.

Check out the video below for a demonstration of the error as well as the solution.

#3 Legs, Elbows, and Wrists
As you approach the bar to unrack it, dip down far enough with your legs so that you can rotate your elbows into a position where they are slightly in front of the bar when viewed from the side. Keep a tight grip on the bar so that your wrists remain neutral (and not bent backward at 90°).

At this point, simply stand the bar up with your legs. You unrack the bar using your legs, and nothing – nothing – from your waist up should change position after you unrack it.

If you have to adjust your elbow or wrist position after you unrack it, then you set up incorrectly before standing it up. Rack it, fix it, then unrack it again.

#4 Stay Close
This is not a distance event. After you unrack the bar, stay close to the rack.

Stand the bar up, take one small step backward with each foot, and your stance should be set permanently.

#5 Focal Point
Pick something directly in front of you on the wall at eye-height and stare at that spot — stare at it before you unrack the bar, throughout the entire set, and until you rack the bar again.

#6 Breathing and Bracing
Before every rep, take a breath, hold that breath by performing a Valsalva maneuver (check out the video below), and tighten every muscle in your midsection. Hold that breath and keep clamping down on the muscles of your trunk through the rep until the bar is back at the start position. At this point, take a new breath, brace again, and perform the next rep.

If you’re not sure how to correctly breathe and brace when training, check out the very useful video below.

#7 Knees
When you breathe and “get tight” (i.e., brace), be sure to tighten your knees, too. Flex your quads hard so that your knees don’t bend when you reach forward with your hips. You can remind yourself with any of the following cues:

• Flex the quads

• Tight knees

• Pull the kneecaps up

• Keep the knees back

Bonus Tip: Shoes
Wear lifting shoes.

The press is already very susceptible to deviations in the bar path, so don’t make things worse by lifting on a soft, squishy lifting platform like that found in running shoes, Chucks, etc.

Once you’ve trained on the noncompressible sole provided by a lifting shoe, lifting on anything else feels like standing on a pillow.

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?

You Should Be Unloading Your Barbell Like This | EASY and FAST (plus BONUS tip)

How do you unload your bar after deadlifting, cleaning, rowing, etc. in a fast and easy manner? Starting Strength Coach Phil Meggers explains and demonstrates and also provides a bonus tip.

(A Blast from the Past video originally published on 07/08/23)

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

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

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• 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.

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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?

3 Tactics to Triage Your Deadlift FAST (plus a bonus tactic) | Get a Bigger Deadlift NOW

Let’s briefly cover three tactics to help you fix your deadlift quickly and efficiently. It’s useful to remember that if you don’t have a coach, then – by default – you are your own coach, so let’s cover a few major technical points to look for when you watch your deadlift on video.

We’ll cover three positioning issues plus a bonus movement issue, and while these technique points are not the only things to look for, they certainly are large “bang-for-your-buck” items.

#1 Setup
When setting up to pull, you want the following three things – first, be sure that the barbell is over the middle of your foot. To do this, walk up to the bar and set up with your shins about 1” away from the bar when your shins are vertical.

Second, when you bend your knees, bend them just enough to bring your shins lightly into contact with the bar. The shins absolutely need to be touching the bar before you pull, but the shins should never move the bar.

Third, be sure that you are balanced over the middle of your foot. Not on the balls of your feet, not on your heels – on the middle of your foot.

Thus, when you’re setting up to pull, you can feel these three things - bar over midfoot, shins touching the bar, and midfoot balance. However, when you watch yourself on camera, the balance issue takes some practice to see and correctly identify, so in addition to looking at your feet, check to make sure that your shoulders are slightly in front of the bar.

#2 Flat and Rigid Back
Set your back in flat, rigid extension before you start the pull and make sure it stays that way throughout the lift.

You want your back to act like a steel beam, and with this in mind, the following cues can be useful to get your back flat before you pull:

• Squeeze your chest up.

• Push your belly down between your thighs.

• Arch your back. (an overcue, but sometimes useful)

• Wrinkles in your shirt

Be sure to brace hard with every muscle in your midsection (you will have taken a big breath right before setting your back) to then hold that back rigid throughout the lift.

If you’re not sure how to correctly breathe and brace when training, check out the very useful video below.

#3 Lockout
This is an easily and all-too-often missed component of a correctly executed deadlift. At the top of the pull, the deadlift lockout should have open hips (i.e., straight hips), straight knees, chest up, and shoulders slightly behind the bar.

solid lockout position

Soft knees at the top or hips that aren’t completely open? The lift doesn’t count. Be honest with yourself and remind yourself to “stand tall” when finishing your deadlifts.

this deadlift is not finished as the hips are not fully open - this deadlift does not count.

Bonus: Knee Extension
The deadlift has both knee extension and hip extension throughout the ascent, so when it’s performed correctly, you’ll see the knees and hips both straightening as you pull the bar off the floor.

With that said, it is dominated by knee extension at the start, and if it isn't (i.e., if you’re attempting to raise your chest too soon, instead), you’ll be accidentally attempting to pull the bar around your knees. This is a miserable experience and makes the pull far, far harder than it needs to be.

Cues that help you execute the proper knee extension include:

• Push the floor away (i.e., with your legs).

• Leg press the floor away from you.

• Stay over the bar.

• Pull your kneecaps backward.

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?