Are You Finishing Your Deadlift Wrong?
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(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 11/11/22)
A common problem in the deadlift is a misunderstanding of what finishing the lift should look and feel like. This typically results in one of two situations - a lifter who doesn’t completely open the hips and therefore doesn’t actually complete the rep or a lifter who overdoes it and ends up finishing the lift with the back in overextension.
One of these results is insufficient, and the other is unnecessary. Both of them look ridiculous, so we’re going to try and fix this.
To see these errors demonstrated as well as how to correct them, watch the video below.
A finished deadlift (Figure 1) will have the knees fully extended, the hips fully extended, the chest up, and the shoulders back. In other words, the knees will be straight, the hips will be straight, and the shoulders will be behind the barbell. In even simpler terms, the lifter simply stands all the way up.
Figure 1: A correctly finished deadlift
If you find that you’re not finishing your deadlift, i.e., if your hips don’t open all the way and you look like you’re leaning over the bar like the fool in Figure 2, simply cue yourself to “Stand up” or “Stand up tall.”
Figure 2: An unfinished deadlift - don’t be like this fool.
If, on the other hand, you find that you’re overdoing the top of the deadlift, i.e., if you’re finishing the lift with your lumber spine in overextension (Figure 3), you can still use the cue “Stand up” (or “stand tall”) or you can also simply tell yourself, “Don’t lean back.”
Figure 3: An “overdone” deadlift - don’t be like this fool, either.
Fixing either of these problems is not complicated, but you’ve got to be aware that you have the problem in order to fix it, so we recommend that you either have a coach, or if that’s not possible, make sure that you record your lifts so that you can watch them.
As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.
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