The Best Exercise You Are Not Doing – Dead Lifting
The dead lift is THE most important lift in the gym in my opinion. Its a compound, multi-joint, multi-muscle movement, incorporating the largest muscles in your body: the hamstrings, glutes, core, traps, and shoulders. Because it involves so much muscle mass there is a tremendous caloric expenditure both during the exercise,and recovery, making it excellent for weight loss. Additionally, multi-muscle activation under heavy loads can elicit significant blood testosterone levels, again facilitating lean muscle development. The dead lift is an excellent functional movement, reinforcing proper technique for lifting heavy objects. Incorporate the dead lift into your routine if you want to maintain a health back, flat, strong core, and lean physique.
Dan Daly, CSCSTags: core, dead lift, Exercise NYC, Fitness, glutes, Health, lower back, muscle, Resistance Training, weight lifting, wellness
Posted on Sunday, July 18th, 2010
at 6:11 pm.
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7 comments already!
well said, you need to deadlift. Whether you play a sport or just want to look better, the deadlift is calorie burning machine. As for the ladies, nothing will round your rear like a stiff legged deadlift. To the rack everybody!
maik
Hey Dan, Great post.
I’ve noticed that I see far more people doing the dead lift recently than I did in the past at my gym. It seems be gaining popularity. Do you only recommend using the overhand grip for the dead lift?
Thanks for commenting. It’s the ultimate functional exercise. Great way to reinforce heavy lifting from the floor which is a fundamental human movement pattern. The mentality is slowly shifting from training movements and not specific muscles. I teach overhand to strengthen grip, a weak link. I’ll allow over under hand at certain loads, never straps.
Personally I love the dead lift. Stiff leg is my favorite. I love teaching the dead lift to my clients but I have one client who I have lowered the weight from using 20 pound db to using 15 pound db to just doing the body weight movement (again). We have disagreements about her form to the point that I don’t even do them with her anymore. She can’t get the retracting of the shoulder blades without raising her shoulders into her ears. My frustration with her and this exercise has forced me to leave them out of her program. Any thoughts on how to help her correct this while keeping my patience. Keep in mind she is my only client with whom I have a problem with.
your only problematic client…..?
The dead lift is a very coordinated movement. One that does not feel familiar in many people that are knee dominant to begin with, hence all the lower back issues, and injuries from picking things off the floor. Its very common for clients to have inactive glutes and overactive traps from prolonged sitting. I work a lot of glute activation exercises into my dynamic warm up routines now, and reactive neuromuscular (RNT) movements into active rest. Try some scapular retraction exercises like wall, floor, or cable angels, scapular push ups, prone trap raises, etc. Also, consider the source could be lack of extension in her thoracic spine, which will have a chain reaction up through the neck and shoulders. Some thoracic mobility work could help as well. I know a great exercise, I’ve had a lot of success with, to reinforce hip hinging with a neutral spine. Great for activating the posterior chain. I will post soon…..
I love your video!!!! This is def. my favorite exercise!
Thanks Adrienne. I wonder who taught you that..