What's going on Nation?
I want to share with you [guys] some tips and tricks that I've picked up over the past year since I got serious about
Deadlifting as many of you know
I hit my goal of deadlifting over 500 pounds a couple months ago
And what I want to do today is wrap up my deadlifting fundamental series
Which if you haven't seen [that] yet, you can check all these videos out over here and what these videos are into the two tutorials
breaking down the deadlift
My goal today is to share with you those tips and tricks that I've picked up to help you find that hidden strength that I
Know you have believe it or not when it comes to Olympic lifts
little change in your form can mean the difference between adding [five] to [ten] pounds to your lift and
Maximizing your results, so let's talk about the first subject which is going to be footwear
When it comes to footwear you guys have some options
The first one I'm going to show you is just a reebok
This is what I wear what I'm just walking around throughout my daily activities
And I would recommend that you never deadlift in a shoes like this
The shoes about [an] inch off the ground and the way that it's built is for softness and to be comfortable
especially as you run so that when you land you put this hit the ground and super hard a
Shoe like this is very unstable whenever you're doing any type of heavy lifting where you have to stand up
You want to have a solid foundation
And be as close to the ground as [possible]
deadlifting in a shoe like this [is] very unstable because it'll actually kind of wiggle back and forth
Which I'm sure you've noticed if you've done heavy squats or heavy deadlifts [in] a shoe like [this]
However some shoes do have a platform in the back
This is a Reebok crossfit training shoe
But the platform in the back here is solid so you have that solid foundation that you're looking for
I personally don't like to deadlift in a shoe like this because I like to be flat on the ground
But some people prefer a shoe that has the platform in the back which is
what the shoe is made for it's made for olympic lifting because it helps them pull the bar [up] without really
Slamming into their knees it gives them a little bit more of an edge when they bend over the pull up the bar
So that's why some people wear these shoes
What I
normally wear in the gym is just a wrestling shoe because to me a wrestling shoe is the closest thing you can get to
Natural as possible because it's super super flat and the sole is very very thin
But what most bodybuilders used to do especially in the olden days which I'm going to actually do today for tutorial is go barefoot
Old-School bodybuilders like Arnold and Lou Ferrigno
They trained Barefoot because they believe that
Every little centimeter counted and meet the difference between adding an extra two and a half
Pounds to five pounds to their lifts
Because the closer you are to the ground and the lower that bar can hang when doing a deadlift the easier
It's going to be to get your hips under it and pop forward and complete the lift
The higher you are up off the ground the more you have to lift that bar up to deadlift it
It's always a great idea to warm up your lower back, especially before doing a lift like a deadlift
So I want to show you guys two quick warm-ups that I like to do
they're very simple all you're going to do is two sets of 12 reps per warm-up the first one's going to be an
Alternating toe two-hand touch and the second one's going to be a scorpion
So all you have to do for the alternating two and a hand touch is laid [out] on the ground
and
You're going to keep your arms up by your side like this palms facing up
You're going to lift one leg in the air
And then you're going to try to keep your back flat on the ground as you twist and bring your toe to your hand
you got to be sure my back crack when I did that lift the other leg up and
Then try to touch
Now you might only be able to go to here depending on how flexible you [are] as you get more flexible you'll be able to
Touch your hand or at least have your toes in line with your arm
So you want to do 12 reps per side so a 1-1 count
And as soon as you finish one set you're going to roll over on your stomach you're going to do scorpions
And you're basically doing the same thing where you're touching trying to touch your foot to [alternate] your the other arm your other hand
so [you] lay down facedown and
then reach
come back and
reach
once again
You're doing a [1-1] count of 12 reps as soon as you finish the scorpions roll back over go through the exercises one more time
When it comes to belts is two different types of belts you can use when doing a deadlift
You can use the belt that you buy in the store or you [can] create one with your body
Let's talk about this one first when you put on a weightlifting belt
You want to put it around your torso
And you want to pull it as tight as possible
[it] also helps if you suck in your stomach a little bit just to get it super super tight
When you're performing the lift you're not just doing the lift with a belt on you're actually taking air in and holding in your diaphragm
[while] flexing your core and pushing against the belt that's what creates the stable structure or the the
Solid core that you need when doing the deadlift
Now to do the deadlift without the belt and creating one on your own is you're basically doing all the same [things]
But you're not using the belt what you're going to do is take in a deep breath. You hold that air right here
and then you're going to flex your abs as hard as you can and you're going to hold that breath throughout the entire movement if
You need to reset your breath what I like to do is get the weight all [the] way to the top
Reset my breath at the top of the movement and then go back down for the rep
Now a lot of people say that you have to use the belt all the time or out you're going to blow your lower back
You're really going to hurt yourself
Which is obvious that it can happen
But if you practice proper form with the deadlift and you train yourself to utilize your internal belt to be as strong as possible
You'd be surprised just how far you can push yourself and how much weight you can lift just relying on your own [bodyweight]
Nothing extra added so take some time with some light weight to practice that internal belt and then let's move on to the next subject
Your foot stance when you approach the deadlift is going to change person to person to be quite honest my first started doing
Deadlifts I had a shoulder width foot stance so about right here as I started getting better at them and perfecting my form
my foot stance got closer and closer
And it's pretty much just
inside of
Shoulder-width with my toes pointing out a little bit and the reason why it changed so much is because where you put
Your feet is going to determine how the rest of your body reacts
So with my feet a little closer together my toes pointing out a bit
it's a lot easier for me [to] sit back and push my knees out and
Be able to grab the bar and pull it up and over my knees as opposed to
Being wider like this and having a harder time to force my knees out to the side
When you're doing the lift, and you're forcing your knees out
pushing the knees out you prevent them from collapsing
But you're also creating a bit of torque that you need your hips to pull the bar up and lift heavier weight also
When your feet are closed like this in my opinion
It's easier to push through your heels during the lift you basically want to feel like you're pushing the Earth down
To lift the weight you don't want to feel like you're lifting the weight and using your lower back
You want to feel like actually doing a reverse leg press where [you're] [holding] the weights with your hands, and you're pushing the ground down
There's a few different grips you can use on the barbell when performing a deadlift
But I want you to keep in mind that the goal here isn't to work on your grip strength
It's to deadlift as much weight as possible
The first grip you can use is overhand grip we basically just grab the bar
Fingers over the top and then your palms facing your body
The second grip that you can use and most people end up going to this grip when the bar starts to get really heavy is
The switch grip so you have one hand facing you and one hand facing away [from] you
It doesn't matter which hand faces you or faces away
Just as long as they're opposite and what that's going to do is hold the bar in your hands a lot tighter and what easier
than the Overhand grip
Now if you're having a hard time with these because you don't have the grip strength to lift the bar with a lot of weight
Yet what you can do is use some wrist straps and the way the wrist straps work is you put them around your hands
Let me get these on real quick, and you can use them with both the overhand grip as well as the switch grip
So once you get them on
Put your hands on the bar like you normally would [for] an overhand grip and then wrap the strap [around]
Towards your fingers on each hand, so we wrap this side first then
you come over here and
Wrap the other side and then what you even do to make it tighter is just roll the bar
and that gets the straps super super tight and
If you want to do a switch grip do the same thing just switch your hand and then wrap it underneath
Like this and again twist the bar to get it as tight as possible
And if you don't want to use the straps
But the bar is [a] little slippery
to hold the bar tight what you can do is take some chalk and put it on your hands now
Give you a really tight grip on the bar as well
So the final tip I have for you guys is about head and shoulder positioning
Now you want to try and maintain a neutral spine as much as possible when doing the lift and what often
Happens when [you're] dead lifting is you tend to lift your head up
And you keep your head up like this
And it stays up throughout the entire movement what you want to do is try to keep your chin [down]
maintain that neutral Spine
So you're basically staring at the floor when you're in this [position] and as you come up your head just follows your spine
You also want to make [sure] when you're in the bottom position of the movement that [you're] not hunched over
You want to have your back as flat and smooth smooth as possible
So you don't want to be like this you want to be nice and smooth back here now as far as shoulder positioning
This is crucial especially when you start to get into super heavy lifting with this exercise
If you try to hold your shoulders back like this
You're creating way more distance that you have to move the bar from the floor to the top of the position of the deadlift
What you want to do is basically try to sag your shoulders down as much as possible
While still keeping them in a neutral position
[and] what I mean is you don't want to roll your shoulders [forward] and let them hang down here
You want to keep them [neutral] and [let] them hang down right here as much as possible
[so] it's almost like you're widening your back a little bit just to drop those shoulders down low enough so that when you come
The top of the position you're able to pop your hips forward a lot quicker
And I'll show you what I mean if your shoulders away back here
And you grab the bar, and you come up I have to come up this high
Just to pop my shoulders under not my shoulders just to pop my hips under the bar to do lift
If I sag my shoulders down a little bit, and I keep my bad flat
I don't have to go to here see how much quicker that was
Much short range of motion to get it under that bar to do lift
And you also want to make sure that as you're doing the lift you're once again
You're pushing your heels into the ground
You're keeping your knees pushed out to the side to keep them from collapsing in but as you come up
You're flexing your glutes as hard as you can to help. That's when that hip extension comes in
So once you have all that down before you start doing your lift
You're going to do a quick warm-up set of maybe 12 to 15 repetitions
use any grip you like
Just make sure you are following all those tips with every rep
Now as you get better
You'll be able to go faster and faster
Thank you guys for watching my video to wrap up my deadlift fundamental series
Let me know what you think in the comments section below and as always
More good stuff coming soon. See you guys