The deadlift: technique, variations and when not to do it

The deadlift is the most useful and most badly performed exercise in the gym. Learn it properly and you have one movement that trains your back, glutes, hamstrings and grip all at once.

Setup (conventional, from the floor)

1. Feet hip width, bar over the middle of your foot — in practice about 2 cm from your shins.
2. Grip the bar just outside your legs, arms straight, shoulders over or slightly in front of the bar.
3. Drop your hips until your chest comes up and your back is flat — do not squat under the bar, do not stand up high and reach.
4. Brace: breathe into your stomach, "close" your armpits (as if squeezing an orange under each arm), pull tension into the bar before it leaves the floor.

The lift

5. Push the floor away, do not pull with your arms. The bar travels along your shin and thigh in a straight vertical line.
6. Hips and chest rise together. If the hips shoot up first, the rest of the lift becomes a back extension.
7. Stand tall at the top — squeeze the glutes, no leaning back.
8. Lower along the same path in reverse: hips back first, knees bend once the bar passes them.

Conventional or Romanian

• Conventional (from the floor): more quads and back, needs decent hip mobility. Work in 3–5 reps, because technique degrades fast beyond that.
• Romanian (RDL, hinge, not to the floor): emphasis on hamstrings and glutes, easier to learn, safer on a beginner lower back. 8–10 reps.
• Sumo: wider stance, shorter range, less torso lean — a good option for long legs and short arms.
• Trap bar: the safest variation for beginners; handles beside the body take load off the lower back.

Three most common mistakes

The bar swings around the knees instead of along the leg

A sign the hips are too high or that you are pulling with your arms. Fix: lighter weight, think "push the floor" instead of "pull the bar".

Upper back rounding

With heavy weights it happens a little to everyone, but if it happens on your first set the weight is too heavy. Take 20 % off.

Bouncing the bar off the floor

Every rep starts from scratch: the bar settles, you re-brace, then you lift. Bouncing turns the exercise into a lottery for your lower back.

When NOT to do it

• Acute lower back pain or tingling down a leg — stop and see a doctor or physiotherapist.
• If every deadlift session leaves you sore for three days, switch to dumbbell Romanian deadlifts or a trap bar.
• If you cannot keep a flat back even with 30 kg, spend two weeks learning the hip hinge with a broomstick on your back first.

How often

Once a week heavy (3–5 reps) plus one lighter session (Romanian, 8–10) is more than enough for most people. Deadlifts create a lot of fatigue — do not put them in three times a week.

The short version

• Bar over mid-foot, against the leg the whole way.
• Brace your stomach and close your armpits before the bar moves.
• Push the floor, do not pull with the arms.
• Back pain means change the variation, not grit your teeth.