How to Improve your Deadlift with One Simple Technique
Deadlifting is one of the toughest exercises around. It’s also one of the most effective at building a strong, powerful (or sculpted) body. People who do this exercise are smart. Yet so many of them never change the weight or reps they use over the long haul. Nor do they change other variables like grip, foot position, rest, or range of motion.
One of the easiest things you can do to immediately challenge your body in a new way with this exercise (and spark some serious muscle growth and calorie burning) is to increase the range of motion used.
Same Range, Same Results
When most people deadlift they use an olympic bar loaded with two or more 45lb plates. Men who have been training for a little while can normally do 135# or more and some women who are on the stronger side (see picture above) can also use this much weight. The problem isn’t in using a weight that is challenging, it’s in not increasing the range of motion used on the lift. Here’s what I mean: when you load up the bar with two or more 45# plates the bar rests about a foot (give or take) off the ground. So, when you go to pick the bar up, you are only stretching your back, hamstrings, and glutes far enough so as to allow your hands to be lowered to about one foot off the ground. This is as far as you have to stretch. You never take advantage of stretching deeper and reaching lower. The truth is that most people don’t think about this and if they did they might not land upon a way to solve this problem.
Here’s how to change things:
Instead of loading the bar with 45# plates on each side, simply use 25# plates. Of course, you will have to use more plates to get to the same amount of weight, but the 25# plates are smaller in diameter and when they are loaded on the bar it will allow you to stretch that much deeper, recruiting more muscle fibers and allowing a greater range of motion. If you’ve never done it before, this approach should definitely give you a challenge and get you one step closer to your strength, conditioning or physique goals.
Could you please explain why in the picture the woman is holding the bar with one hand facing in and the other out?
The grip she is using is referred to as a “mixed grip”. It is the stronger of the two main deadlift grips used (the other being the “overhand” grip where both palms face the floor. Typically, since the deadlift is a very powerful movement, the body can generally lift more weight with this movement than with others, relatively speaking.
The problem comes in when the rest of the body can lift more weight than the hands can hold on to. The mixed grip is a good solution to this as it allows you to hold the bar through the whole range of motion without dropping it, thus pushing the muscles involved to their fullest potential.
While the mixed grip is stronger, it is often good to practice training with the “overhand” grip as well since it forces the forearm muscles to work harder (strengthening your grip). Then, when you go heavier and switch to the strong “mixed” grip, it will be that much stronger.