This article was written by one of The Food Medic team; personal trainer and fitness writer – Adam Willis.
When it comes to gym lifts the deadlift is often the most revered and being strong in the movement is highly sought after, and rightly so.
There’s something incredibly primal, and quite frankly bad-ass, about being able to lift a heavy weight off of the floor. However, the pursuit of this lift [and many others] requires absolute confidence in your technique because the deadlift is often met with fear of injury, as people worry about hurting their backs.
Now, I can sit here at my laptop and tell you that the deadlift has no more injury risk than any other “compound” lift, which is true, but that likely isn’t going to inspire a huge amount of confidence in you when it comes to the deadlift.
You need to build your own confidence up over time with quality deadlift training and by developing a huge amount of belief in your deadlifting ability and technique.
The best way to do this if you’re new to deadlifting, inexperienced when it comes to deadlifting, or are just fearful of deadlifting, is to have a systematic movement progression that allows you to build your skill, experience and strength in the movement over time, sequentially increasing the difficulty imposed upon you through exercise selection with the ultimate goal of building you the perfect deadlift so that you can become a confident deadlifting bad-ass.
…and as luck would have it, I have a systematic 4 movement progression with progression standards to help you achieve this.
But before we dig into these 4 progressions let me lead off with this…
Getting to progression 4 is not essential for you to be successful in the gym and with your goals.
The aim is to use the progressions to build your deadlift up through more challenging variations, until you find the one that is RIGHT FOR YOU. You might work your way through the progressions to the rack pull, achieve the standard, then progress to a conventional deadlift and feel that the lift is not right for you. There is nothing that says you must keep going with that variation.
Regress to the rack pull again.
You’ve likely found the variation that is best for you and allows you to crush each session feeling strong and confident in the movement.
With that out of the way, let’s get rolling with how to build the perfect deadlift.
Progression 1: Single Kettlebell Deadlift [or Landmine Deadlift]
Why?
- The primary reason I like to start people new to lifting, or new to deadlifting, with the kettlebell deadlift is that it allows a person to learn key pieces of the “full deadlift” but with an easier to master bit of equipment.
- It teaches how to set up a good deadlift start position from the floor, how to create latissimus dorsi [lats] and upper back tension and gets the person used to deadlifting weight to a standing position and returning it to the floor again.
- The kettlebell deadlift is often perceived as a “lower-threat” exercise by a beginner, or someone new to deadlifting. The challenge of picking up a solid ball of metal that weighs 32kg seems far less daunting than the challenge of picking up a 7-foot 20kg barbell with 12kg of plates attached to it.
Progression Standards:
Stick with the kettlebell deadlift until you can perform 5 perfect reps with a 32kg kettlebell [for the landmine deadlift, stick with the variation until you can do 40kg for 5 perfect reps]
Progression 2: Barbell Romanian Deadlift [RDL]
Sure, the RDL has a shorter range of motion than the kettlebell deadlift because it doesn’t start from the floor. But due to progressing from a small solid ball of metal to a 7ft long barbell the equipment comes with new challenges, so the range of motion is reduced to simplify the learning curve and also allows a person to take advantage of all the great benefits a RDL has to offer.
Why?
- For me, the RDL is the purest hinge you can perform in the gym. It teaches how to correctly load the hinge pattern during the eccentric portion of the lift [the load lowering phase] and as it starts with the lowering phase it can help make the concentric portion [the load lifting phase] easier, which is great for those learning the lift.
- Progressing to the barbell for this movement allows you to get used to using a bigger implement than the kettlebell, but with an easier range of motion to master, preparing you for future more challenging barbell deadlift variations
- The introduction of the barbell is also going to teach you the importance of keeping the bar close using your lats and will also strengthen your grip, again, both things that will help for future barbell deadlift progressions.
Progression Standards:
Stick with the RDL until you can perform 5 perfect reps with 40kg
Progression 3: Rack Pull
The rack pull might be the most forgotten about deadlift variation, but boy can it be a valuable addition, not only to those wanting to build the perfect deadlift, but also for those wanting to get stronger and find a great deadlift variation that suits them.
Why?
- If an RDL teaches the perfect hinge from the top down, the rack pull teaches the perfect hinge from the bottom up and this is going to pay big dividends when it comes to building that perfect deadlift from the floor.
- The rack pull is going to teach you how to create the lat, upper back and core tension and the hinge position required to overcome inertia and start a deadlift from a dead stop position.
- When the rack pull is set up from just below your knee, the rack pull will load the same pattern as the RDL but in a much more challenging way as you no longer get the added advantage of performing the lowering portion first to help load up the concentric phase.
- The rack pull is going to allow for greater load to be used than an RDL and will also put an increased demand on the grip than an RDL, developing grip strength further.
Progression Standards:
Stick with the rack pull until you can perform 5 perfect reps with your body weight.
Progression 4: Conventional Deadlift, Trap Bar Deadlift OR Modified Sumo Stance Deadlift
Once you’ve achieved the standard for the rack pull, it is now time to challenge your deadlift position and strength over a greater range of motion.
It’s time to start building your deadlift from the floor.
Excited?
You should be.
But before you chalk up and start conventional deadlifting, I have something important you need to read…
Unless you compete in Powerlifting, Strongman, Strongwoman or have a goal to conventional deadlift, you do not need to do conventional deadlift.
There I said it.
Too many people believe they absolutely must conventional deadlift to be seen as “gym-competent” or to achieve their goals, when the reality is you 100% don’t have to.
You can achieve everything you want, and need to, in the gym with a trap bar deadlift or a rack pull.
Like I mentioned before I got rolling with these progressions, the ultimate aim is to find the best deadlift variation for you that you can do perfectly, feel confident with and can crush your workout with.
Why?
- These deadlift variations have a greater range of motion than the rack pull and RDL so create a greater movement challenge
- These deadlift variations allow for the greatest amount of load to be lifted as well so place an increased demand on the body
- The greater range of motion, and increased load, place a greater challenge on your deadlift technique, the musculature used and will also challenge your grip more than any other variation.
- Due to the lower start position these variations will also train the quads slightly as well as your glutes, hamstrings, lower and upper back.
Standards:
A good strength number to shoot for at this stage is to work towards a 1.5x bodyweight Conventional barbell Deadlift, Trap bar Deadlift, Modified Sumo-Stance Deadlift or even a Rack Pull [if right for you] for 5 perfect reps.
For most “general” fitness folks, achieving this standard would indicate to me that they are “strong enough”.
When you reach this stage, further lift progressions become a bit more nuanced, and for the majority of lifters, unnecessary. The majority of the progression are again to increase the lift range of motion. These typically include exercises like deficit deadlifts or snatch grip deadlifts.
So, to finish…
Don’t rush to build the perfect deadlift.
Work your way through the progression stages and only look to progress the movement once you’ve achieved the standard with perfect technique.
Before you know it, your deadlift will be perfect.
You’ll have found the best deadlift variation for you so that you can crush your workouts.
Your confidence in your ability to perform the lift will be sky-high…
…and you’ll be stronger than ever.
That sounds pretty awesome to me.
