There are three main disciplines in powerlifting, among which the deadlift occupies a special place. This basic exercise is designed to develop and strengthen your back. Its implementation allows you to use absolutely all muscle groups, and not just the back ones. This exercise is good for powerlifters, but there is a lot of controversy regarding whether it should be included in the training program of bodybuilders. Some believe that deadlifts are necessary for bodybuilders. Other athletes do not share this point of view.

Many professional famous athletes refuse to perform deadlifts due to the increased risk of injury. Beginners who do not yet know how to properly do this basic powerlifting exercise often get injured. Excessive perseverance of novice athletes can lead to this. Some people believe that it is necessary to start immediately by lifting heavy weights, taking, instead of fifty, one hundred kilograms or even more. Of course, when it comes to such a high load, it is simply impossible for a beginner to maintain the correct technique. This is especially true for those who are doing deadlifts for the first time.

Perfect knowledge of technology also does not guarantee a complete absence of injury hazard. There are many professional athletes with broken backs. Lifting heavy objects always carries risks. This is also true for those who follow precise deadlift technique and use an athletic belt.

The exercise requires an incredible amount of strength and energy. It literally depletes the athlete's nervous system. Performing a deadlift becomes a real challenge for many. Some people are unable to exercise after this exercise, while others cannot even walk normally for the next few days. Overtraining becomes a real problem because it disrupts your workout schedule and leads to a sharp decline in progress.

Many gym goers decide to include deadlifts in their back workout routine. This is, of course, good, but with some reservations. Lifting heavy weights leads to the fact that further training after performing this exercise becomes impossible. The hands simply stop obeying, which leads to the fact that it is no longer possible to hold the barbell even in an inclined row. In order not to disrupt the usual training schedule, deadlifting is given a separate lesson. This approach allows you to work the latissimus dorsi muscles, which many amateurs do not do.

Deadlifting causes the waist to expand, which is a negative effect for a bodybuilder. Most bodybuilders, on the contrary, strive to make it narrower. Among professional bodybuilders with small waists who compete, there are few who do deadlifts on a regular basis.

Exercise has a positive effect on strength indicators. It gives a powerful impetus to the overall growth of muscle mass and leads to an increase in the release of anabolic hormones. These advantages of deadlift, when compared with the disadvantages, are not so noticeable for a bodybuilder. The only option for performing this exercise that will benefit the bodybuilder is considered to be a deadlift, that is, with straight legs, which allows you to work the hamstrings.

Summarizing

Both the deadlift and any other basic strength exercise should be performed only when the technique has been fully mastered. You can't lift heavy weights. In addition, it is important to consider which part of the body the exercise is pumping and how much recovery time it requires. If all the nuances are fully studied, the risks of injury are reduced, and the body acquires the desired relief and volume in the areas where it should be.

Important question. Is deadlift necessary?

All the pressing questions of beginning healthy lifestyle practitioners are in the “Important Question” section.

All the pressing questions of beginning healthy lifestyle practitioners are in the “Important Question” section. This week's question: Should those new to strength training need deadlifts? There is an opinion that without deadlifting you cannot build up large muscles. Whether this is true, whether the benefits of this exercise are exaggerated, how dangerous it is, and how it can be replaced, Soviet Sport found out with the help of an expert.

Nikolay Goryachev, an expert in the area of ​​gyms at the federal network of fitness clubs X-Fit, answers:

Any newcomer to the gym has met this stern mentor, who constantly repeats: “If you want results, do the base and eat well! And then do the base again!”

The base usually means three exercises - squat, deadlift and bench press. The belief that without a base you cannot achieve results is a shaggy myth. It has been spreading since the time when there was no fitness in the country, and the beginnings of bodybuilding were closely intertwined with weightlifting, powerlifting, and powerlifting.

Representatives of these “classical” disciplines, as a rule, became the first trainers in bodybuilding. And they began to widely broadcast to the masses what worked in their sport - namely the notorious “base”, without which, supposedly, it is impossible to pump up. From these master weightlifters who became bodybuilding coaches came new coaches who also promoted the principle of the need for a base. At the same time, no one thought that the principle of the base, which is effective for professional athletes, can work completely differently for people who did not come to the gym for records. These people come to the gym for the sake of health, and many have no sports experience at all. However, the myth that “if you want to get big, do deadlifts” is still persistent in fitness clubs. And today there are unfortunate trainers who, first of all, take a new client to get acquainted with the “base” and drive the poor fellow under the barbell.

At the same time, there are many other, more modern programs where basic exercises are kept to a minimum. But these programs bring a person into shape no worse than the “base”.

Many people talk about the dangers of basic exercises – and deadlifts, in particular. How realistic are the risks of getting injured when doing deadlifts? Or are these just horror stories from the world of fitness?

The deadlift is the most dangerous exercise for an untrained person. This is a very complex exercise that involves large muscle groups: gluteal muscles, hamstring muscles (hamstrings, semitendinosus and semimembranosus muscles), adductors, latissimus dorsi, trapezius, arm muscles and other muscle groups in dynamic and static modes work.

The spine is at greatest risk, since due to constantly holding the barbell in front of you, the body experiences overload. The extensor muscles and spine are tense to the limit. At the same time, these muscles are almost certainly not trained in beginners and are not able to perform their function under the stress of heavy weight - especially if the person leads a predominantly sedentary lifestyle.

- Let’s summarize: should you do deadlifts or not? What do you recommend?

For beginners, performing deadlifts without prior preparation is a direct path to back injuries: muscle strains, problems with the spine - even hernias and protrusions. Therefore, if you are new to the gym and your goal is not to compete in powerlifting competitions, then deadlifts should be avoided! The deadlift has no obvious advantages over the barbell squat. It develops approximately the same muscle groups, but the risk of injury when performing deadlifts is much higher.

- How to replace deadlifts in your training?

If your goal is to work the hamstrings and spinal extensors, then straight-back hyperextensions or Romanian deadlifts will replace the deadlift. The Romanian deadlift is a lighter version of the deadlift, in which the barbell is not lowered to the floor. This exercise is much more gentle on the musculoskeletal system.

If your goal is to give the body general stress for the secretion of hormones, then squats with a barbell on your shoulders can easily replace deadlifts. They are the same basic exercise, but less traumatic.

- What to do if a person simply likes the deadlift as an exercise, and he still intends to master it?

If you are determined to do deadlifts, then first you need to prepare yourself with simpler exercises. Strengthen those muscles that will take on the maximum work during deadlifting, locally.

We are talking about the extensor muscles of the spine, the back of the thigh, and the core muscles. Train them at least twice a week. Include the following exercises in your program: lying calf curls in a machine, hyperextensions with a straight back, bending with dumbbells (hip hinch), Romanian deadlifts in a Smith machine. Don't forget to also perform static abdominal exercises, such as planks.

These are all preparatory exercises that will strengthen the necessary muscles and prepare the ligaments for more complex exercises. Remember: the deadlift is a movement that comes from professional sports and therefore carries significant risks, even if you do not use significant weights. Therefore, weigh the pros and cons again.

source: “Soviet Sport”

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Methods and tips - how to improve your results in deadlifts from adherents of the powerlifting sect from the American website T-Nation, who try everything on their own muscles. We give the floor to athlete John Gaglione.

How to increase weight in deadlift

To be honest, it’s not easy to do deadlifts with my physique: my arms (and even my fingers) are short, and during lockout (in the upper part of the amplitude), the bar always rests on my hips. But instead of bitterly cursing fate, I decided to use all the accumulated knowledge and achieve success in the deadlift - and I did it.

For about three years I lifted a little over 200 kg and could not increase the result. But after incorporating several techniques into my training, I reached 275 kg, and this summer I even surpassed 315 kg.

Having tried many different methods, I selected only those that really work (really work for the author of the text - Zozhnik’s note).

1. Dedicate a separate workout to deadlifts

Oddly enough, many lifters do not include a separate workout for the most difficult exercise in their program.

For example, using the Westside Method, they do a variation of the squat or barbell on a max effort day and a box squat variation on a dynamic day. Then, of course, they can add weightlifting lifts or light acceleration deadlifts after the box squats, but this is always a secondary movement. And on max effort day, almost no one does heavy deadlifts.

And it was the same in our hall, but then we decided to make some changes. When my team and I decided to create a dedicated deadlift workout, the number of people lifting over 250kg increased dramatically. And five athletes deadlift more than 300 kg. Not a weak effect.

So, although this advice seems too obvious, dedicate an entire day to deadlifting in your program. At the same time, you don’t have to lift maximum weights every time; you can do volume or speed training, but one way or another you pay enough attention to the movement (and technique).

2. Do deadlifts in straps.

If you're a hardcore lifter, by now you're probably thinking, "What's he talking about?"

Yes, that's exactly what I suggest: do deadlifts in wrist straps. Look at the record holders - almost everyone, sooner or later, performs deadlifts in straps in their training.

Wrist straps allow you to lift more than normal and are especially useful for volume training where you're doing a lot of heavy reps per set. You want to target very strong muscles in the back of your body, so use straps to prevent a weak grip from limiting development.

In addition, the straps protect your palms - with high-repetition rows, the knurling of the bar will wear out your hands. If you get a callus, you'll have to put your workouts on hold, so be smart and do volume sets in wrist straps.

Many lifters believe that deadlifting in straps will cause their grip to lag further and their final performance in competition to suffer. They need to understand that the entire training volume required for a deadlift record cannot be achieved with bare hands.

Of course, you shouldn’t overuse the straps either, as this weakens your hands and even spoils your technique. I recommend pulling without wrist straps on max effort days: sets of 1-3 reps will maintain your grip and keep your palms intact.

3. Work on the bottom and top of your deadlift range

In the deadlift you need to be strong throughout the entire range of motion - both at the bottom and at the top. If you have problems in the lower part of the amplitude or in the upper, then include exercises in the program to eliminate weaknesses.

Add sets of auxiliary rows of 5-8 reps after your main working sets of deadlifts. From time to time, try heavy triples and even singles (sets of one repetition), replacing regular deadlifts with them.

For the upper section, it is best to pull from the plinths (when the bar is mounted with weights on blocks). If you don't have special boxes for this, add pancakes or use step pads. This option is more effective than partial deadlifting in a power rack or from racks where the bar rests on clamps. When the plates are on the plates, the movement is more similar to a regular deadlift, which is positively transferred to the result in the full range.

Example of a deadlift with plates for training the upper part of the range:

To break down and practice acceleration from the bottom point, do deadlifts from the pit (standing on a hill). Place just one weight plate under your feet and you will immediately feel how much harder it is to pull. But this makes this option very useful if you have problems getting started. Moreover, there is no need to use heavy weights or a stand that is too high. You only need to go up a few centimeters to get a significant increase in the normal range.

Example of a low-elevation deadlift to train the lower end of the range:

4. Pull longer

To develop maximum strength, add variations that challenge the regular deadlift by increasing time under load and range of motion.

Paused deadlifts – When performing a classic deadlift, simply stop at a certain height, then continue moving. Choose for yourself which blind spots you need to work on; In my experience, it helps to pause when the bar is mid-calf and just below the knees.

Here's an example of a paused deadlift:

By stopping the movement with the barbell in your hands, you increase the time under tension and not only gain more strength, but also improve your technique. The point is that you are forced to take the optimal position, lingering in difficult spots, otherwise you simply will not be able to complete the repetition. Thus, deadlifts with pauses teach you how to correctly pass difficult places, honing your technique.

Rows with a snatch grip - performed as usual, but you need to grab the bar with a wider grip. This increases your range of motion in both directions, forcing you to go lower and raise higher. In addition to the same increase in time under load, you use the muscles of the legs and pelvic girdle more, which improves the start in a regular deadlift.

Do these strap rows to take your mind off your grip and focus on working your legs and back.

5. Try itanother rack

Incorporate both versions of the competitive deadlift into your training: classic and sumo. In classic, the back and thigh biceps work more, in sumo - quadriceps and other pelvic muscles. By increasing the strength of all these muscle groups, you will lift more.

If you only lift conventionally, switching temporarily to sumo will relieve the load on your lower back and may even improve your squat performance.

If you have always been a “sumo wrestler,” then the classics will strengthen the lower back and other important back muscles.

Don’t try to reach the same weights in an unusual variation, just add loads to groups that were not previously included in the deadlift. Then, returning to your favorite option, you will reach new records.

6. To improve your deadlift, do deep squats.

To deadlift a lot, you need not only a strong back, but also strong legs.

The best exercise for developing leg strength is, of course, full squats. And some options give a special load to the upper back and core muscles, which only helps with deadlifting.

To increase the result in the deadlift, I recommend front squats and pause squats with a safety bar (the author means a “safety bar”, a bar with transverse handles for squats - Zozhnik’s note), a regular bar will also work, but this is more effective.

These squat variations put maximum load on your legs and make your abs and upper back tense.

7. Train with people who can lift harder than you

Having the right mindset in the deadlift is perhaps more important than in any other exercise. To lift record weights, find a group of strong guys in the gym who can lift really hard. They will help with advice and add motivation. You will notice that the atmosphere itself helps your deadlift progress.

An example of a two-day training program that includes the above techniques to increase your deadlift results. (Attention: only for experienced athletes! – Zozhnik’s note).

1. Maximum Effort Day

2. Dynamic Effort Day

Translation for Zozhnik: Alexey Rebulicommando

Hi guys! It’s enough to talk about women, it’s time to know the honor, or rather, the methodology. After all, forgive me Vintovkina, the technique is much more important. I want to tell you a little about deadlifts today. As you know, man is a contradictory and stubborn creature. Well, in any case, I am exactly such a creature. For 2 years now I have been testing my integral strength training system. Some things work out, some don't. In some moments it is possible to get a stable result and repeat it as planned, in others... not so much. Be that as it may, things are moving forward. At the moment, I am going through the entire program (it is designed for 25 weeks) for the second time in its entirety. Last fall it was not possible to complete it due to injury. This time, I hope everything will be ok. I have now learned from bitter experience. Photo source - build89.blogspot.com So, as you may know, last year's injury, relatively mild, but terribly annoying and long, happened due to overdoing the volume of deadlift training and cross-loads from other exercises that put stress on the body. back (core, squats, bends, etc.). What exactly was I doing wrong? I tried to train the deadlift the same way I trained the squat or bench press. The fact is that usually (usually!) the more often you do this or that power movement, the more stable and precise the technique becomes and, as a result, the result increases. This is true. BUT - not with regard to deadlifts. Unfortunately, it is not the muscles and bones that are responsible for technology, competent and beautiful, but the nervous and neuromuscular systems. They are the ones who assimilate a certain sequence of signals that reach the brain, which is the main component of these systems, and reproduce what they have learned on the platform or simply under the barbell in the gym. And, lo and behold, when your central nervous system is overloaded, no matter how many sets you do and no matter how often you train, the technique only gets worse. Our “head computer” also gets tired and, like a “dead” body, it becomes more and more difficult for it to maintain the correct sequence of movements. Roughly speaking, you decide to do a 5*5 squat, or, say, 4*8, or even 8*3 1-3 times a week. What will be the result? Your squat will definitely increase, I guarantee it! You'll do a 4*10 or 5*5 deadlift (if you do it!) and... next week, maybe you won't notice anything. BUT, again this is a “BUT”!.. Quite a bit of time will pass and you will notice that the weights that were previously quite pliable for you are no longer amenable. What happened, you cry to the heavens, because this is unfair (at first glance) - you didn’t miss training, you rested well, you ate well and plentifully, and your back doesn’t seem to be overloaded? ?!!! WTF?! And the fact that overload of the central nervous system is very difficult to feel and even measure in the field, not in laboratory conditions. From here, first you will feel that the familiar weights in the deadlift are not lifted, then, most likely, your most vulnerable movement (most often the bench press) will fall, after which, if you continue to resist like a ram, you will get injured. Not severe, but nasty and long-term (see above). In general, I knew this for a year already, but, you understand, if you are rushing and managed to pull, say, 220 kg for 10 repetitions, you somehow don’t want to stop. And it is necessary! Got it in time, thank you. It is clear that, following the plane theory of building loads (see “Fitness for Smart People” and other good books), we cannot exclude deadlifts from the regular diet. And it’s not worth it, citizens, it’s not worth it! What you should do is approach the issue more cunningly. For example, nothing prevents us from doing a heavy lift (really hard, and this does not necessarily mean with a lot of weight) once every 2-3 weeks, and the rest of the time imitating its effect on the hip extensors and back muscles with identical exercises, while simultaneously saving functional readiness and charge of the central nervous system. In practice it might look like this: Week 1: 1. Deadlift from the floor 10RM (this is one set of 10 repetitions with the maximum possible weight) 2. Calf curls in the machine 3-4*12 3. Hyperextensions with a horizontal barbell 3*8-15 Week 2: 1. Front squats 3*5 2. Snatch deadlifts on straight legs 3*8 3. Hyperextensions with body weight 100 repetitions excluding sets Week 3: 1. Deadlift from the floor 6RM 2. Calf curls in the machine 3-4*15 3. Hyperextensions with oblique dumbbells 3*12-20 Well, and so on... By the way, looking ahead (perhaps I will someday decide to show you this) - deadlift in general is full of surprises, and very unexpected ones. For example, keeping your back straight is biomechanically unprofitable. So the guy in the opening picture is doing everything wrong. The most attentive ones will guess for themselves what we are talking about if they compare the typical “fitness” performance of deadlifts, and the objectively most reasonable (that is, sports)... I ask:
Fitness (photo source - projectswole.com) Sports (photo source - extrastrong.ru) Think... Analyze... Decide - everything is on the surface! And for today, perhaps, that’s enough. I remain forever yours, slightly knocked down, but unconquered, DS P.S. Oh yes - I forgot! Why is it harmful to do deadlifts? It's harmful to do it too often, that's all. The main thing is to understand what exactly this “too often” means for you... P.P.S. Can't wait!

I'm crazy;) it was 39cm, now it's 40cm. I had a training session on Monday and my arms still hurt. Well, maybe it was also due to the fact that I gave a week of complete rest. Or something else;) But in general, the French bench press rules!

Click to expand...

Nothing surprising, this is a temporary effect. Sometimes the next day my bicep inflates 1cm, but then deflates back.
Why do muscles hurt:

After an athlete starts training after a break of more than 50 days, muscle pain often occurs. What does it mean? Contrary to the generally accepted point of view, this has nothing to do with the formation of lactic acid in the muscles. This has been well demonstrated over the past 10 years. They deliberately forced people to do eccentric exercises, that is, to stretch their muscles. For example, they forced people to run down the mountain. A person runs down a mountain 800 meters long 5-6 times, quite steep. Then he comes to the laboratory, where they take a biopsy and see what happens to the muscles. Immediately after training, the muscles do not hurt very much, but under a microscope you can see that there are burst myofibrils, that they are simply torn. In the following days, biopsies continue to be taken. It is observed that what has burst begins to gradually lose its shape, lysosomes form nearby and begin to destroy these remnants. And fragments of molecules have many charges, radicals. Water joins the radicals, it is also polarized, and as a result, the water becomes bound, and there is not enough water in the cell. Additional water enters, as a result the cell begins to grow in size, and turgor appears. The muscle seems to be full. What do athletes call this? Muscle congestion and some other words they say... In short, the cell membranes are very stretched, and pain receptors sit on the membranes, a person feels pain. And then, within 3-4 days, what is destroyed is completely destroyed, only amino acids remain. Free radicals gradually disappear and the pain begins to go away. The negative effect of this only manifests itself in the fact that what is destroyed must be created anew.

The reason for this phenomenon is as follows. In an untrained person, the muscle fibers contain myofibrils of different lengths. There are short ones and there are long ones. Therefore, during eccentric exercises, the short ones tear. And if you exercise regularly, the myofibrils inside the CF become all the same length. Of course, new myofibrils are formed, all different, both short and long. But with regular training, the short ones are torn all the time, so there are few of them, and severe pain no longer occurs, it stops altogether. Whether there is lactic acid or not, it doesn’t matter. Pain is always the destruction of muscle fibers or something more terrible: injuries, for example, muscle fiber ruptures.