IDENTIFYING WEAK POINTS (PART 3) — DEADLIFT

IDENTIFYING WEAK POINTS (PART 3) — DEADLIFT

By Shane Robert

Of all the strength training movements, deadlifts really are the most unique. No other lift, really, can get stronger by not training the movement itself. Sure, if your incline bench goes up it’s likely that your regular bench will go up too. But those are very similar movements. I’ve seen people’s deadlifts go up simply from adding box squats and reverse hypers into their training. More than any other lift, strengthening the muscles involved in the lift, and doing just a small amount of the lift itself, really makes deadlifts climb.

As the lift that tends to allow for the greatest total loads, deadlifting can be quite fatiguing, especially if form is less than stellar. For this reason, simply working on correct form with moderate weights, while strengthening the muscles involved, works very well to increase weight on the bar for a lot of people. Others need the heavier loading to progress. It all depends on the person and requires a trainee to pay attention to what they respond to. Despite the differences, there are some aspects of weak points in the deadlift that are universal.

As with squats and bench, the following weak points and exercise corrections assume good lifting technique. If your technique is crappy, by far the biggest improvement you will see will come from correcting that. If your technique is so-so, some of these exercises can help turn it from suck to good. 

As always, our strength training formula applies to the deadlift just as it does with bench and squat

Train the Movement  +  Strengthen the weak point(s) of the main movement =  Stronger

When it comes to deadlifting, 4 main areas of weakness need correction:

1. Off of the Floor
2. Midpoint
3. Lockout 
4. Rounding 

1. WEAK OFF THE FLOOR—General Weakness

This is the hardest area to diagnose as several issues can be at play here–weak quads hampering leg drive, weak hamstrings/glutes hampering hip extension, and poor bracing reducing power output. In the end, they all point to overall weakness of the muscles involved. The answer, therefore, is to use movements that are significantly harder than the main movement to make you stronger.

2. MIDPOINT

Missing at the midpoint is all about the hamstrings and glutes. Often, the people who miss here have good leg drive off of the floor, but lack the posterior chain strength needed to keep elevating the bar. Making sure that the lower back and lats are strong enough to hold position is also important, which is why you’ll often see bent over rows prescribed for this issue.

3. LOCKOUT

In my experience, a true weakness at lockout is rare. Usually, what we are seeing is someone who is in a bad position, or rounded the lower back somewhere in the range of motion, and can’t effectively use their glutes to extend the hips. For the rare person where that isn’t the case and they truly have a weakness right at the end range of motion, the following exercises may help.

4. ROUNDING

If you find yourself rounding your back, particularly the mid-lower back, at any point in the range of motion, it shows a weakness of the core and/or spinal erectors, that column of muscle that runs along either side of your spine from your butt to your traps.

There you have it. These four areas of issue are the main places that people have issues in their deadlift. For my money, it’s hard to beat snatch grip deadlifts, front squats, and good mornings as a general recommendation for helping build the deadlift. As you can see, however, that may not be the fix for everyone. Identify your weak point and, when in doubt, don’t forget our formula: 

Train the Movement  +  Strengthen the weak point(s) of the main movement =  Stronger