Deadlift is one of the most popular exercises at the gym... and well deserved. It's a complete exercise and great option to work on your strength and muscle building.
But deadlifts have other purposes to fit in your training, and this is why here today. In this post, 7 Reasons why Everyone Should Deadlift
What are Deadlifts?
Deadlift is one of the most popular and known exercises for strength and resistance training. It consists on picking up a weight from the ground by bending at your waist and hips and standing back up
The deadlift movement requires of a neutral spinal chord, strong grip, and a long bracing maintained throughout the entire movement.
Deadlift is one of the most complete exercises you can do at the gym. It involves a long list of muscles, helping you achieve a general muscle hypertrophy.
Deadlift involves a hip extension, and the main working muscle will be the glutes and adductors.
Because of the lifting pattern, deadlift also involves the quads, harmstrings, soleus, stabilizers, core, and back.
Because it includes so many muscles, you are able to lift heavy weights. The heavier the weight, the higher the effort of the central nervous system to activate muscle fibers.
Therefore, deadlift is a great choice to go heavy and work on your strength.
Types of Deadlift
There are a lot of deadlift variations. Depending on your body structure, you will be more fitted to a specific type of deadlift.
Different variations target different muscles (1). Thus, combining and playing with the different options can help you master deadlift and work on your strength.
These are the main deadlift variations you can choose to do:
TYPES OF DEADLIFT
- Standard Deadlift
- Romanian Deadlift
- Cable Romanian Deadlift
- Stiffed-Legs Deadlift
- Sumo Deadlift
- Semi Sumo Deadlift
- Trap Deadlift
Benefits of Doing Deadlift
Deadlift is a great exercise to do at the gym. It helps you build muscle and work on your strength. But there are more reasons why you should be doing deadlifts.
In the next 3min, 7 reasons why everyone should deadlift.
Helps You Build Muscle
Deadlift is one of most efficient exercises to build muscle (2). It targets a lot of different muscles at once, making it one of the most general exercises for muscle hypertrophy.
Mechanical tension is the main mechanism underlying muscle building. It's mainly achieved through a high force-velocity relationship and heavy weights (3)
Deadlift is a great choice to boost and optimize mechanical tension. It activates a high number of muscle dibres, and helps you target different muscles at the same time.
Works on your Strength
Deadlift is a strength exercise. Together with bench press and squat, deadlift is the main exercise for strength training and powerlifting (4)
Because there are a lot of muscles involved during the lifting, it allows you to lift a lot of weight at once. This contributes to the improvement of your strength (source)
Deadlift is, together with squat, a great exercise to improve your lower body strength (5).
Simplicity of Equipment
One of the main advantages of doing deadlift is the simple set up. It doesn’t require of any fancy instrumentation; only a bar and weight plates.
You could -in theory- do the deadlift movement itself without the bar. Grab something that creates resistance from the floor, bend over your news and hips, and pick it up.
Deadlift is a simple exercise that can be done anywhere and with anything
Very safe movement
Compared to other movements like bench press or squat, deadlift is a very safe exercise. It doesn’t put your body at risk.
Deadlift starts from the ground. If you are not able to complete the lifting, is as simple as dropping the barn back to the floor.
However, you should be aware of the risks of getting lower back pain if you do the wrong deadlift technique.
Remember to keep the spinal chord straight and do a long bracing before the lifting to keep your structure rigid and consistent.
Activates your core
The core is an stabilizator muscle. When you deadlift, the core is activated to help you stabilize your upper body and be more efficient at lifting the weight.
Deadlift improves your 1RM abs and works on your core strength and hypertrophy (6)
Reduce Lower Back Pain
Deadlift trains your lower back. Although it may seem counterintuitive, deadlift can help you attenuate lower back pain (9)
If the technique is correct, you can treat or/and prevent lower back pain by doing active movements (e.g: deadlift). Keep the spinal chord in a neutral position and do a long bracing to keep the form along the movement.
A program combining strength and aerobic exercise is an effective and recommended treatment for chronic lower back pain (10)
Better Body Posture
Deadlifts improve your posture by keeping your shoulders, spine, and hips in alignment.
Since you are maintaining and neutral spinal chord and working out your glutes and harmstrings, deadlift is a great exercise to strengthen your posterior chain (11)
Improving your posture is vital. If you don't take care of it, it can lead to chronic back pain (12)
Conclusion
Deadlift is a complete and efffective exercise to work on your strength and build muscle.
The deadlift movement consists on picking up a weight from the ground by bending at your wais and hips and standing back up. It can be done with anything that creates resistance from the ground.
In this post, we saw 7 reasons why everyone should deadlift. With this being said... let's get started!!
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