How to Deadlift for Beginners – A Step by Step Guide

Deadlift for Beginners – Introduction

How to Deadlift for Beginners – a step by step guide

Whatever your fitness goal is, deadlifts will help you get there faster.

The barbell deadlift is one of the best exercises for building muscle and strength.

It’s a highly functional exercise that teaches you how to lift heavy objects off the floor safely.

In Victorian times, the deadlift was called the “health lift,” which gives a good indication of the value of this barbell exercise.

Just a few of the benefits of deadlifts include:

Better posture
A stronger core
A bigger, more muscular back
A more powerful grip
Increased athleticism
Increased bone density
More testosterone and growth hormone – naturally
Time-efficient workouts
A more powerful posterior chain
Deadlifts are hugely satisfying!

However, as beneficial as the deadlift is, it’s not without risks.

Done incorrectly, it could cause injury.

For that reason, you must learn to deadlift correctly and avoid all the common mistakes.

**Is the deadlift for beginners even over 50? Yes!**

How to Deadlift

To get the most from deadlifting, beginners should focus on their technique before you start worrying about how much weight you are lifting.

Once you’ve got your technique down, you can start adding more weight to the bar.

Follow these steps and practice them until your deadlift form is flawless.

Step 1 – Stance

Stand with your feet under your bar so that it is about an inch from your shins.

The bar should be nine inches from the ground but, if you are inflexible, you may want to raise it a little higher.

Pulling the bar from an elevated position, often called a rack pull, reduces the range of motion.

Stand with your feet hip-width apart.

Your feet should be flat, so wear shoes with low heels, such as minimal/barefoot running shoes, Chuck Taylors, or just your socks if your gym allows it.

Step 2 – Lowering to the Bar and Grip

Bend your knees and squat down.

Grab the bar with a shoulder-width grip.

You can use an overhand grip, or a mixed grip where one hand faces forward and the other faces backward.

A mixed grip stops the bar rolling out of your fingers but also creates an asymmetry that could lead to muscle imbalances.

If you do use a mixed grip, try to swap your hands around set-by-set.

Also, be aware that the biceps on the supinated (palm forward) side is under a lot of tension.

Overusing this grip, especially if you bend your arm, could result in serious injury.

If you find your hands slipping during deadlifts, try using some lifting chalk to keep your palms dry.

Alternatively, wipe your hands on a towel before starting each set.

How to Perform the Perfect Deadlift – Proper Deadlift Technique & Form

Step 3 – Hip Position, Bracing & Flat Back

Straighten your arms and drop your hips so that they are just below your shoulders.

Lift your chest, brace your abs, and pull your shoulder blades down and back.

Make sure your lower back is slightly arched and never rounded.

This position is known as a neutral spine.

In this position, your entire body should feel tense – like a coiled spring.

Transfer this tension to the bar by “pulling the slack out of it.”

This means applying pressure to the bar without actually lifting it.

Pull the bar up into the plates without lifting it off the floor.

If you’ve done this properly, you should feel like you are tight, strong, and ready to lift.

Step 4 – Vertical Leg Press, Lat Engagement & Hip Drive

Drive your heels into the floor as if you are doing a vertical leg press, and, without bending your arms or rounding your back, stand up straight by driving your hips forward.

The bar should stay close to your legs all the way up, which is why shin guards are important to prevent shin scraping.

You need to engage your lats to keep the bar close to your legs.

An excellent cue is to imagine bending the barbell across the front of your legs.

Do not lean back at the top.

Once you are stood upright, pause for a few seconds with your core braced, your shoulders down and back, your arms straight, and your glutes tense.

Enjoy the view!

How to Set Up for the Deadlift Infographic

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A post shared by Chad Hargrove (@chadhargrove1) on Oct 28, 2017 at 1:09pm PDT

Step 5. Hip Hinge to Lower the Weight

Push your butt back, hinge at your hips, and bend your knees to lower the weight back to the floor.

Allow it to settle, reset your starting position, and repeat.

While you CAN bounce the bar off the floor, what some lifters call touch and go deadlifts, pausing between reps is better for beginners.

Why?

Because it gives you time to reset your core and get back into the proper starting position, ready for your next rep.

You might also avoid lateral epicondylitis, also known as weightlifting tennis elbow, from doing touch and go deadlifts.

Can you get tennis elbow from weightlifting?

Sure can, and it is extremely painful and sidelined me for months.

I already made this mistake so you don’t have to, you’re welcome!

Common Beginner Deadlift Mistakes to Avoid

Despite looking very straightforward, there is a lot that can go wrong with a deadlift.

After all, deadlifts involve virtually every muscle and joint in your body.

Even experts still make deadlifting mistakes.

Avoid injuries by always doing the deadlift properly.

The most common beginner deadlift mistakes are:

Letting your hips rise faster than your shoulders
Lifting the bar with bent arms
Lifting your heels off the floor
Rounding your lower back
Bouncing the bar off the floor between reps
Lifting a heavy weight too soon
Overtraining – deadlifting too often
Not switching up your hands if you use a mixed grip
Wearing lifting straps all the time
Trying to squat the weight up instead of using a proper hip hinge
Not warming up
If you don’t have time to warm up, you don’t have time to deadlift!

Sample Weightlifting Program for Beginners

There are several ways for a beginner to incorporate deadlifts in your strength training program.

For many, the best approach is to include it in a full-body workout, such as something like this:

Squats
Bench press
Chest supported rows
Deadlifts
Shoulder press
Lat pulldowns
Triceps pushdowns
Biceps curls
Planks
Side bends

Do each exercise for 2-4 sets of 6-12 repetitions, resting 60-90 seconds between sets.

You can do this workout 2-3 times per week, on non-consecutive days.

But, if you’ve been training a while and can deadlift with proper technique, you will probably enjoy a more deadlift-specific workout, like this one:

	Exercise	Sets	Reps	Recovery
1	Deadlifts	4	6	2 minutes
2	Romanian deadlifts	3	8	90 seconds
3	Hip thrusts	3	10	90 seconds
4	Leg curls	3	12	60 seconds
5	Planks	3	30 seconds	60 seconds

Do this work out once per week, preferably a few days before or after your leg workout, e.g.:

Monday – legs
Tuesday – chest and back
Thursday – deadlifts
Friday – arms and shoulders

While the deadlift is the focus of this workout, it also includes what strength coaches call assistance exercises.

These are exercises explicitly chosen to help bolster your deadlift performance.

For example, leg curls target your hamstrings, which are an essential muscle for high-performance deadlifts.

In contrast, Romanian deadlifts help reinforce a proper hip hinge while strengthening your entire posterior chain.

Exercise Descriptions

To get the most from any exercise, you must do it right!

Here are some simple instructions for each of the exercises in your beginner weightlifting program.

1. Deadlifts

See above for a step-by-step guide to proper deadlift form.

2. Romanian deadlifts

Stand with a barbell in your hands, and your knees slightly bent.

Without rounding your lower back, hinge forward from your hips and lower the bar down the front of your legs as far as your flexibility allows.

Stand back up and repeat.

This deadlift variation emphasizes your posterior chain.

3. Hip Thrusts

Lie on your back with your legs bent and feet flat.

Rest and hold a weight plate across your hips.

Drive your feet into the floor and push your hips up to the ceiling.

Lower your butt back to the floor and repeat.

4. Leg Curls

Using a seated or lying machine, position your knees, so your joints are in line with the lever arm pivot point.

Bend your legs and curl your feet up and into your butt.

Slowly extend your legs and repeat.

5. Planks

Lie on your front with your arms bent and your weight resting on your forearms and elbows.

Lift your hips, so your body forms a straight line.

Brace your abs hard and hold this position for the prescribed time.

Do not hold your breath.

Start your workout with a thorough warm-up including some light cardio, joint mobility and flexibility exercises for the body parts you are about to train, and a few light sets of deadlifts to get your body ready for heavier weights, e.g.:

10 reps empty bar 20kg/45lbs.
6 reps 40kg/90lbs.
3 reps 50kg/110lbs.
5 reps 60kg/135lbs. (first work set)

Teaching the Deadlift to an Absolute Beginner – Important Cues

What is the Right Deadlift Weight for Beginners?

That’s an impossible question to answer as you don’t know how strong you are, yet!

However, the last 1-2 reps of each set should be challenging.

If you reach the end of your set feeling like you could do several more reps, the weight is too light.

But, if you can’t do the recommended number of reps or you have to cheat (use improper form) to complete your set, it’s too heavy.

Fine-tune your weights until you hit your sweet spot and remember to try and add a little more weight to the bar week-by-week to keep those strength increases coming.

As a beginner, you are a long way off your genetic potential for strength and muscle size.

Subsequently, you should be able to continue using this program for several months.

But, if you notice that your progress has stalled and you are unable to add more weight to the bar, it’s time to shake things up with a brand-new workout.

Recommended gear

Other than a deadlift bar and some weight plates, you don’t really need much equipment to deadlift.

If your gym allows, you don’t even need any shoes!

That said, there are a few pieces of gear that can make deadlifts more comfortable or productive.

Shin Protection

When you deadlift, the bar should stay very close to your legs.

Occasionally, it may get too close and actually hit your shins on the way up or down.

If you are using a sharply knurled bar, this could result in a superficial but messy injury.

Deadlift socks and shin guards have padded shins to prevent this problem.

Chalk ball

Lifting chalk helps soak up sweat, so your hands are less likely to slip while you deadlift.

Loose chalk works but can be very messy.

The next best thing is a chalk ball.

Powerlifting belt

If you are serious about deadlifting heavy weights, a powerlifting belt can help.

Contrary to what a lot of people think, a weight lifting belt doesn’t support your back.

Instead, it gives you something to brace your abs against so you can use your core to support your back yourself.

For that reason, powerlifting belts are the same width all the way around.

Belts with narrow buckles are much less useful.

A 60-second video on how to deadlift for beginners

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A post shared by Tony Comer (@tcomer.pt) on Jun 17, 2020 at 1:08pm PDT

Deadlift for Beginners – Final Thoughts

If you had to choose just one barbell exercise to do for the rest of your life, the conventional deadlift would be your best choice.

Not only is it one of the most productive exercises you can do, but it’s also one of the most accessible.

After all, to do this fantastic move, all you really need is a barbell and some weight plates.

You don’t even need spotters; if you can’t complete a rep, just put the bar down.

Simple!

But the deadlift also deserves your respect.

Done with improper form, it could result in serious injury.

That said, done correctly, and with an appropriate weight, the mighty deadlift can help you reach almost any fitness goal faster, from getting strong to losing fat to building muscle.

Deadlifts genuinely deserve to be part of your strength training program.

What’s Next

Keep learning about technique from The Top 15 Proper Deadlift Form Tips For Beginners.

Also, you can also make fantastic gains with this 12 Week Deadlift Program for Beginners in Fitness or Powerlifting

or try Hugh Jackman’s Deadlift Program: How He Got Ripped For ‘Wolverine’.

How to Deadlift for Beginners – A Step by Step Guide