How to Warm Up for Deadlifts – Introduction
If you want to know how to warm up for deadlifts, you’re in the right place!
There aren’t many exercises that are more productive and beneficial than deadlifts.
It doesn’t matter what your fitness goals are – getting stronger, building muscle, or losing weight – the mighty deadlift can help!
However, as effective as deadlifts are, they can also lead to injury.
Lifting with a rounded back puts a lot of potentially dangerous stress on your lumbar spine and ligaments, and leaning back at the top can cause problems, too.
That said, done with the right technique, deadlifting will strengthen your back, making it LESS prone to injury, and also teaches you how to lift heavy objects off the floor safely.
A safe, effective deadlift workout starts with a thorough warm-up.
Warming up prepares your muscles, joints, ligaments, and tendons for what you are about to do.
This not only helps lower your risk of injury but should also lead to better deadlift performance.
This guide explains how to warm up for deadlifts in four easy steps.
Step 1: Raise Your Pulse
Muscles contract and stretch more readily when they are warm.
Muscles get warmer when they are flooded with oxygenated blood.
This means that the first thing you need to do to warm up for deadlifts is a few minutes of light cardio.
Ideally, you should choose full-body cardio activities, such as rowing or the elliptical.
After all, deadlifts are a full-body exercise.
Jumping rope is also a viable option.
That said, if you only have access to a stationary bike or treadmill, that will suffice.
Five to ten minutes is all you need.
Start slow and increase your speed gradually so that, by the end, you are slightly out of breath and feeling warmer.
Take care not to turn your deadlift warmup into a cardio workout.
You don’t want to waste your valuable energy by warming up longer or harder than necessary.
Step 2: Dynamic flexibility and mobility exercises
Now that you are warmed up, it’s time to stretch your muscles and mobilize your joints.
Tight muscles could limit your range of motion, making it harder to deadlift with good technique.
Stiff joints will make your movements less fluid and could increase joint wear and tear.
The main muscles you need to stretch for deadlifts are your hamstrings.
However, static or stationary stretches are NOT recommended.
When you hold a static stretch, your muscles lengthen, but they also relax, which is not what you want before a big deadlift workout.
For that reason, your deadlift warmup should involve dynamic stretches and not the static variety.
Dynamic stretches lengthen your muscles without putting them to sleep.
There are several ways to dynamically stretch your hamstrings, so just choose 1-2 exercises and do 15-20 easy reps.
Dynamic Hamstring Stretches
Good options include:
#1. Romanian deadlifts
Using an empty bar or just your body weight, stand with your feet hip-width apart, knees slightly bent.
Hinge forward from your hips and reach down toward your shins.
Do not allow your lower back to round.
Stand back up and repeat.
#2. Prisoner good mornings
Place your hands on your temples and stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
Bend your knees slightly.
Push your elbows back to open your chest.
Hinge forward from your hips and lean over.
Do not allow your lower back to round.
Stand back up and repeat.
#3. Alternating leg swings
Stand with your feet together, arms by your sides.
Swing one leg forward like you are kicking a soccer ball, extending your opposite arm out in front of you.
Lower your leg, swap sides, and repeat.
With all dynamic stretches, start slow and easy, and increase your range of motion as you feel your muscles relax.
Joint Mobility
As well as stretching your hamstrings, you also need to mobilize your joints.
Joint mobility exercises increase the production of synovial fluid, which lubricates and nourishes your joints and cartilage.
Most of your joints should already be feeling fairly supple after your short bout of cardio, but your lumbar spine could probably do with some extra attention, and it’s always good to make sure your hips and knees are fully warmed up.
Do an easy 15-20 reps of these exercises:
#1. Bodyweight squats
Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart, toes turned slightly outward.
Push your hips back, bend your knees, and squat down.
Stand back up and repeat.
Do not round your lower back.
Increase your range of motion as you get warmer.
#2. Bodyweight lunges
Stand with your feet together, arms by your sides.
Step forward, bend your legs, and lower your rear knee to within an inch of the floor.
Keep your torso upright.
Push off your front leg, return to the starting position, and repeat on the other side.
Step out further as you warm up.
#3. Spine rotations
Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart, toes turned slightly outward.
Put your hands on your temples.
Keeping your lower body stationary, rotate your torso to the left and to the right.
Increase your range of motion as you get warmer.
#4. Spine lateral flexion
Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart, toes turned slightly outward, and arms by your sides.
Lean sideways and reach down to the outside of your knee.
Return to the center and repeat on the opposite side.
Increase your range of motion as you get warmer.
A lot of lifters like to do foam rolling before deadlifts, but this can be time-consuming, and you might even start to get cold.
By all means, include foam rolling in your warm-up, but focus on muscles you know are tight, such as your hamstrings or adductors.
Also, there is very little evidence to suggest that foam rolling increases muscle activation or otherwise increases deadlift performance.
In most cases, foam rolling is best used during your post-workout cool-down.
Step 3: Muscle activation exercises
Long periods of sitting and general sedentarism cause muscle relaxation.
The next deadlift warm-up stage is designed to fire up your muscles and get them contracting more forcefully.
As deadlifts are mainly a posterior chain exercise, this part of your warm-up should focus on your glutes, hamstrings, and lower/upper back.
Do 10-15 reps of the following exercises.
Doing more could cause unnecessary fatigue, so don’t get carried away.
Focus on engaging the target muscles by contracting them as hard as you can – make your movements snappy!
#1. Hip thrusts
Lie on your back with your legs bent and feet flat.
Drive your feet into the floor and lift your hips up toward the ceiling.
Lower your butt to the floor and repeat.
Use a booty band to increase abductor engagement, especially if your knees tend to cave in during deadlifts.
#2. Squat jumps
Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart, toes turned slightly outward.
Push your hips back, bend your knees, and squat down.
Leap up into the air, using your arms for extra momentum.
Land on slightly bent knees and repeat.
#3. Kettlebell/dumbbell swings
Holding a kettlebell or dumbbell in front of you, stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart, toes turned slightly outward.
Push your hips back, hinge forward, and lower the weight between your knees.
Drive your hips forward and swing the weight up to shoulder height.
Lower the weight and repeat.
#5. Band pull-aparts
Hold a resistance band with an overhand, shoulder-width grip.
Raise your arms out in front of you.
Open your arms and stretch the band out across your chest.
Bring your arms back in and repeat.
Step 4: Ramped sets
Your joints and muscles are warm and ready, but that doesn’t mean you should load up the bar with lots of plates and start your deadlift workout just yet.
If nothing else, it’ll feel really heavy, and that’s not a good sensation for the start of your workout.
A better approach is to ramp up to your working weights.
That way, you can ease into your workout.
Think of this like getting a rolling start.
You’ll have to determine your own ramped sets based on your training weights, but here’s an example.
Note how the reps decrease as the weight increases to conserve energy while exposing your muscles to gradually increasing weights.
For example, here is how to ramp up to 200lbs/90kg for sets of five:
- 10 reps 90lbs/40kg
- 7 reps 110lbs/50kg
- 5 reps 130lbs/60kg
- 3 reps 155lbs/70kg
- 1 rep 175lbs/80kg
- 5 reps 200lbs/90kg (1st working set)
The number of ramped sets will depend on how much weight you’re going to be lifting.
Very heavy weights will need more increments, while lighter weights need less.
Get the most from these ramped sets by doing each and every rep with perfect form and lifting the weight explosively.
As powerlifters often say, “Lift the light weights like they’re heavy, and heavy weight will feel light!”
Make sure you treat each set like it’s “real” by doing your normal set-up routine and bracing your core correctly.
Treat each ramped set as a rehearsal for your main workout.
How to Warm Up for Deadlifts – Wrapping Up
Ask ten people how to best warm-up for deadlifts, and you’ll probably get ten different answers.
That’s because there are lots of factors that determine what works and what doesn’t.
For example, someone who is mostly sedentary, older, or planning on lifting very heavy weights usually needs a longer warm-up.
In contrast, younger lifters, people with physically active jobs, and anyone deadlifting light to moderate weights won’t need a prolonged warm-up.
The secret to warming up for deadlifts, squats, bench presses, or any other exercise or workout is to customize your approach based on your needs.
Every workout should contain the same four steps – pulse raiser, dynamic flexibility/mobility, muscle activation, and ramped sets.
But, how much time you spend on each one should reflect your circumstances and the workout you are about to do.
However, while the contents of your warm-up are flexible, the one thing you should NEVER do is rush or skip your warm-up.
While cutting your warm-up short could save you ten minutes, it could cost you months if you end up injured.
As many strength coaches say, if you don’t have time to warm up, you don’t have time to work out.
And I have learned through experience and injuries that a good warm-up and cool-down are essential to a great workout.
So, minimize your risk of injury and boost your deadlift performance.
Get more from your workouts and protect yourself from injury by learning how to warm up for deadlifts properly.
