Prioritize Your Health With These Safety Tips for a Weightlifting Deadlift

Proper Form

Having proper form is one of the most important components of any successful exercise. Not only will you target the right muscles, but you will also protect your body from serious injuries, such as slipped discs and back sprains. Incorrect form during this exercise can put lots of pressure on your body, especially your lower back. Keeping a straight back all the way through the movement is essential to avoid injury. When your back starts to bend, it’s a sign to reduce the weight.

Before you start the exercise, it’s a good idea to begin by practicing form without any weights. Look in the mirror to see where your body needs to be corrected. It may even be beneficial to schedule an appointment with a personal trainer who can guide you through the exercise.

Once you're feeling comfortable with your form, you can begin adding weight to the movement. Start with light and manageable weights that won't throw you off balance. This is the kind of exercise where you can slowly work your way up with weights. In the beginning, you'll want to start slow and continue focusing on your posture and strength.

To start, pick up a pair of dumbbells with an overhand grip and hold them in front of your sides. You can also use a barbell for this exercise too. Stand with your knees slightly bent, and your feet placed shoulder-width apart. Bend at the hips and lower your torso until it's almost parallel with the floor.

Keeping your legs straight while allowing your knees to bend naturally will help you target the right muscles. Make sure you keep your back flat, taking care not to round it. Try to slowly lower yourself in a controlled manner and then raise yourself back to a standing position. Repeat this motion at least 3-5 times to complete a set.

Equipment

To complete this exercise, you will want to have a variety of weights and a barbell. As you advance in the exercise and integrate it more into your workout routine, a weightlifting belt may come in handy. It can help protect your back from injury, teach you how to brace for heavy lifts, and move more weight.

You can likely find all the equipment you need to complete a deadlift at any commercial gym.

Benefits of Deadlifts

When performed safely, the deadlift will strengthen and challenge several muscles in your body, test your grip strength, and improve your core stability. The standard deadlift is essentially a full body workout with how many muscle groups the exercise targets. Through deadlifting, you can also improve your strength and form for other weightlifting exercises.

There are many variations on weightlifting deadlifts, such as sumo and Romanian, which can activate different muscle groups, making it a great strength builder – you may even find that you progress through the weights fairly quickly and you may surprise yourself with your own strength.

Achieve The Proper Form For Weightlifting With Whole Intent

At Whole Intent, our fitness trainer has many years of experience under her belt and always ensures that her clients are performing each exercise properly and cautiously. She can provide you with all of the information that you need prior to and during your weightlifting exercises to help you reap the most benefits. Being active is extremely important to our health, and weightlifting complements that by offering many health benefits for our bodies.

If you want to learn more about weightlifting, read more helpful weightlifting 101 articles today. Or if you are ready to start lifting weights to achieve better health, contact Whole Intent today to schedule your first consultation with us and learn the proper form for various weightlifting exercises!