Recently I was out with some friends of mine and we were chatting over a few beers.
There were four of us in the group, all of which enjoy weight training in some form. We got to talking about programs and lifts and it became apparent that I was only one who deadlifts with heavy weight on a regular basis.
I a little shocked. Why the lack of enthusiasm for such a simple and yet massively effective lift?
Well the reasons varied from a lack of mobility and an uncertainty about how it should be done to a fear of injury. But the common factor here was form. There seems to be a fear that unless your form is perfect, then injury is inevitable and the risks simply outweigh the benefits.
One of the group asked me what they could do to improve their form and move some better numbers. Back in the day I too used to struggle with the dreaded deadlift which eventually led to a pretty bad injury, forcing me to take time off training completely to heal.
During my downtime I remembered doing some research into deadlift form and found a video years back about setup for deadlift.
It featured the one and only Mark Rippetoe (if you’ve never heard of him I suggest giving his name a google, the guy has quite a CV).
He was giving some instruction on how the setup should look. This 2 minute video literally fixed a host of problems I had with this lift and I’ve never suffered any injuries since.
It dawned on me that if out of my group of friends (some of which are very experienced lifters) 75% were struggling with their deadlift form then maybe it’s a common problem among many gym goers.
I’ll post the video below and If you feel you fall into this category I highly recommend giving it a watch. It’ll only take two minutes of your life and potentially save you a whole world of hurt further down the line.
Happy lifting,
Belt