Save your back—and your wallet.
As you go about your business in the weight room, have you ever glanced over at a personal trainer during one of their client sessions and idly asked yourself something like, Dang, I wonder if they ever happen to notice what I’m doing over here? Good news! While your gym’s fitness professionals obviously can’t leave their charges to deliver you some kind of stern pro bono talking-to, they do see you, and they have a lot of feelings to share about… all the myriad things you’re doing wrong. (Perhaps this is, in retrospect, one of those questions to which you didn’t want to know the answer.)
Fortunately, a few trainers have generously agreed to share with us the most common and most aggravating habits they see gymgoers developing—and a little free advice on how to fix them. This is, in effect, money in your pocket. Today: deadlifts.
Push, Don’t Pull
The most common mistake I see is overuse of the posterior chain, especially within the first 12 inches of the pulling motion. Try dropping your butt down a bit, tightening your core, and rooting your toes and heels in the ground. Engage the quads first, and act like you are using your feet to push the floor underneath you, instead of just pulling the bar up with your arms. Allow the hips and the shoulders to rise at the same time. And remember: If the back hurts, you are still doing it wrong! This is another great time to check your ego at the door, remove a plate or two, and focus on form. —Ben Booker, Second Chance Fitness
Mind the Gap
Your shins should only be about one or two inches from the bar. The further the barbell is from your legs, the likelier you are to shift your body weight to your toes when you reach forward to grab the bar, instead of keeping your weight on the heels. This, in turn, causes you to round your spine and lift with your lower back, instead of activating your glutes and hamstrings. —Idalis Velazquez, IV Fitness
This Isn’t a Squat*
Proper form for deadlifts is somewhere between a squat and a straight-legged deadlift, but when people try to make it too much like a squat, it causes knee and hip discomfort. Try dropping a few pounds from each side of the barbell, and relax your knees, holding your chest up and out. Unless your training specifically requires a straight bar, for some reason, I always recommend using a hex bar here, which is an ergonomically friendlier piece of equipment. Stand all the way up and align your shoulders directly over your hips and heels at the top of the motion, tightening your abs. Imagine that you’re picking up several bags of groceries. And—again—do not bend that back! —Josh Cox, Anytime Fitness
[Via GQ]
