How to Deadlift with Perfect Form (Complete Guide)

In this video, I'm going to show you the right way to do a deadlift. We've got Manami here with us today. We're going to work her up to a little bit of weight so we can see what she can do, and as I correct her, I can show you the techniques and cues so you can do a deadlift safely with yourself. So firstly, we're going to do a bit of a form check with her. If you want to grab the bar, and as you would normally deadlift, just show me how you would deadlift, and we will go from there. So immediately I notice some mistakes, but we'll talk about that in a second. So do, do the reps. Don't look at me, keep your head Straight. Okay, beautiful. Just do like 2, 3 reps, and it's not too bad, it's not too bad. So she does a lot of things well, but we'll talk about how to make this better. So first of all, we need to also put some plates on so we can talk about how to set it up from the rack. So pop that on. I'll put these green ones on to begin with, so we'll have 40 kilos here in total, which pretty light for Manami, and then we can start talking about her technique. So What I like to do when coaching a client for the first time is just to get a base, especially if they've had prior training experience, which Manami has. I get and instruct them to do it as they would do it, and then I start to correct. So let's have a look at what Manami does. Just give me 2 more reps like that. Beautiful. That's it, that's it, that's it. So Manami does a lot of really nice things, but there's some things that we can do to further enhance what she's doing. First thing I'm going to get Manami to do is take off her shoes. Now, the reason why I'm going to get her to take off her shoes is because on the deadlift we want to have as flat of surface on our heels and get that weight into our heels as possible. Now the shoes that she's wearing, they're Asics, they're not bad shoes by any stretch. They're not, you know, they don't have a huge foam in them like some of the Nike shoes that you see or the Adidas shoes that you see. So they are pretty stable, but they still create a little bit of a height difference. Now the other thing I'll get Manami to do is just bring your feet a tiny bit closer. So when on your setup, what I want you to do is when approaching the bar, I want your feet in line with your pelvis. Before you even reach for the bar, I want you to stand up nice and tall and I want you to point down as hard as you can. If you point down, now when you see Manami pointing down, point down as hard as you can. If you come around from the back, Mr. Cameraman, just relax for me for a sec. Just relax, relax, relax. And I just wanna show you, get the visual, right? You see, you see her back now? Now I'm gonna get you to point down as hard as you can. Point down as hard as you can. Look at this. This is her lats. Your lats avoid rotation. Point down hard for me. Point down hard. Point down, point down, point down. The lats are there as a spine stabilizer. So this is, she's pointing down, I'm trying to rotate her. Don't let me rotate you, stay nice and stiff, right? We want the lats to be engaged on the deadlift. And more importantly, we want to set up with that position in mind. So I'm gonna get you to point down as hard as you can, then I'm gonna get you to reach for the bar, okay? So same thing, let's do what you did, but just those are the only two cues I'm gonna give you. So feet closer, point down before you begin and deadlift. Beautiful. And find that point. And already we see some improvements in her technique. Definitely see some improvements in her technique. So keep, keep that pointing down, reach for the floor, reach for the floor, reach for the floor, reach for the floor, reach for the floor, reach for the floor, maintain that tension. Maintain that tension. Reach for the floor, reach for the floor, reach for the floor. That's it. And back up. That's right. We'll get on the next one. Let's go a little heavier just so we can see some breakdown so we can start to coach more of these cues. So what we're going to do with this deadlift again, Manami does a lot of things really well. And if you are new to deadlifting, I'm going to talk you through and give you a bit more detail as to how you can sit up while Manami rests. Let's put on this. This is now 60 kilos, which again is pretty light for Manami. So let me just give you a couple of kind of a 101 as, as Manami rests. We do that. So again, if I was deadlifting for real, I'd be taking my shoes off, be taking my socks off. I like to deadlift in bare feet, but for the purposes of this video, get your feet aligned with your pelvis, number one. So as I said, we're pointing down, and you can see I'm not in thoracic extension when I deadlift. I'm bringing my rib cage on top of my pelvis, my rib cage is down. Then I'm pointing to the floor as hard as I can. The next thing I want to do is I want to reach for the bar. So I'm not coming down and grabbing the bar and being loose with it. I reach, reach, reach. I'm pointing down, and then once I'm pointing down, I shoot my hips out, sticking down, sticking down, sticking down. The other thing I want to consider is where my shin is in relation to the bar. I always want that bar as close to my body as possible. Now in this position, I'm not coming from thoracic extension up, I'm coming from my sternum, which is below. So from here, I stick that up that way my lumbar spine stays nice and tight. So I'm here, and then I'm standing up nice and straight. So over to you, Manami. Yep, point nice and hard. And I want you to keep that tension. Reach for the bar, reach for the bar, reach for the bar, reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, reach. Pull it in. Beautiful. 1. Give me 3 reps and maintain that tension. 2. Maintain, maintain, maintain. Beautiful. Easier than the set before. Excellent. That was easy. I can see you're like, hmm, that was easier. Yeah, good, good. So let's go up one more. We'll do one more, one more increase. Again, there's quite a bit more in the tank for Manami here. But again, let's see if anything breaks down once we hit 80 kilos and you can see the techniques in real time as they work. Now I can already anticipate what the weakness is going to be for Manami. It's going to be her grip. So we're going to get a little bit of chalk. Normally would use straps. She can use straps. Big, big advocate of using straps, particularly on deadlifts, especially if you're doing a clean grip, which is what we are doing. We're using a clean grip, and people may ask, what is the difference between a mixed grip and a clean grip? A mixed grip in powerlifting, traditionally you're going to use probably a mixed grip in powerlifting, but for most general trainers, general athletes, the risk versus reward of a clean grip and a mixed grip— a mixed grip, if you do rotate, you are getting a lot of force in that bicep, and that is where the bicep tear on it. And it is fairly— when I say common injury, it is a, it is an injury. When guys lifting heavy, uh, on their deadlifts, if they rotate, they can snap a bicep on a, on a deadlift. So it's that question, what, what is it for? And if you're doing reps, 9 times out of 10, for most folks, simply putting straps on is a much better option than using the mixed grip. And also there's going to be less discrepancies in terms of muscle imbalances and this kind of stuff. So let me grab Marnie some chalk. She can chalk up this next set because I don't want the grip to be an impedance on her deadlift. So pop some chalk on your hands, and now we're going to stack everything we spoke about before on top on this deadlift. So this is the heaviest we're doing for this video. Ribs, pelvis, point to the floor, foot position, reach, pull it back, keep the bar close to your shins, and stand up. So let's stack all the skills on top of each other and let's lift some weight. Good. Excellent. Pull it back, pull it back. Beautiful. 1. Put the weight onto your heels, weight onto your heels, weight onto your heels. Great. 2. Your grip. Yeah, I knew you can, you can, you can. If you're used to doing it, you can. Yep, you're used to doing it. Pulling. This is the mixed grip that we spoke about, which she's used to doing. So there we go. Straight away comes up. Awesome. That's it. Awesome work. If you've enjoyed this video and tutorial on deadlift, make sure you subscribe to our channel for more.