Zach Nagel, lead human performance specialist, Parkview Sports Medicine, takes us through the motions of what to avoid when performing deadlifting exercises.
When performing a deadlifting exercise, the most important thing to avoid is allowing your back to round.
You want to remain tall in posture and have a strong, stable core. The only parts of your body that should bend should be your hips, knees and toes. If we allow our back to round, either when we go to pick up the bar, or when we lower the bar back to the ground, it increases the stress on the spinal segments and opens us up to potential injury.
The second thing you need to avoid is allowing the bar to get too far away from your body.
You want to keep the bar close to your feet, ideally right over top of your shoes the whole time. If you allow that bar to get away from your body, again, it increases the stress on the lower back, opening you up to the potential for injury.
Lastly, you want to avoid squatting the deadlift.
When you are squatting, you are a little more vertical with your torso, but when you deadlift, you are a little more horizontal. Your shoulders are out in front of the bar a little further, and your hips are a bit more bent. The idea of a deadlift is to load the muscles on the back of your body, or our posterior chain. This means engaging your butt and hamstrings. So, you’re going to be a bit more hinged or bent over when you address the bar, both picking it up and then lowering it back to the ground.
Remember, when performing a deadlifting exercise, you want to remain tall and posture, keep the bar close to your body and avoid squatting the deadlift.
To learn more about Parkview Sports Medicine Performance Training, visit us here.
