Deadlifting, while being a fundamental exercise for strengthening the body, gets a bad rap. For my powerlifters, Olympic lifters, and Crossfit athletes, deadlifting is a usual and important part of training. But for my people who don’t regularly weight train, or my artistic athletes living a life of body weight conditioning all day every day, the deadlift often remains an elusive enigma of an exercise. So let’s break it down, what is a deadlift, why does it get a bad reputation, and how can we incorporate it into training to benefit the artistic athlete?

What is the Deadlift? Image from https://jewellchiropractic.com/the-posterior-chain/ “Deadlift” is just a fancy name for a hip hinge, i.e. one of our bodies’ basic movement patterns of bending and extending at the hip. Reaching down to pick up groceries, that’s a hip hinge; bending to pick up that heavy amazon package and bring it into your house, that’s a hip hinge; rearranging furniture in your work-from-home space, you probably hip hinged!! While there are tons of variations on a deadlift that you can train in the gym, the ultimate goal of each of them is strengthening the body’s posterior chain i.e. lats, low back, glutes, ...