Key Cues for Exceptional Deadlifts
Discussing proper form and benefits of the conventional deadlift.
In this article:
My video response to a reader’s question about conventional deadlift form.
Five high-value benefits of deadlifting.
Deeper dives into each of my three recommended deadlift form cues.
The Question
Mike asked for help with his conventional deadlift form. Here’s my top three form cues:
The deadlift is one of those exercises with so many benefits, but you need to know how to do it properly to reap those rewards. I’m writing this article to improve your knowledge of the deadlift and to give you expert form cues to make sure you’re doing things right. First up, I’m going to share some benefits of the deadlift.
Benefit 1: Muscle Growth
The number of muscle groups the deadlift puts to work is surprising and certainly larger than most other exercises. Are you ready for this list?
Plan to work your glutes, hamstrings, quads, abs, lower back, middle back, upper back, and forearms.
See what I mean? With so many activated muscle groups, the deadlift is undeniably a great muscle-builder.
Benefit 2: Posterior Chain Strengthening
Sure, deadlifts build overall strength throughout your body, but they zone in on your posterior chain the most. What is the posterior chain?
Think of the posterior chain as the muscles running up the back side of your body; hamstrings, glutes, spinal erectors, and, in my opinion, the traps.
When deadlifting correctly, each of those muscle groups becomes stronger.
Benefit 3: Core & Functional Strength
When you do a deadlift correctly, your torso must lean forward as you descend toward the floor. Your torso is also the link between your working lower body muscle groups and the weight you’re holding, so it must remain rigid and tight as it leans forward.
The muscles creating that rigidity are those of the core; the abs and spinal erectors in particular. As a result of that work, core strength improves.
As humans, we’re designed to push things away from us, pull things toward us, and pick things up from the ground.
The deadlift, in a nutshell, is picking something up and setting it back down.
Doing deadlifts in the gym will improve coordination and reinforce the movement pattern of properly picking something up, making daily tasks easier.
Benefit 4: Increased Daily Caloric Burn
I’m going to keep this explanation very simple. The deadlift activates the largest muscle groups in the body and also typically requires significant weight to produce challenging reps.
Intensely working large muscle groups creates significant caloric burn during the lift itself, but also during recovery from the lift.
Whether you want to be able to eat more and maintain your weight or have an easier time losing weight, increased daily caloric burn is helpful.
Benefit 5: Improved Bone Density
Resistance training maintains and improves bone density. Making sure to include deadlifts as part of your weekly routine will help to keep your bones strong and healthy, which reduces the risk of osteoporosis and bone fractures.
The five benefits above are only a portion of the entire list. I mentioned these five because I feel they’re the most important and they apply to people of all ages with many different goals.
Whether you’re training for brute strength, looking muscular, losing fat, or generally better health, the deadlift can assist you in all of those goals.
Of course, you can’t maximize those benefits without proper execution of the lift, so let’s move into the next topic; form cues.
Did you know my signature training program has full day dedicated the deadlift and the posterior chain? It’s known as Lift Day and you can trial it here:
Three Form Cues for Textbook Conventional Deadlifts
First things first, what is a form cue? To me, a form cue is a specific thought at a specific time, while performing an exercise. To get even more granular, this thought is repeated during each rep.
Let’s say you’re doing barbell squats, an example of a form cue would be to think about pushing the knees apart as you drive out of the hole.
This is a specific thought at a specific time during each rep. This particular cue keeps you safer, adds strength, and builds perfect form over time.
I’m now going to lay out three form cues to improve your ‘work in progress’ deadlift form or reinforce your ‘already dialed in’ deadlift form. Even the most experienced deadlift pro will repeat their form cues with every lift. This practice is part of the process and never stops.
Cue 1 | First Rep Focus
The starting position of the deadlift is unique because it’s the opposite of many other exercises. Think about it, you’re starting at the bottom position, not the top. This is the hardest position to start from, really. Think of how other exercises would look like if these were their starting positions:
Start with the bar on your chest while bench pressing.
Un-rack the leg press with your knees fully bent.
Start from the squatted position during barbell squats.
While this is sidebar, and often causes debate, this is my personal thought on deadlifts. If there was a setup to make this easy to do, I’d prefer to start my deadlifts from the standing position.
I think it’s safer and just makes more sense outside of a competition setting where the weight must be pulled from the floor.
Since deadlifts start in the bottom position, and the first rep starts from a dead stop with no stretch-reflex effect, it’s very important that the first pull of each set be done with a heavy priority on bracing, tightness, and form focus.
I’ve watched people deadlift for decades and after seeing thousands of opening reps, I find that people often have diminished form with that first pull relative to their subsequent reps in the same set. This isn’t good because all anyone needs is one bad rep to spark an injury. This diminished initial form doesn’t apply to every single person, but it happens more often than not, which is why this first cue is so important.
Form cue number one is to put extra effort into achieving the proper starting position for that first rep.
There are some great video tutorials out there on correctly setting up for that first pull. I’ll give you a couple that have my stamp of approval, particularly the first one:
Cue 2 | Hip & Shoulder Coordination
My second tip applies to the lifting and lowering phases of each rep, otherwise known as the concentric(lifting) and eccentric(lowering) phases. Here’s the tip:
Make sure your hips and shoulders rise and fall together.
Do you notice how this remains a constant in the conventional deadlift tutorials above? It’s just good practice and if you do it, you can be sure that the proper muscles stay targeted and the chance of injury is being reduced.
When the hips and shoulders rise and fall together during a deadlift, certain things have to be happening for that to occur. These are all things that contribute to great form.
The spine must stay tight.
The core must stay braced.
The torso must maintain proper angles.
The hips must hinge.
The knees must bend.
These are all checkpoints for perfectly executed conventional deadlifts and if your hips and shoulders rise and fall together, you’re checking all of those boxes.
An example of breaking this rule would be lifting the hips first, followed by lifting the shoulders, when pulling from the floor.
This completely changes the dynamics of the lift, turning it into one of two things:
An abomination of a conventional deadlift.
A well-executed Romanian or Straight Leg Deadlift
More often than not you’ll get the abomination because people lift their hips first when their conventional deadlift weight is too heavy for them to do it right.
Ego lifting and deadlifting are a nasty combination that’ll eventually end in injury.
If you can’t keep your hips and shoulders rising and falling together, be smart and lighten the weight.
Cue 3 | Hips Back Good, Knees Forward Bad
My final form cue for this article focuses on initiating the eccentric phase of the conventional deadlift. In simpler terms, when it’s time to lower the weight, this cue gets the party started.
Start the lowering phase by pushing your hips back, not by pushing your knees forward.
The deadlift is a hip hinge movement, and this tip is crucial to keeping it that way and building your posterior chain. In this particular hip hinge movement, as the hips push back, the upper body folds over. By nature, this ‘hips back/upper body over’ motion puts the hamstrings, glutes, spinal erectors, lats, and traps to work. The muscles traditionally stretching and contracting are the hamstrings and glutes. The muscles flexing statically are the erectors, lats, and traps.
Without the hips pushing back, the torso would not properly tilt forward and the muscles involved would change. If the hips don’t push back, three other options exist for getting the weight back down to the floor, and they’re all rubbish.
The knees stay straight, the hips stay put, and the upper body simply leans forward until the weight hits the floor. This is a back injury waiting to happen and is illustrated by the picture below.
The knees shoot forward while the torso remains as upright as possible. The bar awkwardly drags down the quads, then over the knees, then to the floor(usually without control). This is terrible form and completely removes focus from the posterior leg muscles.
The lifter simply drops the bar to the floor and remains standing, eliminating the lowering phase completely. Obviously this gets the bar to the floor, but it’s clearly not what we’re looking for and anyone who does this probably won’t retain their gym membership for long.
Truth be told, the only way to lower the weight and complete a deadlift rep, while maintaining focus on the correct muscle groups, is to follow this third form cue. No exceptions.
Putting my three form cues together will have you focusing hard on the starting position of your reps, making sure you’re thinking about moving correctly during each rep, and ensuring you’re starting the eccentric phase of each rep safely.
I wanted to give you valuable cues to cover you from start to finish, which I believe I’ve done.
The Final Rep
So here we are, you’ve read over a host of deadlift benefits and learned about three important form cues to help you dish out exceptional conventional deadlift reps. Today is a good day!
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my article. If you have another minute, I’d love for you to tell me what cues you use when deadlifting. I discussed a few, but there are certainly many more!