Every deadlift guide
All 25 of them — the fault, why it happens, and the drill that fixes it.
- Bar Drifting Away From Your Legs? Your Lats Let GoEvery inch the bar drifts forward multiplies the leverage on your low back. The fix is one cue — crush oranges in your armpits — grooved until it's automatic.
- Deadlift Feels Like All Lower Back? Your Hinge Went MissingIf every set ends in your lumbar instead of your glutes and hamstrings, the back is doing jobs it never applied for. Here's the pattern fix, built on the RDL.
- The Deadlift Bar Path — Why the Strongest Pull Is a Straight LineThe bar wants to travel a near-vertical line over mid-foot, brushing your legs. Every deviation costs leverage — here's the physics and the lat cue that guards the line.
- Bouncing Your Deadlift Reps — Each Bounce Borrows From the Next OnePlates rebounding off the floor mean rep two starts before your brace is rebuilt. Dead-stop resets make every rep honest — here's the difference and the drill.
- How Much Forward Lean Is Okay in a Deadlift? More Than You ThinkA deep forward lean at setup is the hinge doing its job, not a red flag. The thing to watch is spine shape, not torso angle — here's how to tell them apart.
- Hips Shooting Up First? Your Setup Was Probably Too LowWhen your hips rocket up and your shoulders stay put, the lift becomes a stiff-leg heave. The cause usually lives in the setup — and paused pulls catch it in the act.
- The Lowering Is Half the Rep — Stop Dropping Your DeadliftsThe descent is a hinge, not a surrender. Why controlled lowering builds the pull, protects your positions, and how 3-second reps train it.
- The Deadlift Setup — a 30-Second Checklist Before You PullMost deadlift faults are born before the bar moves. A five-point setup checklist — bar, hips, spine, lats, brace — that makes the pull almost automatic.
- Deadlift vs Squat — Two Different Moves Wearing Similar ClothesBoth go down and stand up, but the squat is a knee bend and the deadlift is a hip hinge. Confusing them is the root of half of all deadlift faults.
- Your First Deadlift Session — a Plan From ZeroNo bar required on day one. A first-session plan that builds the hinge with a dowel and a wall, loads it with a kettlebell, and leaves you with a filmed baseline.
- How Low Should Your RDL Go? Just Below the Knee Is the Whole RepRDL depth is earned by hamstrings, never by the spine. The bar reaching just below the knee is a complete rep — here's why reaching lower usually backfires.
- How to Film Your Deadlift for a Form Check That's Actually UsefulSide-on, hip height, 8-12 feet back, whole body and plates in frame, one to three reps. The five-minute filming setup that makes any form check worth having.
- How to Hip Hinge — the One Move Underneath Every DeadliftThe hinge is the deadlift's whole engine — hips back, hamstrings loaded, spine quiet. Learn it in ten minutes with a wall and zero load.
- No Barbell? The Kettlebell Deadlift Builds the Whole PatternEvery rule of the barbell deadlift exists at kettlebell scale — hinge, spine shape, close path, tall finish. How to pull it well and when you're ready for the bar.
- Leaning Back at Lockout — Tall, Not TiltedHyperextending at the top hands the glutes' job to your low back. The finish is plumb — and glute bridges teach the muscles that are supposed to end the lift.
- RDL vs Conventional Deadlift — What Each One TeachesThe conventional pull starts from the floor; the RDL starts from the top and never touches down. Here's what each is for and why the RDL might fix your conventional.
- Rounded Back off the Floor — Train the Shape, Then Load ItA back that rounds as the bar breaks the floor is usually load outrunning your brace, not a missing cue. Here's the real cause and the dowel drill that rebuilds one spine shape.
- The Soft Lockout — Your Deadlift Ends an Inch EarlyKnees a few degrees shy of straight, hips never quite through, lowering starts before you stand tall. Here's how to teach your finish where it lives.
- Lower Back Sore After Deadlifts? Read the Signal FirstSoreness in working muscles is training; sharp pain is a stop sign; a low back that's always the sorest muscle is a pattern report. Here's how to tell which you have.
- Squatting Your Deadlift — Why Your Hips Keep Popping UpHips dropped low, knees driven forward, shins steep — a squat setup for a hinge lift. Here's why it defeats your pull and the wall drill that fixes it.
- Sumo vs Conventional Deadlift — Judge Each by Its Own StandardSumo's upright torso isn't a missing hinge, and conventional's deep lean isn't a flaw. How the two pulls differ, how to choose, and what stays true in both.
- Touch-and-Go vs Dead Stop — Which Should You Pull?Touch-and-go is legitimate when the plates kiss the floor and the back holds shape. The bounce is the problem. Here's how to choose, and the reset drill that keeps reps honest.
- Is the Trap Bar Deadlift Better for Beginners?The trap bar builds more knee bend and a more upright torso into the tool itself — a friendlier entry that still teaches real pulling. Here's how to judge it fairly.
- When to Add Weight to Your Deadlift — a Test You Can't Argue WithAdd plates when the pattern survives them, not when the calendar says so. The 3-second lowering rep is the test — here's how to run it.
- Where Should Your Hips Be in the Deadlift Setup?Between the knees and the shoulders — higher than a squat, lower than a bow. Here's how to find your height and the paused pull that proves you found it.
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