DEADLIFTS - Best Back Exercise or Worst? FIND OUT!

Best way to build muscle - http://athleanx.com/x/deadlifts

are deadlifts dead in your current workout routine if so I think we need to take a closer look because I might be able to change your mind today what’s up everybody Jeff Cavalier athleanx. com as we started last week a little series here that I have put together for Men’s Fitness magazine the November issue we talked about some of the exercises that are maybe relegated to the what I call the iron graveyard meaning they not good for us or people perceive them to be dangerous and it was up to me to determine do they belong there or are there ways that we can make them a viable option in the workouts that we do last week we talked about the upright row this week I want to talk about one of the biggest back injury exercises out there the deadlift now hold on a second I know I have a lot of deadlift fans out there they’re going to say wait you’re totally off base and you know what I am because the Dead lift itself is not a dangerous exercise it’s not one that we should get rid of in our programs I’m going to explain why as I start to demonstrate the fact of the matter is the deadlift done wrong belongs in the iron graveyard because it will destroy your low back the shearing forces that you put on your lumbar spine the compressive forces that you put on the discs are terrible if you do it incorrectly okay so there’s one thing I think that takes this exercise and it flips the switch and it makes us think about it differently to take it out of the iron graveyard and put it back where it belongs which is in your program as a great posterior chain strengthening exercise as a power exercise as pretty much everything we need in a lower body exercise okay and upper body it’s a total body exercise now here’s what we’re going to do the first thing we have to do is look at what happens when we get into the deadlift position the wrong thing you’re doing is disengaging the lumbar extensors disengaging the the we call them the paraspinal muscles along the spine because that’s where you go from having very little Force being Shear shearing Force directed out the spine to all the shearing force is when you let that go and I’ve talked about it before presetting the back okay so when we get down to this position for a deadlift the preset is getting into this natural lumbar curve down here getting the shoulder blades back the uh the shoulders pulled back and the head looking up because if you don’t look up the first problem is if you start to look down usually the body follows where the head goes so if I start looking this way it tends to roll my shoulders forward that tends to bring the rest of my spine with me which is going to go down into the low back and there I’ve lost all the stabilization which again is the difference between whether you experience the shearing forces or not okay so when we get down in this position we want to have the flexibility through the hamstrings the H the hinge and the hips to be able to get down into this position here and then initiate now here’s the second key the deadlift for it not to be an exercise that belongs in that iron graveyard but one that belongs in your program needs to be a pushing exercise and not a pulling exercise okay I want you guys to make sure you get that straight the deadlift should be a pushing exercise and not a pulling exercise not primarily at least not initially initially it’s got to be a pushing exercise so let me explain when we’re in this position here and we get down you’re going to see that obviously get from this position and come out of that come out of the hole the mistake is trying to pull too much because as soon as you try to pull and you hit resistance what happens even if I have a perfectly set back I pull I hit resistance I blow out the back right I have to pull this way to kind of cheat it up don’t make it a pulling exercise the pulling at the end what we want to do is make it a pushing exercise so I as you see here the base is through the leg okay the base is going to be through the leg get a good strong Foundation here from the leg so that when we come down the first thing is pushing through the leg so once I have this my head’s up my back is set I push through the legs and then drive through pulling back my upper back and my low back together at the same time reverse the direction okay as I come up I push through my heels it’s a leg exercise okay then I pull up at the top okay here push and then pull it’s a completely different sensation we don’t even feel that strain through the back again I can load the bar up as I need to as I get stronger but the fact is you won’t feel the strain through the back if you’re initiating with the push and if you’re setting yourself up correctly in the beginning by getting stabilizers of your back set the low back set and getting your head up and pushing through your legs guys this changes like this to certain exercises that can take and exercises that you had long ago relegated to one that you’re not going to do because even if you haven’t gotten hurt some of your buddies have and believe me one of the biggest exercises to cause people to get hurt on the gym floor when they’re doing it is the deadlift but that’s because most guys aren’t them doing the deadlift correctly in athletex I try to show you guys how to do things correctly again a priority of mine as a physical therapist is to show you guys how to strength train and condition and get you in the best shape of your life but to do it safely so that you can continue to come back and do your workouts ath is a program that you do for life not just for 90 days but you do it for life because you’re capable of working out for life because you’re getting stronger every day guys I’ll see you over at aex. com in the meantime if you haven’t already come join us on team athleen grab the 90-day training program see what it’s like to train smart to train with the right exercises and to do them in the right way so that you get the most out of them and you don’t foro things that really could help increase your gains in the gym guys I’ll see you back here in 7 Days in the meantime have a great week make sure you leave your comments below I’ll talk to you soon