Barbell Deadlift

The barbell deadlift is a hip hinge that lifts a loaded bar from the floor to a standing position, and it moves more absolute weight than any other common lift. It trains the glutes, hamstrings, the whole back and the grip simultaneously, and unlike most exercises it starts from a dead stop with no stretch to rebound out of.

Targets: Gluteus Maximus
Also works: Adductor Magnus, Erector Spinae, Hamstrings, Quadriceps
Equipment: Barbell
Level: Intermediate
Start with: 4 × 6-8, 90s rest

How to do it

Stand with the bar over the middle of your feet, feet about hip width, shins roughly an inch from the bar.
Hinge at the hips and bend your knees to reach the bar, taking a grip just outside your legs.
Pull your chest up and take the slack out of the bar — you should hear it settle against the plates before anything moves.
Push the floor away with your legs, keeping the bar dragging lightly up your shins.
Once the bar passes your knees, drive your hips forwards to finish standing tall, then reverse the path to return it to the floor under control.

Form cues

Push the floor away rather than pulling the bar up; the first half of the lift is a leg press.
Keep the bar touching your legs the entire way — any gap is leverage working against your lower back.
Set the back flat before the bar moves, and keep that shape for the whole rep.
Finish by standing up straight, not by leaning back.

Common mistakes

Jerking the bar off the floor. Yanking a loaded bar from slack is how backs get hurt; taking the slack out first means the lift starts against tension rather than against nothing.
Rounding the lower back under load, which is the difference between a hard lift and an injury.
Letting the bar drift forwards away from the shins, which lengthens the lever arm on the spine at exactly the wrong moment.
Hyperextending at the top to signal a finished rep — the lockout is upright, not leaning backwards.

Where this fits in a week

Dietly Fit scores one photo a week out of 100, names the area holding the score back, and builds the week around it — so a movement like this gets programmed when your gluteus maximus is what needs the work, not because it was next on a list.

More hips movements

Demonstration courtesy of Gym Visual. Sets and reps are a starting point, not a prescription. Speak to a qualified professional before starting a new exercise program, particularly if you are managing an injury or a health condition.