The Physics of Necromancy

There's a bar on the ground loaded with 225. It's collared and chalked and there's no one nearby. You want to ignore it. You hope that someone will appear to lift it, but it doesn't happen. You are relieved to see a gym employee walking the floor, as they will surely dismantle equipment not in use. You watch in horror as they calmly walk by it, completely oblivious to the siren's call. You can't resist the urge any longer. You know that the only way to get relief is to pick it up and put it back exactly where you found it. But how? How does one properly manipulate weighted belles against gravity to accomplish this "dead-lift"?

Training to Strengths

There is no universal formula to gauge perfect leverage on a Deadlift. If such a thing could exist, I would have invented it by now. We vary both in absolute and proportional dimensions; that is, even if two people had the same height, weight, mobility, and training experience, their ideal starting positions may be entirely different. One person may have excessively long arms and legs, and narrow shoulders. Another may have a long torso, short arms, and broad shoulders. Finding the position of greatest mechanical advantage is a perpetual game of trial and error.

In a perfect world, that would be the end of my article.

Finding this elusive angle should be done under the guidance of a professional, as we very often confuse what feels right for what is actually right. Deadlifts are uncomfortable, particularly those variants which require a prolonged state of tetanus for the proper distribution of forces. Most people you will meet have anterior tilt to some degree, usually severe. There are muscle imbalances which may be pronounced in athletes training in anterior dominant (boxing) or posterior dominant (sprinting) sports. Finding an ideal position should not be a product of deficiencies. No one has an ideal angle of 20 degrees; they simply lack the ability to hinge. With proper mobility and flexibility, we can employ all (or none, do what you like) styles of Deadlift in our training.  

Addressing Weaknesses

Other than those who learned from Segugio, I've never seen a Sumo Deadlift executed correctly. Poor hip mobility is a fact of life for most people, and seems "normal", but in fact it's a debilitating problem which is denying an already depressed population the sublime pleasures of hinging and thrusting. The Deadlift consists of five sequential preparatory cues followed by one execution cue:

1. Placement of feet as close to bar as possible without interfering with the line of pull against gravity.
2. Placement of hands in a mechanically advantageous position.
3. Retract and depress scapula by locking the lats (creates initial pull)
4. Extend the elbow by locking the triceps (prevents interference in line of pull by smaller muscles)

Your knees should still be fully extended! Start over!

5. Drop the hips while keeping your upper body entirely rigid, creating a lever and ensuring that the downward force of your body exerts upward force on the bar.

If it's not extremely uncomfortable, you're wrong! Start over!

6. Drive through the heels, extending the knees, hips, and trunk simultaneously.

*My skilled hands are busy. I'll get back to this article later. Maybe. Tables below.