Why should athletes do deadlift exercises?

Conventional logic dictates that if you want a specific part of your body to be stronger, you should target that part with focused strength work: Do you want a stronger core? Do crunches and planks. Prevent knee pain? Do clamshell exercises.

But the cause of weakness and injury isn’t so superficial, says Nate Helming, co-founder of Running experience. “If a triathlete has weak hamstrings, or glutes that aren’t working properly, you can isolate these muscles through targeted running or cycling exercises to strengthen them. But if there’s any deeper crack in the athlete’s foundation, we need to reach for something more effective.”

Enter the deadlift. As one of the few “silver bullet” movements available in strength training, the deadlift has it all: a functional, compound, full-body movement that allows athletes to move more efficiently and powerfully. “From the beginning, this exercise requires full body engagement and mental focus,” Helming explains. From top to bottom, everything is recruited into a deadlift:

• The shoulders should be rolled down and the shoulder muscles engaged, which improves shoulder stability.
• The spine needs tremendous stability from all the core muscles surrounding it, protecting it, and improving Core strengthStability and position.
• The hip joint loads the hamstrings and glutes as one connected unit, strengthening the posterior chain.
• All parts of the body are recruited to create one smooth, coordinated movement.
• You learn how to adjust your breathing to create the desired tension for the weight you are moving.

“In short, deadlifting makes us stronger, better-moved athletes,” Helming says. “Triathletes need a body that is generally strong, mobile, stable and strong enough to handle the demands of swimming, cycling and running without collapsing shoulders, collapsing hips or slumping the back.” Strength coach and former professional triathlete Simone Mitchell He agrees: “As a compound exercise, it is, in my opinion, the best value for your money.”

How to do it correctly

Many athletes shy away from deadlifts, thinking they are a quick path to injury. But Helming says the key to a safe deadlift is learning to move in the opposite direction:

1. Start by standing tall and aligned from ears to ankles.
2. Gently plant your feet on the floor while squeezing your butt, quads, and stomach. This creates a stable, neutral pelvis by adding a touch of external rotation at the hip.
3. Press the barbell into your thighs to adjust your shoulders and engage your glutes.
4. Soften the knees and hinge back at the hips. Keeping your abs tight, chin neutral, press the bar into your thighs until it goes past your knees. By this point, you’ll be staring at the floor, and you should feel tension in your hamstrings. If not, make sure to tighten your abs more, and push your knees out slightly to add more hip external rotation and engagement.
5. Once the bar goes past the knees, you will hinge lower at the hips and lower the bar by bending at the knees. If done correctly, it keeps your back and hips in position for ideal mechanics when you drop as low as you need to.
6. Then reverse course: Stand upright by pushing your hips forward and pressing your butt at the top. Lift with a “big” chest to prevent rounding, and once the bar is past the knees, press the barbell firmly back into the thighs to keep the shoulders and lats engaged.

Mitchell adds another key pointer: “When deadlifting with a straight bar, always focus on the upper back. When the upper back and spine are in place correctly, hip thrust naturally follows. Think about pulling the bar to your hips throughout the lift: This keeps the back muscles engaged, the shoulders back, and the chest out, allowing the posterior chain to do its job.”

And before you lift the bar at all: “Add a good warm-up before lifting,” says Mitchell. “I would like to add some Glute resistance work With bands to wake up the glutes before the main lifts. Then start with a light weight. Do two sets of warm-up exercises, gently increasing the weight until you reach your starting weight for the main set.

Avoid these common fatal mistakes

Unprofessional captures: “Most athletes start reaching for the barbell with a rounded back,” says Helming, explaining that failure to achieve good posture from the start means everything else is compromised. Start by lifting yourself onto the bar using proper form.

Search for: Although it may be tempting to lift your chin during a deadlift, doing so is a bad idea. Think of your head position during a deadlift in the same way you do a swim: raising your head as you move forward has a negative effect on the rest of your body. During a deadlift, looking up destabilizes the shoulders and spine.

Dropdown: Don’t be too fast on your way down. “Speeding up the movement on the way down bypasses the need to effectively stabilize the spine, hip hinge and posterior chain,” says Helming. “There are a lot of benefits on the way down.”

When and how often to deadlift

Knowing how to deadlift is one thing; Knowing when to fit it into an athlete’s already busy training schedule is another matter. Mitchell recommends thinking about it in terms of season.

The off-season is where you can make the most gains. As the volume of swimming, cycling and running decreases, the body has the ability to adapt to the stress and occasional muscle soreness that can accompany strength work, without affecting sport-specific sessions. Mitchell recommends incorporating strength sessions two to three times a week at this time of year if possible.

As pre-season increases, cut back on one or two sessions per week, always prioritizing swimming, cycling and running first. One counterintuitive but important tip from Mitchell: Schedule your weightlifting on the same day as a hard run or ride, not on easy days. “This may seem counterintuitive because you’ll start the session feeling a little tired,” she says, “but doing weightlifting on an easier aerobic day increases the cumulative load over the week, and robs you of the recovery that an easier day should provide.”

Once the racing season starts, move into what Mitchell calls the maintenance phase. “You don’t want to build at this point, you want to maintain the work you did during the recession.” This means limiting weightlifting to about once a week, and giving yourself three to seven days between your heavy session and race day to fully recharge.

Heavier weight or more repetitions?

The answer depends on your lifting experience. Mitchell suggests the following:

• The latest in deadlifting: Focus on the form first. Work in a higher range and lower weight (about 12 to 15 repetitions across three to four sets) to build muscular endurance and hone good movement patterns.
• Most experienced lifters: Move toward lower reps and heavier loads (four to six reps across three to four sets) to build strength and power that translates to swimming, biking and running.

“The goal of deadlifting is not necessarily to build muscle mass, but rather to increase power production, trunk stability, and neuromuscular strength,” Mitchell adds.

Complementary exercises you can do alongside deadlifts

The deadlift is a great foundational move that works best as part of a broader program. Mitchell combines compound lifting exercises like deadlifts and squats with what she calls additional work: unilateral Functional movements Which targets imbalances, stability and joint health. Its recommendations include:

For the lower body: Bulgarian squats, single-leg deadlifts, and high steps.

For the upper body: One-arm dumbbell rows, one-arm pull-downs, or a low cable row.

For basic work: Ball presses, side planks, rotational medicine ball strikes or wall ball throws (to help build hip stability and posture that transfers right into the race).

Mitchell also calls for an addition plyometric Work in the mix. “Plyometric exercises train your body to store elastic energy and release it quickly,” she says. “This increases Step power On the run it strengthens the tendons over time.