Conventional Deadlift

How to perform the Conventional Deadlift

1. Stand with your mid-foot under the bar, shins about an inch from the bar, with feet roughly hip-width and toes slightly turned out.
2. Hinge at the hips and bend the knees to grip the bar just outside your shins, using a double-overhand or mixed grip; arms stay straight throughout.
3. Drop the hips until the shins touch the bar, lift the chest, and pull the slack out of the bar — your shoulders should be slightly in front of the bar and your back flat.
4. Take a deep breath into your belly, brace your core, and drive your feet through the floor as if you are pushing the ground away rather than pulling the bar up.
5. Keep the bar dragging up your legs in contact with your body; once it passes the knees, drive your hips forward to lock out with stacked ribs and tight glutes.
6. Reverse the path by hinging the hips back first, then bending the knees once the bar clears them, returning the plates to the floor under control rather than dropping the bar.

Suggested working range: 4–6 reps. Default progression: double progression.

Common mistakes

• •Letting the hips shoot up first, turning the pull into a stiff-legged deadlift with the chest dropping forward.
• •Pulling with a rounded lower back, especially at the start of the lift before the bar leaves the floor.
• •Yanking the bar off the floor with slack still in the system instead of pulling the slack out and then driving.
• •Hyperextending the lower back at lockout instead of finishing with stacked ribs and squeezed glutes.
• •Letting the bar drift forward of the mid-foot during the pull, which dramatically increases stress on the lower back.

Variations & alternatives

Swap in a related movement if equipment, recovery, or progression demands it.