Whether you’re a competitive Powerlifter or a casual gym-goer looking to get stronger, the deadlift is going to be a staple in your training. A total body exercise that compounds the entire posterior chain from head to toe, the deadlift is the truest indicator of absolute strength for any lifter. Here are the simple steps you could use in your next deadlift session to ensure you get the most from your training! 

Bracing

Unlike the squat and bench press, the deadlift doesn’t have an initial eccentric portion (lowering portion) to the lift which makes it much harder to brace and create proper tension throughout the body. Lowering yourself in to the bottom of a squat will load the legs and back to give you that stable spring out of the hole, whereas the deadlift requires you to create that tension yourself before the lift even begins. This is sometimes the reason you’ll hear lifters comment on how the second rep (and those thereafter) will always feel easier than the first - proper bracing!

So how is it done? Giving yourself space during the setup to allow adequate bracing is key. Once you’re in position over the bar and you’ve taken your grip, elevate the hips and take a big breath in to your abdomen. Allow the belly to inflate (Do not mistake this for tensing your abs. Breath in and push the abs and belly out). As you sit in to the deadlift you may feel your belly make firm contact with the quads, this is a good sign that your back, core and legs are properly braced. Levering yourself behind the bar, pull the tension (‘slack’) out of the bar. The final braced position is usually uncomfortable and the only relief comes from executing the lift. If your brace has been successful then you should complete the lift without any hip raise or back rounding in the initial pull. This take time. I suggest practising with singles around 65% - 70%. 

Frequency

The deadlift is a very taxing exercise. Though the muscles involved may recover in 1 - 3 days, the nervous system can take up to a week (sometimes longer) to fully recover from a particularly heavy session. For this reason I would generally prescribe only one strenuous deadlift session per week (And sometime s a second low volume session working a variation of the deadlift to improve technique). 

Variation

Leading on from monitoring frequency is the importance of variation in the deadlift. Though our nervous systems may take a while to recover from those heavy sessions, we can still get away with working lagging muscle groups and technique using variations of the deadlift. Working our weaknesses will instantly reduce the amount of weight we can handle which limits the fatigue the movement can generate. Variations like the deficit deadlift, block deadlift and snatch grip deadlift can all be use in high and low rep ranges to target issues we might be having with our ‘competition’ style deadlift.