Why I Love Deadlifts

I love deadlift day! When I decide to deadlift I feel so motivated and excited. I also feel like superwoman when I hit my personal best. I finally got my 245 pound deadlift a few months ago and it was the best feeling ever! I am a pretty tiny lady so it feels amazing to be able to lift that much weight with good form.

Let's face it, I love anything that I can lift super heavy.

Here are seven reasons why the deadlift is a superb exercise for serious athletes or a great workout in general.

1. If you are a bodybuilder or a person who generally wants to put on some serious muscle, very few things add slabs of hard muscle to your body like heavy deadlifts.

2. If you are a powerlifter or strongman, you know your success in this sport depends a lot on how good your deadlift is. The deadlift is where power meets are won and lost and in any given strongman competition, one or more events are strongly deadlift based.

3. Deadlifting builds a pretty decent grip at least once you get fairly strong at it. In most sports, having a stronger grip will make you a better athlete. If you are female, you can stop asking your husband to open jars for you because you will be able to crack those suckers open in one swift motion. For myself, adding deadlifts into my lifting program I became stronger and put on some serious muscle onto my small frame. I am very proud of this!

4. If you program your deadlift training sensibly, it will make you a lot STRONGER from head-to-toe. In particular your glutes, hamstrings, entire back, core, forearms, and grip will get stronger.

When you get stronger good things usually happen. For instance, you will probably notice that you get FASTER and more POWERFUL too. Faster, more powerful athletes are always better athletes.

5. The deadlift teaches AGGRESSION. If you aren’t aggressive with a heavy pull it isn't going to move very far. This aggression is something that many sports require, so there is a nice carry over effect.

6. The deadlift really hits the posterior chain hard (the back of the body). So GUYS if you are one of those guys who has over-trained the ‘mirror muscles’ (front of your body), incorporating deadlifts into your training is a great way to bring balance back to your physique. Having imbalances can put a lot of stress on your body in the long run. Time to stop having international chest and bicep days three times per week.

So there you have it…

Now, before you rush off to pull a Deadlift PR, I need to tell you a couple of important things…

You must deadlift with good form. Failure to do so can result in some extremely nasty injuries. But, the prevention method is simple, learn to deadlift with good technique!
You must program your deadlift training sensibly. Seriously, this is not one of these exercises that you can do two or three times per week, especially if you start to get into the heavier phase of deadlifts. I will only go to my max once every month or two. In between I will deadlift to 75 per cent of my max only every two weeks. It's very taxing on the body and a lot of hard work!

Be patient and your heavy deadlifts will come in time!

Angelique Kronebusch Fitness