Benefits Of Deficit Deadlifts

I fought against implement deficit deadlifts for a long time. I saw video after video of people performing them with terrible positioning, rounded lower back with the pelvis tucked under, and really just turning them into an odd looking stiff leg deadlift. But rather than allow my bias to continue, I feel like I have found great use of deficit deadlifts recently. The typical reasoning I had heard for implementing deficits as a variation was to increase someone’s strength off the floor on the deadlift. But with seeing them typically performed incorrectly, that didn’t really click with me. But what I have come to realize is the understanding of HOW deficit deadlifts can improve strength off the floor, and it is not just because you perform them. It is because you perform them with proper position and leg drive to learn to to actively recruit the legs, specifically the quads, correctly in the starting position to “leg press” the floor away. One caveat to all of this is that this pertains to conventional deadlift only. Sumo deadlifts done in a deficit places the lifter in a very odd position that will either result in significant hip shoot or just end up replicating a wide stance squat. The squat in general tends to train the sumo deadlift very well, so I’d prefer to rely on squat volume and intensity to produce that adaptation rather than try sumo in a deficit variation. So with that being said, I wanted to give a breakdown of the when, how and why of implementing deficits with success.

1. As I’ve already alluded to, the main reason I have programmed deficit deadlifts is to help a particular athletes with understanding how to properly utilize leg drive in the starting position of their deadlift. I would consider this a more advanced variation though, and I think the reason it is misused so often is that people jump right to deficits rather than learning the basics of deadlifting prior. As shown above (CLICK HERE), Joaquin already had a decent deadlift. His positioning was fairly good, bar path was solid, and he developed good tension off the floor. But he tended to lock his knees out too early, and I blame this on the over thinking of the cue “pull” rather than “leg press” off the floor. The first thing he mentioned when I had him do deficits is how much more he felt his quads engaged, and that was spot on with what I was looking for. For someone who has more issues with their deadlift and cannot achieve good positioning, tension, and bar path, I am probably not going to implement deficit deadlifts. Instead, I’d rather work on technique and form on their normal competition deadlift and maybe with pause deadlifts as well. But when someone needs that last little bit of leg drive reinforcement off the floor, deficits are starting to becoming my go to.

2. So that is the when and why, so let’s now take a look at the how. The single biggest thing I think I may do different than others with a deficit deadlift is that I don’t want much of a deficit at all. Typically 1.5 to 2 inches at most, or else it starts to become a very different movement, and a movement where a lifter most likely will not be able to maintain proper lumbar and pelvic position. Just like with how I program close grip bench press, we do not want to stray too far away from our normal competition movement pattern or else we start creating new habits that may carry over in a bad way. Second, one of my biggest pet peeves is seeing people touch and go on deficit deadlifts, which pretty much eliminates the whole point of doing them. If we are bouncing off the floor, that momentum is carrying through that 1.5-2 inch deficit and now just putting us right back into our normal deadlift position anyways. And lastly, we need to make sure the deficit variation is creating the desired effect we want on the lifter’s movement pattern. With the video above we can see this all in action. Notice how Joaquin’s knees were locking prematurely and how initially off the floor he had a slight hip rise and chest fall. Whereas with the deficit deadlifts, as soon as he initiates the movement his hips and chest rise together, tension stays on his quads as well and he “leg presses” the floor away.  His lock out is more fluid between the hips and knees, rather than mainly a hip extension dominant lock out. If we are implementing a variation of any of the competition movements to help improve some type of position or movement fault, it is vital that we see that improvement within the variation. If we are not, then it is just reinforcing the same bad positions and not achieving the desired effect.

How To Control Pelvic Position In The Squat

The infamous glute squeeze at the top of the squat. The “fitspo girls” do it thinking it increases glute activation while powerlifters tend to do it to create a neutral pelvis during their initial bracing, and both are wrong. For powerlifters, it is very important that we find neutrality with our pelvis before we descend, but using the glutes to achieve this is a misconception that stems from a misunderstanding of how we stabilize the pelvis. The single biggest issue stems from the fact that if we are to stabilize the pelvis in a neutral position, we need to do so with a muscle that is going to be in an isometric contraction throughout the entirety of the squat. The glutes unfortunately cannot accomplish that, and typically the first thing you see with those that squeeze their glutes at the top is that they do exactly what they were trying not to do, which is move into an anterior pelvic tilt. The fact is the glutes must lengthen as we descend, so they cannot stay in this squeezed/contracted position. Instead we need to use the abdominals and obliques to control our pelvic position through proper bracing. A simple way to show this is to stand up straight and then forcefully exhale as hard as you can. If you were to take a video from the side while doing this, you would probably see that as your abs and obliques contract from the forceful exhale that your pelvis pulls under you. This is the same concept we want in the squat. We need our abdominals and obliques to isometrically contract and hold our pelvis in the proper position throughout. Any time we see anterior movement of the pelvis, that immediately tells us then our abdominals and obliques are lengthening rather than staying isometrically contracted, a fault many lifters have.

I had to go way back in @netzer_strong’s videos to find the above comparison (CLICK HERE), as a couple years ago he was at fault of the “glute squeeze”. We can see that because of this  the first motion he had was this booty pop as the glutes un-contracted and stretched. Whereas on the video on the right, Joe starts in a soft hip position with a neutral brace, so all he really has to do is drop the hips straight down while driving the knees forward. To counter the “glute squeeze”, the setup Joe is in on the right is exactly what I coach. A soft hip position now allows the lifter to counter their natural instinct of needing to pop the hips back, and rather now just drop them straight down.

Best Bench Cue You’ve Never Heard Of

In the bench we have movement at two main joints, the shoulder and the elbow. Just like in the squat where we aim for the most efficient use of both the hips and knees, we need to put priority on doing the same for the bench press. I talk about all the time the importance of having an even break at the knees and hips in the squat, but in the bench press it is a bit different. For the most part, I want my lifters to ignore their shoulders. What I mean by this is that a quality setup that places the lifters shoulders in a retracted and depressed position while elevating the rib cage takes care of placing the shoulders into their optimal movement pattern. From there, the main thing we should do when initiating the bench press is to “break at the elbows”. Too often lifters over-exaggerate movement at the shoulder, which coincides with over-tucking the elbows, an over emphasis on the lats, and a touch point that is too low. In all 3 above examples (CLICK HERE) of Jesse, Patrick, and Lorenzo, we can see when they over-exaggerate the shoulder movement that it creates an odd sticking point off the chest as they try to press the bar back. The reason for this is they have positioned themselves to where they are having to heavily relying on the anterior deltoids, a fairly weak muscle, to in sense “front raise” the bar back and up over their shoulders. For all 3 of these lifters, cueing them to “break at the elbows” created the proper elbow flare and touch point to create more a efficient press. This cue not only takes care of the shoulder movement and over tucking issue but it also is my main go to, along with grip position, to help lifters learn to flare their elbows and internally rotate properly. All in all, unlike the squat where we need to focus on breaking evenly at the hips and knees, in the bench press we should prioritize “breaking at the elbows” to create a stacked joint position that creates a more efficient bench press.

The Hamstring’s Role In The Deadlift

The hamstrings play an interesting role in the deadlift. They are a primary hip extensor, which is an extremely important role in a hip hinge dominant movement. But less talked about is the hamstring’s role in the anti-extension of the knee joint. The hamstrings act against the quadricep in the role of knee extension, and when utilized correctly it helps to stabilize the knee joint and prevent the knees from locking too soon. But when the hamstrings are inefficiently used in the deadlift, in this case over biased towards, what we can see from Matt’s deadlift (CLICK HERE) is this battle between the hamstring and the quad with the hamstring winning. Now at the same time though, if we bias too much the opposite way anteriorly towards the quads, the scenario we see then is the hip shoot deadlift where the knees immediately lock and the lifter ends up looking like they are doing a stiff leg deadlift. So in summary, there needs to be this perfect happy medium between the hamstring and the quads to create the most efficient deadlift.

The first video is of Matt’s 661lb. PR deadlift from this past week, with some major form improvements all around. Notate how there is distinct leg drive to initiate the bar breaking from the floor, followed by the knees locking and the hips extending. In the sumo deadlift especially, we want to see this distinct knee lock and hip lock in that order. It is a fairly quick action, with the knees locking preceding the hips locking by a fraction of a second. In this example of Matt’s deadlift, we see the hamstrings working conjointly with the quadriceps to optimize the mechanics of the knee joint.

In the second video from a couple months back we see what happens when the hamstrings become too dominant within the sumo deadlift. Matt was biasing towards his posterior chain, and if you were to zoom in and watch in slow motion you could see this even before the bar left the floor through the pressure of his foot (rocking back towards his heel and “twinkle toes”). As the bar breaks the floor the hamstrings and quads fight against each other, with the posterior bias he displays emphasizing tension on the hamstrings. But his body is wanting to bias more towards his quads to find the more efficient position. This can be seen in the “leg shakes” that occur right after the pause. His quads are trying to extend the knee but the hamstrings are not fully allowing it. And then by lockout, you can see that as he fully extends at the hips his knees unlock yet again due to the hamstring trying flex the knee and overruling the quadricep.

So what was the fix for this? It sounds simplistic, but it mostly comes down to foot pressure off the floor. If we get that right, most of the time the hamstring vs. quad tensioning will take care of itself. I had Matt initially deadlift barefoot and then proceed to wearing slippers rather than shoes, as this helped to establish a better connection to the floor with the foot. From there we emphasized a more patient pull, developing tension pre-pull by driving the knees forward and out as he pulls the chest up. He uses the patient tension build to find the correct pressure at his mid-foot and leverages the bar to pull his mid-foot directly into the floor.

Shoulder Mobility Tips For The Low Bar Squat

Shoulder mobility can play a large role in the low bar squat, and for those who may lack shoulder mobility it can create problems not only at the thoracic spine, but all the way down the chain.

While I do not want to call this a simple fix, I have 3 go-tos that have worked fairly well. The first is really just the cueing and setup of the low bar squat. The general idea is that we are trying to do a “lat pulldown” with the bar. During a lat pulldown we are retracting and depressing our shoulders and using the lats to adduct the arm, and that is the same tension we want to create throughout our upper back during the low bar squat. The only slight difference is our elbow position, and often times its a simple as cueing a lifter to push their elbows forward as well.  But to help with the process there are two mobility drills I really find useful and have seen good results with, and that is a PVC pipe preacher stretch with controlled breathing and direct lacrosse ball work on the pec, particular the pec minor. The pec is an internal rotator, and many times tightness from the high volumes of bench pressing can offset the shoulder mobility improvements we have. So the combination of these 2 exercises seem to work best. For a more in depth breakdown of these drills, CLICK HERE and scroll over to 2nd and 3rd videos for full demonstrations!

With all that being said, a variable that always needs to be looked at as well is grip width. A good starting point I find is the same width you would use for a lat pulldown, but from there is becomes more individual based on shoulder mobility and a lifter’s ability to maintain thoracic tightness. Typically the wider the grip width, the more difficult it will be to stay tight, and vice versa. The downside though of a narrower grip is a higher need for shoulder mobility and an increased risk of developing some type of biceps tendon or elbow pain from the high demands of being in that compacted position.