What does deadlifts do for you

If you're bored with squats and lunges, deadlifts are an effective way to take lower-body day to a more advanced level. Like many strength-training moves, Vicknair says that deadlifts trigger the production of anabolic fat-burning hormones in the body, particularly when lifting heavy. What's more, a study found that deadlifts are one of the most efficient exercises you can do from a metabolism-boosting perspective , given that they enlist so many large lower-body muscles.

As Vicknair explains it, deadlifts are a form of functional fitness —they mirror movements that we do in our day-to-day lives and help strengthen the muscles associated with those movement patterns. Deadlifts essentially mimic the way we pick things up and put things down on the ground.

When we add deadlifts to our workout routines, these motions become safer and easier over time. Picture a deadlift and you might imagine a bodybuilder lifting a giant barbell in the gym. While this is one way to execute the move, you don't need to be able to lift heavy weights to do a deadlift safely.

And even if you're a pro at doing deadlifts, you should always warm up with an empty bar first. Vicknair says the amount of weight someone should lift depends on their body type and gender. If you're able to execute the exercise with ease using a given weight, she says you can gradually increase your weight by pounds per set. But any time your form starts to suffer or you feel pain, you should go down in weight. Vicknair always recommends perfecting your basic deadlift technique before you move on to a more advanced variation.

More on that in a minute. But once you've got the essential movement down, there are several ways you can modify it to target slightly different muscle groups. Ready to graduate to a single-leg Romanian deadlift? Watch this video to make sure you're doing it the right way:. Stand with feet hip-width apart. Reach down to grab the bar, with your knees bent and your butt back.

Keep back straight and neck neutral. Keep your shoulders down, away from your ears. Engage your core as you bend down. Drive your feet through the floor and squeeze your glutes to extend your hips and come to a standing position. Stand with the kettlebell between your feet. Bend down and grab the handle with both hands, keeping your back neutral and straight.

Engage your core while you slowly rise up with the kettlebell. Stand with a bar or dumbbells in your hands. Slowly lower the bar, bending at your hips. Keep your back straight and lower the bar just past your knees.

Use your legs to pull the bar back up. Stand on both feet with arms at your sides. Keeping hips facing forward and back straight, bend forward at your hips, lifting right leg backward and stretching your arms forward. Return to the starting position by bringing arms down to your sides and right leg back to the floor.

Stand with feet slightly wider than shoulder width. Hold a kettlebell or dumbbell with both hands. Slowly bend your knees until thighs are parallel to the floor while lowering the kettlebell.

Engage your core as you raise yourself up using your hips and legs and bring the kettlebell up to chest level. Using a low bench or step, place your left foot comfortably behind you. Keeping your back straight and core engaged, lean forward, letting your arms fall forward toward the floor.

Deadlifts are the unicorn of the fitness world. Successfully losing weight, particularly via losing body fat, requires you to burn more calories than you consume in a given period of time. Traditional weight loss programs combine dietary modifications to reduce calorie intake and physical activity to increase calorie burning. When it comes to effectively increasing your metabolism through movement, studies suggest that resistance training with exercises like the deadlift may be among the most efficient methods to increase calorie burn, all with less overall time spent training in the gym 7.

The previously mentioned benefits are based on scientific research. Yet, there are some subjective benefits of deadlifts that make them an effective exercise in practice. For example, deadlifts allow you to lift large amounts of weight without positioning the weight on top of you. In the event of a failed repetition, you can usually safely drop the weight without risking major injury.

Exercises like the barbell back squat or bench press are also effective training methods. However, you generally cannot risk going as heavy without a spotter given that a failed repetition can literally crush you. If you typically work out alone, deadlifts are a good way to safely add heavier training to your workouts.

The final subjective benefit of deadlifts is the relative simplicity of the equipment. All you need is a barbell and some plates, or a weighted object with a handle, such as a kettlebell, to perform the movement. Unlike other exercises that require specific equipment or access to a power rack, deadlifts are a very minimalist exercise for the extensive benefits they provide. Deadlifts provide a range of scientifically proven health and fitness benefits. Additionally, deadlifts offer some subjective, practical benefits compared with other exercises.

The deadlift is far from a single exercise, and multiple variations allow you to target specific benefits. Additionally, changing up the deadlift variation after performing a particular variation for 4—8 weeks can be beneficial for long-term continued gains. The Sumo deadlift variation has you adopt a much wider stance, with your feet turned 45 degrees or more outward. This results in increased activation of the inner thigh muscles, which can provide some athletes with greater leverage.

In particular, research suggests that Sumo deadlifts offer advantages for athletes with longer torsos in terms of being able to lift more total weight 8. The single-leg deadlift involves a similar motion as the standard deadlift. The difference is that as you lean forward, one leg stays straight at the hip as your foot leaves the floor and extends behind you.

With the single-leg deadlift, maintaining a straight torso position requires increased activation of the core muscles to prevent any inward or outward rotation. Some research suggests that warming up with single-leg deadlifts may reduce markers of muscle damage following the end of a training session 9. Romanian deadlifts have you maintain a slight bend in your knee as you hinge forward at your waist, compared with the more aggressive bend found in a traditional deadlift.

This results in more emphasis on your glutes and hamstrings and less emphasis on your quadriceps. Research using electrical measurements of muscle activation found similar gluteus maximus activation during the Romanian deadlift and barbell hip thrust, which is a glute-specific exercise. Both the Romanian deadlift and barbell hip thrust led to much greater gluteus maximus activation than a back squat, whose pattern is more similar to that of the traditional deadlift With this in mind, the Romanian deadlift is a great way to add increased training for the gluteus maximus.

The stiffed-legged deadlift is performed with your knees virtually locked straight. The entire raising and lowering motions come from hinging at your waist. Research has shown that the stiff-legged deadlift places much greater emphasis on your hamstring muscles compared with other deadlift variations In the deficit deadlift, you stand on a modestly raised platform — typically 4—8 inches 10—20 cm high — in relation to the resting position of the barbell.

This variation trains the same muscles as the deadlift but allows for a greater range of motion due to the lowered position of the barbell relative to your shins. Research suggests that deficit deadlifts may improve the strength balance between your hamstrings and quadricep complex , potentially reducing your risk of a hamstring injury Plates are added to standard-style sleeves that protrude from the side of the hexagon.

The hex bar deadlift allows a more natural hand position and allows the direction of the weight to be completely in line with the rest of your body.