Marty Gallagher gave an amazing deadlifting seminar last week in Lutherville Timonium MD. Stephen Holt of 29 Again Custom Fitness was kind enough to host it for us. Here’s a summary of what he taught.

For those who may not be familiar with Marty, he is simply one of the top Power Lifting Coaches in the whole world and we are lucky enough to have him in our own back yard.  His passion though is the deadlift and he has handled at least a dozen world record holders.

According to Marty, there are 5 components to deadlifting proficiency. Remember that it isn’t all that hard to learn how to  deadlift safely, but that it will take years to master.  Let’s hold on a moment though. Safety is paramount. A well executed deadlift is one of the best exercises known to man.  Done poorly, you are on injury’s doorstep.

If you’ve never deadlifted before, or even if you have, then you may seriously want to consider the approach that Marty uses will all of his athletes. And please don’t pass go and collect your $200 until you are able to finish Phase 1 with correct form. I suggest you may want to video your work so you can evaluate it properly.

The first step to a well formed deadlift is to develop the leg power needed to move a heavy barbell off the floor. You will be utilizing leg power and leg power alone to get the bar moving and hips and back to finish the deadlift.  To begin this process we start with an ultra-deep, bodyweight paused squat.

Here are the steps .

1. You will set your feet at approximate shoulder width. Don’t pinch your stance.
2. As you descend, sit back and down and keep your knees over your ankles as much as possible here as well as on the ascent.
3. Keep your trunk as upright as you can. Your shoulders need to stay behind your knees.
4. Drop all the way down until the “hole.”  Relax into it and get your butt to heels.  If you can’t comfortably relax in order to create some depth then you may use a door way or something similar for some support. Pause.
5. Come out of the squat with strength. No jerking and no rocketing out of the bottom. Move slowly and strongly.
6. DO NOT your butt come up first on ascent. Everything must arrive at once.  This may be the most important component to developing your BW squat. It can’t be emphasized enough.
7. As your rise, make sure your knees stay forced out and over your feet. They cannot collapse.
8. Work up to being able 3 sets of 20 paused deep body weight squats.

Train with purpose,

Sandy Sommer RKC