How to *Finally* Do a Deadlift with Perfect Form

If you’ve been skipping deadlifts because you’re afraid of injury, we get it. The deadlift isn’t an easy move to perfect, and if you’re prone to low back pain, the last thing you want is a flare up. 

But if done with proper form, deadlifts can help you improve stability, have better performance in endurance sports like cycling, running, and rowing, and can help keep you moving pain-free both in and out of the gym. And while it can feel like an intimidating move, once you break the movement down into a series of steps, it’s super accessible. 

Here’s what you need to know to make sure you’re getting the most out of every deadlift you complete—and staying safe in the process. 

Benefits of Deadlifts 

“A deadlift is an effective lower body strength move,” says Peloton instructor Selena Samuela. Why? “It lights up your posterior chain and calls on your hamstrings and glutes to do the major portion of the work,” she says.  

If you’re like most of us, you sit for a significant portion of your day—and during that time, your hamstring and glute muscles are inactive. Meanwhile, if you spend time working the front part of your body (think quads and abs) without strengthening your posterior chain, you’re setting yourself up for imbalances that can interfere with healthy movement patterns, and ultimately result in pain and dysfunction. 

Still not convinced deadlifts need to be part of your fitness program? Here’s a breakdown on why you need to be doing them. 

Compound Movement 

The deadlift offers a lot of bang for your buck, especially if you’re pressed for time. Because the move engages muscles across multiple joints, deadlifts are considered a compound movement. Unlike a bicep curl, where you’re only moving at the elbow and engaging only one muscle group at a time, deadlifts have you moving across multiple joints, including your ankles, knees, and hips, thereby activating multiple muscle groups at once. 

This type of movement is an excellent way to save time, while promoting the growth and development of multiple muscles. 

Functional Fitness 

Whether you’re tasked with moving a bag of dog food from your shopping cart to your trunk, moving furniture, or shoveling snow, doing deadlifts in the gym will help you move outside of the gym with more ease, power, and stability. 

Injury Prevention

Known for targeting the posterior chain, or the muscles that run along the back of your body, including the erector spinae, gluteus maximus, and hamstrings, deadlifts help stabilize your spine and pelvis, which lowers your risk of low back injury, while helping to improve your overall posture, which can reduce your risk of upper back, shoulder, and neck pain. 

Muscles Worked By the Deadlift

While the deadlift does an amazing job of working your posterior chain (i.e. the muscles that support the back side of your body), particularly the backs of your legs, it also engages parts of your upper body. So while you might expect to feel soreness in your glutes and hamstrings after doing deadlifts, don’t be surprised if you also feel your workout in your back (specifically, your latissimus dorsi muscles, or lats). 

Want more details? Here’s a breakdown of exactly which muscles get a workout when you do a deadlift. 

Hamstrings

The hamstrings are the muscles that run down the backs of your thighs, starting at your hip and ending at your knee, including the biceps femoris, the semimembranosus, and the semitendinosus. They’re responsible for helping you perform several movements, including bending your knee, extending your hip, and rotating your hip joint and play a key role in the concentric part of the lift, when you’re picking your weight up off the floor. 

Gluteus Maximus 

Your gluteus maximus (a.k.a. glutes) are the large muscles of your buttocks which make it possible for you to extend your hip as you pick your weight up and come up to a standing position. 

Quadriceps 

Your quadriceps, or quads, are the large muscles that extend from your hips to your knees, and are responsible for knee extension. While they’re not as active as your hamstrings during a deadlift, they do play a role in helping you straighten your knees as you pick your weight up and come to a standing position.

Latissimus Dorsi 

Your latissimus dorsi, or lats, are the large muscles that extend across much of your mid to low back and they play a significant role in performing deadlifts safely. Without engaging your lats, your spine would be inclined to succumb to gravity and flex forward as you lift your weight off the ground. But by engaging your lats, you can keep your spine in a neutral, stable position throughout the entire lift. 

Erector Spinae 

Your erector spinae, or the long thin muscles that run up and down along the length of your spine, are there to stabilize and support your spine. During a deadlift, they work to prevent your back from rounding as you pull your weight up from the floor. 

Trapezius

Your trapezius muscle resembles a trapezoid and extends from the base of your skull down to your mid-back and out to the upper part of your shoulder blade. Like your lats, your traps need to contract in order to protect your spine as you perform a deadlift. 

Core 

Deadlifts also work your core. While your core isn’t a prime mover in this exercise, you do need to engage your abdominal muscles, including your obliques, in order to keep your lower back stable and in alignment as you perform the lift. The heavier your weight, the more you’ll need to engage your core. 

How to Properly Set Up a Deadlift

Just like you wouldn’t build a house on a shaky foundation, when you do a deadlift, you need to put your body in the right position before you begin to lift your weight. Here’s how: 

If you’re not confident that your setup is correct, pause and take a look in the mirror or take a video of yourself and play it back. You risk doing more harm than good if you rush through the proper deadlift set up. 

Proper Deadlift Form: The Lift

Once you’ve got the proper deadlift set up dialed in, it’s time to lift your weight. The key to this movement is in the hip hinge. “Hip hinging is the name of the game,” explains Selena. “You keep your spine in a neutral position but push your booty back so that your hips hinge to pick up your weight from the floor, there should be a slight bend to the knee, you don't want your knees locked, but you also don't want too much bend in the knee like a squat.” 

Here’s how to make sure you have proper deadlift form, step by step: 

1. Make sure you’re set up properly 

Your hips should be hinged, knees slightly bend, back flat, spine neutral, and your shoulders externally rotated, as detailed above.

2. Lift your weight

While holding your breath and keeping your shoulders down and back, stand up with the weight. You should feel this movement mainly in your hamstrings, glutes, and lats. This is known as the concentric part of the lift. 

3. Pause at the top

Hold your weights for one second at the top, with your hips and knees locked, and your chest open. 

4. Lower your weight down 

Bring the weights back to the floor by hinging at the hips and bending your knees. This is known as the eccentric portion of the lift. 

Deadlift Variations

Whether you’re looking to spice up your workout, you need to modify your deadlifts to accommodate any musculoskeletal issues, or you just want to target slightly different muscles, there are plenty of variations you can try. Here are three of our favorites. 

Sumo Deadlift 

Execute a sumo deadlift just as you would a traditional deadlift, only with your feet spread out wide, well outside your hands. This variation, which you’ll feel in your inner thighs, is a great alternative if you have trouble getting enough ankle flexion to perform a conventional deadlift with proper form.

Romanian Deadlift 

While a conventional deadlift has you start with your weight on the floor, the Romanian deadlift has you begin while holding your weight in a standing position. Another key difference is that your knees are much straighter during a Romanian deadlift; while you should bend them, you only want slight flexion. 

While a typical cue for a conventional deadlift is to push the floor away from the weights, with a Romanian deadlift, it helps to focus on pulling through the hips. This variation requires less loading through your knees than a traditional deadlift. 

B-Stance Deadlift 

To do a B-stance deadlift, start with your feet hip-width apart, as you normally would, then take a half step back with one foot and rest your toes on the ground so that your knee is slightly bent and you’re in a staggered stance. The goal is to use your rear leg mainly for balance, with most of the muscle engagement coming from the forward leg. This is an excellent move to address any asymmetries and to improve balance. 

How to Know If You're Doing a Deadlift Correctly

When done with proper form, the deadlift is an invaluable move. But if your form is off, you risk back pain, unnecessary stress on your back, low back muscle strain, or even potential injuries. “The biggest and arguably one of the worst mistakes you can make is rounding your back. You should always engage your core and keep your spine in a neutral position. Rounding your back could risk injury,” says Selena. 

Not sure whether you’ve got your form dialed in? Here are a few strategies to help you nail it every single time. 

Hire a Professional 

There’s just no replacement for a second pair of trained eyes to give you real time feedback, offer demonstrations, and even tactile cues to show you how you can improve. Investing in a qualified personal trainer or physical therapist isn’t cheap, but it’ll pay dividends over time.

Take a Video

There’s a lot you can learn just by watching yourself that wouldn’t necessarily pick up on otherwise, especially if you slow down or pause the playback. 

Look In the Mirror

If you have access to a mirror, position yourself so that you’re at a perpendicular angle to it, and take a peek before you pick the bar up off the floor. This is a great way to tell whether your spine is in alignment and to check your hip height. 

Check Your Starting Position

Before you pick your weights up off the floor, check that: