For many fitness enthusiasts and athletes the deadlift is often a forgotten and neglected exercise. Perhaps this is down to fear and uncertainty of performing a technical exercise or maybe it is simply a lack of understanding just how fundamental this movement can be to achieving a strong and healthy body in union with a burly cardiovascular system. Women often suggest that these kinds of exercises should be avoided because doing them will lead to bulking of muscle – a look many women want to avoid. This is a myth and simply not true, women will not get big and bulky like a man might due to the difference in genetics and the hormone testosterone. Let’s explore why the deadlift can be such an effective exercise for many men and women looking to get into shape:
Full body exercise:
The deadlift can provide us with increased strength gains and acquired lean muscle mass. The exercise is a compound movement and it recruits just about every major muscle in the body to perform it. These include the quadriceps, gluteals, spinal erectors, hamstrings, trapezius, Latssimus dorsi, abdominals, obliques, calves and forearms to name a few.
Fat burning exercise:
Completing this move not only provides gains in strength but requires large amounts of energy to complete each repetition. This helps to get us into great shape as we add muscle and lose body fat.
Increased body stability:
Deadlifting recruits our stabilizer muscles, which support the larger primary muscles involved with the movement. Stabilizer muscles are often neglected, particularly in mainstream gymnasiums where weight machines (which encourage isolation) play a significant role in fitness routines. Performing exercises like the deadlift recruit high amounts of stabilizer muscles, these will help you to avoid imbalances, poor posture and reduce your risk of injury.
Improved posture:
This highly depends on performing the deadlift movement correct at every repetition, so do your research or get the help of a professional. The deadlift exercise strengthens the lower back muscles and the entire core, this can help people to overcome or prevent back problems by creating better balance of all the muscles.
Improved grip strength:
When deadlifting you need to be able to manually grip lots of weight. Performing this exercise will improve your grip and forearm strength greatly. This can then be transferred to other exercises and activities in your daily life, making lifting a much easier task.
Transferable to real life:
Every day we have to lift items both light and heavy, the deadlift exercise trains us to lift items correctly and safely to perform any tasks quickly and safely.
Reduced risk of injury:
Strengthening the back and hamstrings through the deadlift can provide protection against many injuries – this is particularly useful as we get older!
Increased confidence:
Knowing you have mastered this technique and lift will make you feel great and full of achievement. This will make you more confident performing other complicated exercise and big lifts.
Increased energy and vigour:
A stronger body and cardiovascular system means you will be and feel more energetic.
Improved sports performance:
To be the best you can you need to be built the best you can. The deadlift certainly ensures that this will happen if done correctly and consistently. A strong core allows you to build your body from the inside out – ensuring a well rounded body creates a well rounded athlete with improvements in faster foot movement, greater agility and stability, increased strength and incredible power.
Looking great:
Women can achieve the figure they have always desired and worked hard to get by implementing the deadlift exercise into their workout routines. Muscle can be developed in all the key areas that a woman might desire most i.e. bum, legs and hips. The deadlift exercise can help you to achieve the results of all the body toning classes you could possibly attend in one week!
Final words:
It is important to understand that this exercise is not for everyone. This would only apply to a select few i.e. people with injuries or illnesses that could be aggravated by the deadlift or people with specific sporting/fitness goals where the deadlift may not be relevant. Speak to your doctor, physio or coach about wether the deadlift is for you – unless there is something preventing you from performing it, the benefits are just too great to ignore.
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Tags: Core Stability, Exercise, Fitness, Training
