The Perfect Deadlift Warm-Up
Written by Drew Shempp

Few exercises invoke as much excitement in members! Who doesn’t love picking up a huge weight, and quaking the immediate ground around them upon the drop!? Technically speaking the deadlift is a simple lift. With a straight bar path, any body can perform this simplistic lift with a lot of success and benefit from the hormonal release, the spinal loading, and leg and back development the lift produce As with any movement proper warm up is essential to prepare our Central Nervous System and spine to move our weight properly.

How Do I Warm-Up For a Deadlift?

For a deadlift centric day I love to prioritize my low back, hamstrings, and hips. Touching each one of these spots before we are grabbing a bar is important to get the body going! After hitting an easy cardio machine (bike, rower, ski erg, treadmill, etc.) to increase blood flow across the body, I would choose about 3-4 of the following to make sure my hips and spine are loosened up for the heavy to come. 

Hips and Spine Stretches

These movements will mobilize the hip and spine, allowing that area to function properly through the lift.

Alternating Scorpions

Cat Cows

Cossack Squats

Glute Activation Movements

Activating the glutes and making sure they are firing is an essential part of the deadlift, that utilizes the posterior chain. Hit these exercises to start that fire in the glutes!

Banded Clamshells

Monster Walks

Banded Good Mornings

Don’t Forget Your Lats!

Last, but not least, often overlooked in one’s deadlift day, your lats! These huge muscles maintain tension to the upper body and prevent the bar from getting away from us. Hands down the best tool for this a banded lat pulldown! This movement makes you engage and keep a PVC close to you while you pull.

Banded Lat Pulldown

You Are Ready To Deadlift

With these done, the body is good to go! From here we just need some light deadlfits to get going a build according to the day in question. As with any movement or lifting day, more warm-up is always going to elevate your training. Consider some time spent on the movements above if you feel like you’ve hit a plateau on your deadlifts.

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