Deadlift: The Backsquat for the PULL

When I was down in Waterloo training under Jianping Ma he had me doing lots of deadlifts and I didn't like them. I didn't like the deadlift. The Bulgarians didn't deadlift. The deadlift wasn't a squat and they were hard. There was many reasons why I didn't like the deadlift back then! But now I see them differently.

The deadlift is kind of like the back squat. It's a derivative and isn't all that specific to weightlifting. But the back squat can make your legs generally strong, which can help your front squat and help you stand up with heavy cleans. Some people think the back squat helps your pull but I don't subscribe to that. If you hinge over and good morning your back squat like a Powerlifter, then yes it's very similar to a pull and will help your pull. With an upright torso, deep knee bend, ass to the grass the back squat is like a front squat only easier, so you can use more weight.

In a similar way, the deadlift can give you general pulling strength which can help your specific snatch or clean pull, which can help your snatch or clean. It's also a basic hinge movement. When you pick something up off the ground, be it a pencil or a barbell, you can either pick it up by hinging or squatting. In weightlifting, we pull the weight off the floor in a hinging motion, followed by a a squat to catch and recover the weight damn near in the same moment. Your body needs to know the difference from a hing and a squat. Some people are better squatters some better hingers, but you need to master both. The deadlift has helped my body awareness of hinging. With my body type I can very easily fall into the pattern of squatting my pull. The squat is avery natural movement for me, hinging is not.

One final point about the deadlift. I don't like singles and I don't think you need to test the deadlift for a single. The deadlift can increase work capacity through sets and reps.

If you are training very minimally with only snatch, clean and jerk, squat, don't be afraid to throw some deadlifts in the mix. At the very least you will be training your pull in a very general way as opposed to not at all, and it just may be a game changer.

I don't have much experience with the so called Romanian Deadlift. In all respect it seems like a advanced hinging movement and difficult to perform correctly. I may try to implement them in my future training. But first things first, mastery of the deadlift.