Conventional Deadlift

The conventional deadlift is a hip-hinge strength exercise where you lift a barbell from the floor to hip height. It mainly trains your glutes, hamstrings, and lower-back erectors, with your lats and upper-back traps working to keep the bar close and your torso stable.

Stand with your feet about hip-width apart, toes under the bar so it sits over the middle of your foot. Bend at the hips and knees to reach down and grip the bar just outside your legs, using an overhand grip or a mixed grip if the bar slips. Drop your hips, keep a flat back, pull your shoulder blades down and back, and look at a spot on the floor a few feet in front of you.

Brace your core, then push the floor away and drive your hips forward at the same time. Keep the bar touching or close to your shins and thighs as it rises. Stand tall at the top with your shoulders over your hips and knees locked, hips extended. Lower the bar by pushing your hips back and sliding it down your thighs, then bend your knees once the bar passes them and return it to the floor under control.

Take a big breath into your belly and tighten your midsection before each pull; hold that brace until you finish the rep or set the bar down. To make it easier, set the bar on blocks or small plates to shorten the range of motion, or practice with a kettlebell deadlift first. To make it harder, pull from a deficit with the bar on a low plate or add a pause just below the knee.

Fault: The lower back rounds as the bar leaves the floor. Fix: Pull your ribs down, brace your abs, and think about keeping a long, neutral spine from start to finish.

Fault: The hips shoot up first and the pull turns into a stiff-leg deadlift. Fix: Take your time setting your hip position, then push with your legs while your shoulders and hips rise together.

Fault: The bar drifts forward away from the legs. Fix: Engage your lats to keep the bar close, letting it brush your shins and thighs on the way up and down.

Fault: Hyperextending the lower back at the top and leaning back. Fix: Finish standing tall with hips fully forward and glutes squeezed, then reset without arching backward.