The deadlift is unarguably is one of the best compound exercises that you can do to develop muscles, strength, and power. And in this article, I’m going to share the 10 best undeniable health benefits of the deadlift that will motivate you to do deadlifting.
Deadlifts are advanced level exercise which requires proper techniques and greater strength. And many people skip or avoid deadlifts because of the fear of injuries.
However, If you perform deadlifts with a proper technique, it can be beneficial for overall health. And gives you several reasons why you should start doing the deadlift.
Muscles Involved in the deadlifts are– quadriceps, hamstring, glutes, back, shoulders, core, and various synergist muscles in the upper body.
Equipment needed to perform the deadlifts: Olympic Barbell, weigh-plates, and dumbbells.
First of all, we’ll see how to do a deadlift with step by step instructions, then what are the benefits of the deadlift, and at last, some questions and answers related to it.
How to perform Conventional barbell deadlift
- Set the weight-plates into a barbell according to your lifting capacity.
- Stand straight with your feet shoulder-width apart, and place your feet under the bar.
- Bend your knees and hips just enough to reach and grab onto the bar.
- Grip the bar firmly with an overhand grip. Maintain a shoulder-width gap between your hands (or a little wider).
- Keep your arms straight and palms facing the body.
- Your hand must be equally far from the ends of the barbell.
- Now, raise your hips and shoulders at the same range while maintaining a straight back. Keep your core tight during the whole lift.
- Take a long breath and lift the bar with full strength.
- If you are a beginner or If you want to lift more weight so better use a belt because the belt can protect your back and waist from injuries.
The process and technique of deadlifts are complex for a beginner but once you learn this, you would love to lift.
There are different types of deadlift variations, such as:
- Conventional Deadlift
- Romanian Deadlift
- Hex or Trap Bar Deadlifts
- Sumo Deadlift
- Snatch Grip Deadlift
- Dumbbell deadlifts etc
Each deadlift variation has it’s own importance and benefits.
The Top 10 Benefits of the Deadlift
1. The Deadlift Strengthen overall body muscles at once
When It comes total body workout, deadlifts are the best option to perform. Many fitness trainers such as Jeff Nippard, Jeff Cavaliere recommend performing the deadlift.
One of the important benefits of the deadlift includes, it engages all the major muscles of the body at once such as hamstrings, quads, lower back, upper-middle back, traps, hips joint, shoulders, biceps and triceps.
Deadlifts also strengthen rectus abdominis, core, obliques and transverse abdominis. Hence, the deadlift also assist in building six-pack abs.
2. Deadlift Is the Best Way To Increase The Lifting capacity
In the beginning, deadlifts will be difficult for you to perform. You’ll feel exhausted and you think you can’t do this. You’ll also experience back pain the next day when you perform the deadlift.
But, let me tell you after two or three weeks, you’ll be enjoying. You’ll be experiencing the extra power and strength in you. Eventually, you can start lifting more weights.
3. The Deadlift Help you Build athletic body postures
If you face any problem in sitting or standing, you should definitely perform the deadlifts. The reason behind this is the deadlifts enhance core solidity and strength.
As the deadlift target different muscles at a time, it will fix your bad postures if you have. Proper deadlifts also make your back stronger and straighter which develop athletic body postures.
4. Increasing stamina and endurance Is One Of The Important Benefits of the Deadlift
By doing deadlifts once or twice weekly one can enhance their stamina and increase their endurance capacity. Deadlifts increase your performance in the gym as well as the immunity level that helps promptly recovering from injury.
The Deadlift is one kind of training that will motivate you to lift more, endure more, and spent more time in the training.
5. Different Variations of The Deadlift Improve cardiovascular health
The deadlift is the king of exercise because it gives many benefits to us physically as well as mentally. This will help to increase your blood flow and maintain blood pressure.
According to the article published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism; decrease in the levels of testosterone elevated risk of developing or dying from heart disease. Compound exercises such as squats, deadlifts and military presses can increase the level of testosterone which may reduce the risk of heart disease.
6. The Deadlift Also Enhance your grip strength
What largest people are not aware of is that when they perform deadlifts they also strengthen their finger muscles by gripping the bars. Their powers of the forearms also enhances when they raise the bars.
Regular deadlifting will increase your grip strength, that will help you perform other movements when there is a need for a stronger grip. Your grip strength also helps you in your daily life activities when you need to lift some heavy stuff.
7. The Deadlift is a Great way to Consolidate lower body muscles and joints
The deadlift is a great exercise to consolidate lower body muscle and joints. The deadlift mainly focus on the glutes, hamstrings, and quadriceps.
Hamstrings stabilize the body and the quadriceps put a full knee-length into motion. During knee extension, the movement of the lower leg away from the back of the thigh straightens the joint.
Strong glutes, hamstrings and quads help us to run more faster and jump higher. Strong lower body muscles and joints prevent injuries and provide flexibility.
According to the study, the deadlifts increase bone strength and reduce the risk of osteoporosis. Having strong bones help you to lift more weight in the gym.
8. Deadlifting is the proven way to Prevents possible Injuries
According to the fitness experts, the deadlifts may reduce the chances of getting injuries and affecting the ligaments and tendons. The reason behind this is that deadlift enables you to develop strong muscles that support the joints.
Some studies also proved that the deadlifts can be beneficial for reducing lower back pain in some instances.
A proper deadlifts also reduces the chances of back injuries through strengthening the lower back muscles.
In the beginning, I recommend you to lift lightweight because the heavier weight may cause injury or soreness in the lower back muscle.
9. Deadlift Burn Plenty of calories
If you are on a mission to lose weight, so the deadlifts can be an effective way. Deadlifts facilitate to burn more calories and help in the reduction of excess body fats.
Some fitness experts believed that depending on the person weight, on an average one can burn around 500 calories by doing one hour of deadlifting.
According to them, Deadlifts may not burn as many calories as others high-intensity workout burn, but deadlifts require great efforts to perform so it’s an obvious thing it burns calories. Important thing is that they not only burn calories during the lift but also after a couple of hours.
Deadlifts can be a great workout when you want to become leaner and stronger. Because deadlifts increase your metabolism and your lean muscle tissue that’s lead your body to burn more calories.
10. Deadlift make you super Stronger
Deadlift strengthen your muscles and bones So that it can prevent you from injuries. This enhances your stamina and endurance power so that you can spend more time on building muscles.
Deadlift also improve your gripping power and arms strength, So that you can lift more weights and perform many exercises. Combining all these, The deadlift makes you super stronger.
1. Is the deadlift dangerous?
Ans: NO, assume that you don’t know how to drive, so driving is also dangerous for you, but in reality, it’s not. Once you learn how to drive you’ll be enjoying.
In the same way, If you properly perform deadlifts it will be exciting. Because the deadlift is one of the best strength training.
2. Do I need waist-belt to perform the deadlift?
Ans: Certainly yes, The reason behind is that belt reduces stress on your lower back when you lift weight in an upright position; and it prevents back hyper-extension during overhead lifts and may protect you from unwanted injuries.
3. Why is the deadlift called “deadlift”
Ans: It is called deadlift because we lift a dead weight from the ground using barbell or dumbbells.
4. What is the difference between the conventional deadlift and the Romanian deadlift?
Ans: Both deadlifts have many advantages. They mainly target the glutes, hamstring, quads and lower back muscles.
If you especially want to work on leg muscles then Romanian deadlift is the first preference. However, if you want to work on many muscles at one time then you must go with Conventional deadlift.
5. Is it normal to feel lower back pain when I perform the deadlift?
Ans: It is normal when you just started deadlifting. However if your lower back pain persists even after deadlifting many times, So it is recommended to stop doing it.
Learn more about the technique from your trainer and then perform.
Final Words
I hope, now you understand the benefits and importance of the deadlift. I am hoping that you are ready to begin deadlift as soon as possible. Motivate yourself and start performing the king of exercise- The deadlift.
