Deadlift exercises are a must for athletes. It helps you build body strength, improve your posture and give an amazing shape to your abs and overall body. It is not just meant for professional athletes but even a regular gym visitor can do it.
Due to its enormous benefits, people often gravitate towards this exercise but most of them do it wrong. If you go by San Diego fitness stats, you will find that a lot of people commit errors when performing this particular workout. The reasons could be enormous but the results are not very pretty. The outcome of these errors can be:
- Bad posture
- Back pain
- Hip injury
- Unimpressive results
- Trouble while lifting
- Muscle or nerve sprain
There is no point in torturing your body with heavy weights unless you get the best results. Every gym in San Diego will have people who make enormous mistakes while deadlifting. And the only way to ensure that it is done right is to locate the flaw and rectify it quickly. Let us guide you in understanding and dissecting the mistakes that you are making while deadlifting.
Shins are Forward
While weightlifting, people often put their shins too forward. The trick here is to keep your shins as vertical as possible. This is not a squat and thus you need not angle your shins forward.
- When your shins are far forward, you fail to effectively engage the glutes and hamstrings.
- With your glutes and hamstrings out of the equation, the purpose of the exercise falls flat on its face.
Any personal trainer San Diego will warn you against thrusting your shins forward. The primary focus of a deadlift is to make your glutes stronger which in turn will help your entire body for easier lifts.
Besides that, a misaligned setup will push your barbell too far forward. This will compel you to pull the bar backward closer to your feet so that you can make a convenient lift. This can take up a lot of your energy and time.
Arched Back
The reason why people often experience back pain or injury during deadlifting is a rounded or arched back. It is a deadly mistake and can also cause lower back pulls or strains. It is a common mistake that beginners make- they arch their back when lifting the weight. This automatically shifts the load to the back muscles resulting in a sprained spine or muscle. The idea here is not to lift the bar on your back but use the strength of your muscle.
The best way to avoid such a mishap is to
- Squeeze your glutes
- Maintain a neutral spine
- Keep your head straight.
Remember that your entire body is not prepared for the weight but your glutes. Make them work and stress on the parts you absolutely must. This will keep you safe from injuries and back pain.
You Are Not Dragging the Barbell
One of the common mistakes that people make is to not drag the bar along with the body. This is such a common mistake that many gym trainers also overlook it. But an expert San Diego personal trainer will let you know how much of a difference it can make. Therefore, the next time you lift the weight,
- drag your barbell along your thighs and shins. The idea is not to send the barbell too far away. As the bar drifts further, your lower back becomes more and more exposed to injury as all the stress falls on it. You do not want a chasm between yourself and your barbell.
- Push and pull your heels through the floor and engage your lats as you are pulling. This way the bar stays close to your body making the workout more efficient and safer.
High Reps
If you are under the impression that rigorous weight lifting will give you better results, you are wrong. Your body needs time to cultivate the strength that it requires to use weight lifting to achieve the goals you are looking for.
- Deadlifting with high reps can backfire as it will fatigue you much sooner and might also cause injury.
- You should restrict your rep range to 2 to 6 times. There is no need for you to drain yourself, as a fatigued body is more prone to injury.
However, the exact ideal rep will be decided by your trainer depending on your weight, capacity, gender, and other such factors. What will work best for one individual’s goal won’t work for another. Thus, one must exercise keeping in mind the capacity of the body and goal. If you are a woman, we also provide qualified and experienced female personal trainer San Diego to help you feel comfortable lifting weights designed to help you get to your goal sooner.
Your Hips are Either too High or Too Low
Taking control of the hips is very important when doing deadlifts. It is very easy to thrust them too much while finishing off a rep. Similarly, when lifting people often push the hips towards the bar. Both these positions can harm your posture besides causing injury or pain. If your hips are higher than they should be, you will not be able to engage your glutes and legs properly. This will drop the entire weight to your lower back.
Do not over arch your back. Instead, take a deep breath before the lift and drive the hips into the bar. The ideal position here is to stand straight up with your core and glutes squeezed tight.
Several personal trainers in San Diego have complained about the above-mentioned mistakes that weight lifters often make. It can ruin the entire workout regime for them and they would not realize what went wrong.
Thus it is very important for people to identify the mistakes that they are making and work towards rectifying them. 8.9 percent of Americans are engaged in weightlifting but how many of them do it correctly? If you too love deadlifting, make sure that you are doing it the right way.