Deadlift for women: technique for performing different variations of the exercise

Deadlift is one of the best exercises for girls to make their nut become the main attraction of the city. But not every deadlift is suitable for this. Therefore, I decided to describe in detail which deadlift technique is best for women.

Why does a woman need deadlifts?

Deadlifting can help a woman achieve a huge number of goals. Deadlift will help you:

• get rid of excess weight (provided that you do not eat the daily norm of the entire Kazakh people);
• gain muscle mass (again, provided that you eat right);
• work on the buttocks and thighs (depending on the technique, you can work on individual thigh muscles);
• find a good man.

As we can see, deadlift is very useful for girls. And then I’ll tell you which option, in my opinion, would be ideal.

Advantages

Deadlifts for girls have a positive effect on the entire body. What muscles does the deadlift work? First of all, these are the forearms, biceps, all the back muscles, muscles of the thighs, buttocks and trapezius.

This strength exercise was included in the women's fitness program for two reasons:

1. Allows significant weight reduction.
2. The body acquires a beautiful relief.

By performing deadlifts, a girl gets rid of excess fat deposits and cellulite, acquiring a beautiful waist and slender posture. The deadlift is an energy-intensive exercise that covers a large number of muscle groups.

What muscles work in women?

As everyone might have guessed, there are many variations of the deadlift for women, and each variation works specific muscles. Depending on the angle, positioning of the legs and other factors, the load shifts to a specific muscle.

There are four main variations of the deadlift:

• classic deadlift;
• sumo deadlift;
• Romanian (dead) deadlift;
• deadlift on straight legs.

The way you perform a deadlift will influence which muscles a woman works. Let's look at what these options are.

Classic deadlift with barbell or dumbbells

I rarely give this option to girls . The fact is that the quadriceps works more here. Personally, like most guys, I don’t have any loving feelings for centaurs and I don’t like it when girls have hips that are twice as large as the rest of their body. And the quadriceps works well in squats, lunges, leg presses and other basic exercises.

But sometimes even girls need to tighten their quadriceps, and here the classic deadlift comes to the rescue.

In addition, this exercise also works the buttocks and hamstrings, but to a lesser extent. The back muscles also work well, namely the trapezius and latissimus, as well as the back extensor muscles.

The technique for performing the exercise is as follows::

1. First, you approach the bar as close as possible so that your shins touch the bar, placing your feet approximately shoulder-width apart.
2. Then you squat down and grab the bar with a comfortable grip, usually a grip slightly wider than shoulder width.
3. Then, in order to lift the barbell, you need to straighten your legs, making a powerful push with your legs, but the emphasis must be on your heels, and not on your full foot, and especially not on your toes.

When lifting, the back should be straight, the lower back arched, the shoulder blades brought together, the gaze directed straight.

If you put your emphasis on your toes when lifting, the load will go to the knee joint.

If you lean your body forward, you will load your spine or, at a minimum, you will lift the weight mainly due to the strength of the spinal extensor muscles.

It is also impossible to move the bar away from the body , since this will increase the load on the spine. The further you move the bar, the greater the load on the spine.

This exercise can be done not only with a barbell, but also with dumbbells. And my personal opinion is that for girls this is the best option, since with dumbbells, if you hold them at the sides and not in front of you, it will help to include the buttocks more in the work.

Warm-up

Compared to other sets of exercises, ST does not require preliminary warm-up. It is enough just to lift the weight several times to evaluate it and warm up the muscles. You can also use the following exercises as a warm-up:

1. Stretching. Warming up of the muscles of the arms, legs, lower back, and joints is required first. Exercises should be calm, measured, you should not load the body, but return it to tone. After stretching, it will be easier to perform any activity with weights.
2. Standard warm-up. A classic set of exercises that involves working all muscle groups. Starts with the neck and ends with the feet. It combines dynamic and static movements.
3. Special warm-up. Used by professional athletes who perform heavy levels of ST. The level of load and duration of the warm-up are selected by the trainer, since further combination with the apparatus requires a lot of strength and energy.

Advice! You should not devote a lot of time and effort to preparation, since the main work should happen exclusively while working with the load.

Sumo

I like to give this option to women , since it works very well the adductor muscles of the thigh, the back of the thigh and, of course, the buttocks, and these are exactly the problem areas of a million women.

The technique is something like this:

1. In the same way, you come as close to the barbell as possible, but in this version, you need to place your feet as wide as possible. But the main thing is not to overdo it, if you put your feet too wide and don’t have enough stretch, then you will roll your knees inward, and this will increase the load on them and you can get injured.
2. After you have chosen the optimal position of your legs, you need to sit down and grab the barbell with your hands with a narrow grip so that your hands do not interfere with your knees when lifting.
3. When you are completely ready, you will need to straighten up, straightening your knees and pushing your pelvis forward. The lifting principle is the same as in the classic version. You make a powerful push with your legs, focusing on your heels, then tense your buttocks and move your pelvis forward.

But you should not allow excessive arching in the lower back . That is, there is no need to move the pelvis forward too much. If you do this, then again you greatly overload the lumbar spine.

There are small life hacks on how to shift the emphasis of the load in this exercise depending on the desired muscles:

1. If you want to work more on the hip adductors, then you need to keep your body straight and lift the weight solely through your legs .
2. If you want to work your buttocks more, then sit down less and bend over more and do the work using your pelvis , first moving it back and then bringing it forward.

The same exercise can be done with dumbbells or a kettlebell , but these are rather ordinary squats with a wide stance, in which the muscles work a little differently. In the sumo deadlift technique with a barbell and a greater inclination than a squat, the buttocks work much better.

Romanian

And this is one of the best deadlift options for girls, I am ready to include it in absolutely every workout. I love this exercise as much as chubby girls love dumplings with mayonnaise.

This exercise perfectly works the buttocks and the back of the thigh. Isn't that what all girls want?

The technique here is like this:

1. You still come as close as possible to the barbell, place your feet shoulder-width apart, grab with your hands wider than you placed your legs, you can grab as wide as you feel comfortable.
2. We start moving from the top point. First, you move your pelvis back and bend your knees a little, lowering the barbell down as close to your legs as possible. Focus on your heels as usual.
3. You need to lower it to about the middle of the shin. In this case, you need to keep your back as straight as possible, your lower back is arched, your shoulder blades are brought together, and your gaze is directed straight.
4. When the bar is lowered as low as possible, you tighten your buttocks and bring your pelvis forward, aligning your body.

The entire movement is performed only by adducting the pelvis , and not by extending the body with the back.

If you just straighten your body, the work will mainly be done by the spinal extensor muscles, and this is not at all what we need.

Can you do push-ups? Read about how a girl can quickly learn to do push-ups from scratch.

This exercise can also be performed with dumbbells or kettlebells, or even with just one dumbbell or kettlebell. This does not change the technique, but the sensations are slightly different. In general, you can and even need to experiment.

I especially like to give this exercise with two dumbbells, and the dumbbells should not be held straight in front of you, like a barbell, but slightly to the sides , this will help shift the center of gravity closer to the heels and better engage your buttocks.

Recommendations for performing the exercise

The deadlift is a technically complex exercise due to the large number of muscles involved, so you first need to master the technique well and only then take heavy weights.

1. If you lift heavy weights or have had any back problems in the past, use a special belt to protect your lower back.
2. Some watch the exercise while standing sideways to the mirror. You don't need to do this, stand straight. By turning your head to the side, you can shift the load and distribute it incorrectly.
3. You need to lift weights from the floor with a straight back, no need to slouch, even if the weight of the dumbbells is small. Injury can occur even with minor loads. This, by the way, also applies to lifting any weights in everyday life.
4. Do not perform deadlifts until you have mastered other variations of the exercise.
5. Before deadlifting, be sure to warm up and do several exercises to prepare your back for the load. You can perform 2-3 sets of hyperextension exercises 10-15 times. It uses just the right muscles.

The dumbbell deadlift is a necessary and important exercise to include in your training. It can be challenging to learn how to do correctly, but it improves strength and helps you perform better on other compound exercises, such as squats or lunges. This exercise is also functional in nature and helps a person in everyday life, since lifting weights from the floor is a common thing, in which almost everyone has at least once encountered unpleasant and painful sensations. If you want your back to be strong and healthy, then you need to master the deadlift, and as early as possible. Which deadlift option is best to choose? Research shows that selection needs to be individualized, and results will vary from one type of craving to another for each person. However, the easiest to learn and also more convenient for lifting large weights is the sumo deadlift.

Deadlift on straight legs

There is also a straight-legged deadlift option, but I rarely use this option for girls, since it involves more work on the back and less on the buttocks. And not a single girl has ever come to me who would like to build up a powerful back. But every girl wants powerful buttocks.

The technique in this exercise is as follows:

1. Again, you approach the bar as close as possible, your feet shoulder-width apart, your grip wider than your feet.
2. We start the movement from the top point by tilting the body forward and moving the pelvis back so that the center of gravity is as close to the heels as possible, but without bending the knees at all. The most important thing in this exercise is not to move the barbell away from your legs and not to bend your back .
   If you don't have a good stretch, you won't be able to lower the barbell low without bending your back. Therefore, I advise you to work on stretching if you want to do this exercise.
3. After you have dropped as low as possible, you need to straighten your body and move your pelvis forward. But do not move the pelvis too far forward, so as not to cause excessive lordosis in the lower back. If it does, your spine won’t thank you.

And this exercise can be done with dumbbells. The technique is the same, there is no difference, the only question is who is more comfortable holding what.

Frequent mistakes during classes

As already mentioned, the deadlift is a fairly traumatic exercise. To minimize the risk of injury, you should avoid common mistakes, including the following:

1. Warm up. This is a key element of any training, especially strength training. The duration of the warm-up can be as long as the workout. Poorly warmed muscles, ligaments and undeveloped joints are highly likely to lead to injury. After a good warm-up, you should start strength exercises with minimal weight (the first set), and only then go to the working weight.
2. To perform Romanian deadlifts, girls often work with fairly heavy weights. You should not bring the weight to the prohibitive level. Technique should take precedence over weight. Based on this rule: you should be able to do 4 sets of 14–18 repetitions. Your muscles should feel tense at the end of each approach; there is no need for it to become painful.
3. Do not round your back under any circumstances. Firstly, this can lead to injury, and secondly, this circumstance significantly reduces the effectiveness of the exercise.
4. You should not bend your lower back too much or straighten your shoulders excessively, this is dangerous for the shoulder joints.
5. Your elbows should not be involved in any way in the deadlift at all. They are constantly unbent and do not start working under any conditions. Of the arm joints, only the wrist and shoulder joints take part in performing deadlifts.
6. No jerking! Traction implies smoothness, even some slowness in movements.