By Eric Cressey
Along with box squats, the deadlift is the single, most effective movement for training the posterior chain (glutes, hamstrings, adductor magnus, and lumbar erectors). The posterior chain is of paramount importance to high-level performance. Watch the best sprinters run and you’ll see that they seem to just “float.” That’s because they’re running with their hamstrings and glutes. In contrast, watch a guy who runs with his quads and you’ll see that his hips are bouncing up and down. There’s a lot of wasted movement. The glutes and hamstrings are all fast-twitch fibers with a lot of strength, speed, and size potential—potential you’ll never realize without deadlift variations.
Strengthening the posterior chain with closed chain movements like deadlifts also reduces the risk of injury. Weak hamstrings are a serious risk factor for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries, patellofemoral pain, and a host of other problems in the knee, hip, ankle, and lower back. Conversely, leg curls simply won’t get the job done because they don’t require co-contraction of the glutes and hamstrings. They’re open chain and occur in a fixed line of motion. Our body is far smarter than some piece of inflexible equipment.
Deadlifts enable a lifter to train hip and knee extension together without learning the full Olympic lifts, which have a big learning curve. They also enable a lifter to use more loading, thus ensuring that more motor units and, in turn, muscle fibers will be recruited all over the body. The more fibers you recruit, the greater your stimulus for growth. And, if you’re looking to shed body fat, the post-exercise oxygen debt will be larger from recruiting more muscle mass. This means that after the end of your training session your metabolic rate will be really jacked up for longer.
You can train deadlifts several different ways. Light weights (~30% 1RM) with high velocities develop speed-strength, mid-range loading (45–70% 1RM) develops strength-speed, and circa-maximal weights enhance maximal strength. Pulls at 90% can have tremendous benefits in terms of both power and maximal strength development.
Deadlifts are quite possibly the best exercise for enhancing the rate of force development (RFD), also known as explosive strength. This refers to how quickly you can develop tension in a muscle and is of tremendous importance to athletic success. Movements that are initiated from a dead stop are superior methods for enhancing RFD. Box squats and Anderson squats are great as well. Olympic lifts can be tricky in this regard because the first pull is actually somewhat slow compared to what you’ll see in a speed deadlift. Olympic lifters are more interested in setting themselves up for the second pull.
As noted earlier, deadlifts have a better functional carryover to real world performance than leg curls, glute blasters, and all of the other silly machines out there. Deadlifts are unparalleled in their ability to wallop loads of muscle mass on your upper back. The more I’ve improved my pull, the bigger my upper back has grown—and by accident! It’s actually gotten to the point where I’ve had to bump up a weight class because my upper back, hamstrings, and glutes have grown so much from pulling that I’ve been forced to do so!
Deadlifts train supporting grip like nothing else. If you can’t grip it, you can’t deadlift it. And believe it or not, deadlifts can be a tremendously valuable corrective training exercise if coached correctly. I’ve used them to correct iliotibial (IT) band friction syndrome, lower back pain, lateral knee pain, groin pain, and a host of other torso and lower extremity problems. The secret rests with the proper execution of the exercise.
http://articles.elitefts.com/features/interviews/defending-the-deadlift-an-interview-with-coach-and-powerlifter-eric-cressey/
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