Prep To Move: Deadlift

Hey all! Last week we talked about the movement of the deadlift and a few focal points to maintain a great position.  Here, we will touch on a few things you can do to to get yourself aligned and primed before beginning the lift. We can think about this preparation in 3 phases;

1)Soft tissue work

2)stretch

3)activate and tie together

Soft Tissue

We can begin our prep with some soft tissue work, targeting several key areas. We can spend a minute or
two per hip on the foam roller, as well as the hamstrings. If you’re like me, it may be somewhat difficult to set yourself up and find an effective position for those hammies on the foam roller. An alternative that I like to use, requires you to place the bar on the J-hooks with the hooks set around the upper ⅓ of your thigh. Looping one leg over the bar, place the belly of the muscle on the bar. You can manipulate how much pressure you need, simply by bending your grounded leg and/or bending your arms. Settling over the bar, you can gently extend/flex the leg or “tac and floss” by rolling the leg side to side.  Again, we don’t really need to spend long bouts of time here, :60-:90 should suffice. However, it can prove helpful to come back to these soft tissue drills in between sets as we warm up and build our bar.  

2)Quick Stretch

Since the deadlift requires us to hinge from the hip, unlocking the hips and ensuring that the femur can move properly within the hip capsule is a must. One stretch that allows us to do this is the pigeon stretch, or a variation thereof. We perform this stretch by placing one leg in front of us at roughly 90 degrees, placing weight into the “grounded” hip.  Variations of this stretch can be done off of a box or using a band to help assist in un-impinge the hip.

3)Activate

Waking up the core is also a crucial component of movement prep for the deadlift. Completing 1-3 short rounds of this circuit is one way to achieve this;

5 Iron Cross/side

5 scorpions/side

15 hollow rocks or :15-:20 hollow hold

There are multiple approaches for preparing for this lift. If you have been missing movement prep as part of your practice or have been in a rut with your current practice, give these a try!

-Coach Tim