Barbell DeadliftMuscles Worked
The barbell deadlift works your lower back, which holds your spine rigid under the bar, along with the glutes, hamstrings and quads that drive the lift. Your traps, upper back, lats and forearms hold the bar in place, and your calves help keep you steady over your feet.
PrimaryLower Back
- Equipment
- Barbell
- Level
- Intermediate
- Type
- Compound
- Force
- Pull
How to do it
- Stand with your feet about hip width apart and the bar over the middle of your feet, close to your shins.
- Hinge down and grip the bar just outside your legs, then bend your knees until your shins touch the bar.
- Lift your chest, flatten your back and pull the slack out of the bar by tightening your lats and taking a big breath into your belly.
- Push the floor away with your legs and keep the bar dragging up your shins and thighs until you stand tall with hips and knees locked.
- Lower the bar by pushing your hips back first, bend your knees once it passes them, and set it down under control.
Form tips
- Keep the bar in contact with your legs the whole way, because if it drifts forward your lower back takes the extra load.
- Finish by standing straight with your glutes squeezed rather than leaning back at the top.
- Reset your position and your breath before each rep instead of bouncing the plates off the floor.
Why it made the list
No. 1 of 10
Best Lower Back Exercises
The most important posterior chain exercise. Hits lower back, glutes, hamstrings, traps, forearms. Non-negotiable #1.
More lower back exercises
See it on your own body map
Log your Barbell Deadlift sets in KasMaker and watch your lower back, calves, forearms, glutes, hamstrings, lats, upper back, quads, and traps fill in on the map, weighted by how much you did. Logging and the body map are free on iPhone.
