The deadlift is surprisingly a commonly misunderstood exercise in most commercial gyms, despite being one of the most simple exercises to learn. I've seen more people perform the deadlift incorrectly than those who actually do it right.
Here are a few ways I've seen people deadlift incorrectly (the bold text in the next paragraphs are what people are doing wrong):
Deadlifting the first rep as normal (with the bar starting from the floor), but for the subsequent reps not lowering the bar to the ground. Your body only gets good at what you subject it to, so if you're just doing partial reps like that, you're going to be weak off the floor. How to correct this? Start each rep from the floor.
Why do people deadlift this way? My guess is they want to do Romanian Deadlifts, which are a variant of the standard deadlift so that they can target their posterior chain more. The difference with RDLs and standard deadlifts is that the legs are more extended (but the knees are still slightly bent) and not everyone can bring the bar back down to the ground.
Romanian Deadlifts (RDLs) were actually invented by an Olympic weightlifter, Nicu Vlad. Guess how Olympic weightlifters train? They do the clean and jerk, and the snatch which both involve pulling the bar from the ground. So even if they use the RDL, they're still doing other lifts which involve starting from the floor. The RDL is just an assistance exercise and should not replace actual pulling from the floor.
Are Romanian Deadlifts for you? Probably not. Stick to the basic lifts and after a while if you see weaknesses in your hamstrings then you can make a judgement call whether or not to use RDLs, but leave that for when the time comes (and that will be a long time away).
Deadlifting for high reps, say in the 12-20 rep range. You're never going to get strong on the deadlift if you do such high reps. Your back and hamstrings will stay puny and weak. Who do you think is going to have a stronger back? The guy deadlifting 100kg for 20 reps or the guy deadlifting 200kg for 5 reps? If you have to think about that, you really don't know anything about training I'm afraid. I've seen guys in the gym with impressive upper bodies but pathetic stick legs because they don't squat or deadlift properly.
Your body responds to stress, whatever stresses your body more will cause more of an adaptation in your body. Sticking to sets of 5 reps is plenty of work for a beginner. As you adapt to a higher workload (after say a year or more of training) you can add in some backoff sets (sets of higher reps done at a lighter load) for extra volume.
Using straps. Grip strength is important, because if your hands are weak, you won't even be able to grip the bar hard enough to deadlift it off the ground. Straps should only be used on exercises where you are handling much heavier loads than the deadlift, such as in exercises like shrugs and rack pulls, but these are for more advanced lifters so don't worry about it for now.
Grip the bar as hard as you can so that you can see your knuckles; do this for every exercise. Stick to the double overhand grip for as long as possible on the deadlift, and once that grip starts failing switch to using mixed grip (for the top sets only). Once that fails start using chalk.
If you have a weak grip, hold the bar at the top at the end of each set and count to 10 seconds. Your deadlift might take a slight hit for a while because of this, but if you have weak hands you need to work on that for now.
Shrugging the bar at the top. This one isn't as common but I still see people do it. The traps already get enough stress from being involved isometrically in the deadlift. And if you don't have any traps, that's probably because your deadlift is pathetic. Get strong on the deadlift and your traps will grow. If you want more trap work do some power cleans and snatches too.
Lowering the bar slowly during the eccentric phase. This is the area which annoys the hell out of me like nothing else. I don't care what the personal trainers say about lowering the bar slowly. How many personal trainers have you seen deadlifting heavy anyway? Don't forget the bro's as well. They will undermine your deadlift because 'you're dropping the bar'.
Firstly, fuck you I'm not dropping the bar I'm lowering it. Secondly, you cannot lower a heavy weight slowly. There is absolutely no point. It will do more harm than good. An exercise where you might lower the weight more slowly would be RDLs but the weight you're using would be lighter.
The point of the deadlift is the concentric phase, the portion of the lift where you lift the bar off the ground. There is no stretch reflex in the deadlift, which is why the eccentric phase of the lift is not important, and also the reason why deadlifts are tough. You're just pulling the weight from the floor using brute strength.
When lowering the bar, it's just the reverse of lifting the deadlift. Shoot the hips back so the bar clears the knees before landing on the ground. If the bar has to literally go around your knees when you lower the bar, you're doing it wrong, shoot the hips back more.
Here's me deadlifting 200kg for 4 reps, you don't see me lowering the bar slowly. It sounds loud because the plates I'm using aren't bumper plates. The sound of the bar landing on the ground is not nearly as loud when using bumper plates. The loud sound is probably the reason why people think you're dropping the bar. Or maybe they just don't like being reminded that they're weak.
If you're still skeptical, watch some other badasses deadlifting heavy ass weights way heavier than me:
Abusing the use of touch and go. First off this is what a touch and go deadlift looks like. Basically you perform the first rep as normal, then afterwards you lower the bar in a controlled manner (but not too slow) to get a stretch reflex and 'bounce' the bar off the floor. I know I said there's no stretch reflex in the deadlift but if you do it this way there is. I'm guessing this makes the subsequent reps easier due to the stretch reflex. I don't have much experience with this technique.
Now what I mean by abusing the use of touch and go is when people don't lower the bar in a controlled manner, but let the bar drop quickly so that the bar literally bounces off the floor, and they use this to their advantage to lift the next rep. This is bad because it becomes more likely for the lifter to lose tightness in their back, and they can end up pulling with a rounded back this way. Also, the bouncing is cheating. This is why I prefer doing each rep from a dead stop because you can't cheat that way.
Deadlift with bent arms. You risk the chance of tearing a bicep if you deadlift with bent arms. The tear occurs when the heavy weight forces your arms to straighten out. Despite the deadlift being a pull from the ground, you should not actually be using your arms to pull. Visualise your arms as simply being hooks which support the weight. Make sure your arms are fully extended before initiating the deadlift.
Not engaging the legs properly. Here's an extreme example. The legs extend too early in the lift which means the back has to do all the work. This puts more strain on your back and also limits how much weight you can handle. You can prevent this mistake from happening by not attempting to yank the bar off the ground. Think about pushing your feet into the ground when you start the lift. Don't think about pulling with your back at all.
I hope this post was enlightening and useful, now go out there and deadlift some heavy ass weights (properly)!
Badass. 'nuff said.
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