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I find that it's useful every once in a while to really scrutinize your form in a key exercise or two. You should, of course, constantly critique your own form (and preferably have spotters who critique it also), but sometimes taking a day or two to have a "seminar" of a certain exercise can really provide the extra oomph you need to add on that next plate.
In this vein, I have decided to help you guys out by coaching you on one of my favorite lifts. I consider it something of a "pet lift" in that I think I've got the form mastered, I can move a hell of a lot of weight on it for my size, and I use it to strengthen my other lifts immensely. The lift I'm going to reteach all of you is the famous Romanian Deadlift. I'll start by sharing a video of me executing it how it should be done:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8931693681185560652
The following will be a list of crucial aspects of the lift which you must attend to in your own battle with the iron. You can refer back to the video after reading each one to see what I mean.
1) Get the bar as low as possible; touch the floor. Dropping the bar as low as I have done in the video will take your RDLs to the next level. First of all, it switches muscular recruitment from the back of your legs (the hamstrings) to the front (the quads). This makes the initial stages of your deadlift less of a posterior chain exercise and more of a second-rate version of an ass-to-grass squat. On the bright side, though, it puts your knees smack dab in the path of the bar. Notice how I have to swing the barbell forward as it passes up my legs and swing it forward again as I'm resetting. The more imbalanced you become in the swinging of the bar, the better it is for your lower back. You'll really feel the burn when you've got some serious weight on the bar (I'm moving up to 115 pounds soon).
One last note on bar depth. You probably want to forgo the use of any plate larger than a 25. The larger plates don't allow you do go so low that you have to squat the weight up instead of deadlifting it.
2) Wear the right clothes. This step is fairly simple. Just drive to the nearest Wal-Mart, and go find the section where they sell Umbro shorts. You want to pick out a pair that sit about 5-6 inches above the top of your knees while you're standing. You don't want to have any clothing getting in your way when you're desperately redirecting the ascent of the bar, do you? Plus, you might just find a guy or two at the gym checking out your quads. Go get em' tiger.
Baseball hats are a plus, too. You weren't actually planning to do any overhead squats anyway, were you?
3) The third step really completes the lift. I like to call it the "hump thrust." You'll probably want to refer back to the video on this one. Most people bring their hips forward and squeeze their glutes when they lock out a deadlift, right? Well, they're only half the way there. They need to start hump thrusting. Watch closely on the second and third rep when I'm nice and warmed up. You'll notice that the top of the lift takes on an unmistakeably erotic air. Watch how fluidly I bring my hips forward into the bar (it might help to imagine your spotter standing in front of you), almost as if the bar were my life partner. Then I drop my shoulders back into a sassy little stance, put a little pout on my lips, and give a smouldering stare to myself in the mirror. Hold that sexy pose for just a second, and then get back to taking that little iron guy for a ride.
Well, that's it for tonight, fellas. Sherdog has been such a help to me in my lifting career that I wanted to make a contribution back to it. I hope you guys have all learned something from my love affair with the Romanian Deadlift. Keep lifting!
In this vein, I have decided to help you guys out by coaching you on one of my favorite lifts. I consider it something of a "pet lift" in that I think I've got the form mastered, I can move a hell of a lot of weight on it for my size, and I use it to strengthen my other lifts immensely. The lift I'm going to reteach all of you is the famous Romanian Deadlift. I'll start by sharing a video of me executing it how it should be done:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8931693681185560652
The following will be a list of crucial aspects of the lift which you must attend to in your own battle with the iron. You can refer back to the video after reading each one to see what I mean.
1) Get the bar as low as possible; touch the floor. Dropping the bar as low as I have done in the video will take your RDLs to the next level. First of all, it switches muscular recruitment from the back of your legs (the hamstrings) to the front (the quads). This makes the initial stages of your deadlift less of a posterior chain exercise and more of a second-rate version of an ass-to-grass squat. On the bright side, though, it puts your knees smack dab in the path of the bar. Notice how I have to swing the barbell forward as it passes up my legs and swing it forward again as I'm resetting. The more imbalanced you become in the swinging of the bar, the better it is for your lower back. You'll really feel the burn when you've got some serious weight on the bar (I'm moving up to 115 pounds soon).
One last note on bar depth. You probably want to forgo the use of any plate larger than a 25. The larger plates don't allow you do go so low that you have to squat the weight up instead of deadlifting it.
2) Wear the right clothes. This step is fairly simple. Just drive to the nearest Wal-Mart, and go find the section where they sell Umbro shorts. You want to pick out a pair that sit about 5-6 inches above the top of your knees while you're standing. You don't want to have any clothing getting in your way when you're desperately redirecting the ascent of the bar, do you? Plus, you might just find a guy or two at the gym checking out your quads. Go get em' tiger.
Baseball hats are a plus, too. You weren't actually planning to do any overhead squats anyway, were you?
3) The third step really completes the lift. I like to call it the "hump thrust." You'll probably want to refer back to the video on this one. Most people bring their hips forward and squeeze their glutes when they lock out a deadlift, right? Well, they're only half the way there. They need to start hump thrusting. Watch closely on the second and third rep when I'm nice and warmed up. You'll notice that the top of the lift takes on an unmistakeably erotic air. Watch how fluidly I bring my hips forward into the bar (it might help to imagine your spotter standing in front of you), almost as if the bar were my life partner. Then I drop my shoulders back into a sassy little stance, put a little pout on my lips, and give a smouldering stare to myself in the mirror. Hold that sexy pose for just a second, and then get back to taking that little iron guy for a ride.
Well, that's it for tonight, fellas. Sherdog has been such a help to me in my lifting career that I wanted to make a contribution back to it. I hope you guys have all learned something from my love affair with the Romanian Deadlift. Keep lifting!
