Warm Up Series: Deadlift Prep

If you lift things up and put them down then this information is for you! Warming up for your deadlift is important not only for performance but for the health of your spine and surrounding tissues.

 

Step one: Get sweaty with a jog, bike, or row.

Step two: Mobility drills

Step three: Dynamic warm up and activation drills

Step four: pick heavy objects off the floor (while maintaining awesome position) and put them down

Step five: TLC for the tissues you worked during your training

 

Mobility:

 

 

POST WORKOUT: Hamstring smashing with lacrosse ball or baseball/softball

-bending and extending knee x 20 reps or 1 minute

-hip hinging with straight back x 20 reps or 1 minute

 

POST WORKOUT: Adductor rolling

-internally rotate leg back and forth and/or bend and extend knee

-20 reps or 1-2 minutes

 

PRE WORKOUT: 3 part forward bends with core activation

-breathing out on your way down

-with heels elevated x 1o reps

-on flat surface x 10 reps

-with toes elevated x 10 reps

 

PRE WORKOUT: Neural gliding

-This will assist with decreasing possible tension created from neural tissue that travels from your back all the way into your foot. Basically, you are moving the nerve without actually stretching it.

-pointing toe while straightening the knee then flexing toe back while bending the knee

-10-20 reps

 

Activation:

The following exercises are used to be used following any pre workout mobility in order to activate the tissue and get them ready to work efficiently in their new range of motion. It is just as damaging to complete a ton of mobility drills without any activation drills before you train as it is to go into a workout cold.

Bulgarian split squats

-1-2 sets of 10-15 reps with or without weight

-drive front knee out by activating your glutes and don’t allow the knee to travel pass in front of the toe

 

Single leg deadlifts

-1-2 sets of 10-15 reps with or without weight

 

Eccentric loading with banded resistance

-3-5 seconds on the way down feeling the load in your hamstrings and travel more explosively on the way up focusing on full hip extension

-10-15 reps

 

Simic L, Sarabon N, & Markovic G. Does pre-exercise static stretching inhibit maximal muscular performance? A meta-analytical review. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports. 2012.