PowerwhenUneedit

Stiff-Legged Deadlifts

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, balancing your weight on your heels. Grasp the bar with either a pronated grip (palms down) or a powerlifting grip (one palm up and one palm down) and place your hands about shoulder-width apart. Pull back your shoulder blades, and tighten your lats. You want to keep your back straight throughout the exercise. Tighten the abdominals, and maintain this throughout each and every cautious rep; this will help stabilize the pelvis and lessen the risk of lower back injury. Tighten the hamstrings and quads to stabilize the semi-locked knee.

The Exercise: Bend at the hips, and as you lower the weight, move the hips backward slightly. Lower the weight until you get a good stretch of the hamstrings, but don't start bending at the shoulders or lower back.

It's imperative that the knee joints stay in a semi-locked position, held tight by the quads. This will allow you to fully stretch the hamstrings as you lower the weight. Practice keeping the neck in line with the rest of your spine as much as you can.

Once you have reached the bottom of the exercise, return to the starting vertical position by slowly and simultaneously moving the hips and bar toward each other while keeping perfect spinal alignment.



Caution: Don't round the upper, middle, or lower back.