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Barbell deadlift: off the floor to lockout

Also called: conventional deadlift, deadlift. All one movement, one page.

By

We compute it and we cite it. We do not test gear. How we know this.

Short answer

Pick a loaded bar up off the floor and stand all the way up. Nothing tests total-body strength faster.

Pattern
Hinge
Equipment
Barbell · Plates
Usual bar
45 lb / 20.4 kgOhio Power Bar, 45 lb

Barbell deadlift setup

  1. 01Bar over mid-foot. Close enough to graze your shins.
  2. 02Feet about hip width.
  3. 03Hinge, grab the bar just outside your legs.
  4. 04Drop your hips until your shins touch the bar. Chest up, flat back.
  5. 05Pull the slack out of the bar until you hear it click into the plates.

Barbell deadlift form, step by step

  1. 01Brace, then push the floor away. The bar drags up your shins.
  2. 02Hips and shoulders rise at the same rate.
  3. 03Once the bar passes your knees, drive your hips through to lockout.
  4. 04Stand tall. Do not lean back at the top.
  5. 05Lower it by pushing your hips back first, then bending the knees.

How to load the bar for the barbell deadlift

Before the barbell deadlift is a rep, it is a number on the bar. Plates go on in pairs, one per sleeve, and the bar itself is part of the total — a 45 lb bar with a 45 on each side is 135 lb, not 90. This animation walks the three loads you will meet most often.

Our own render, modelled to the IPF bar spec and the published plate spec table.An original 3D animation showing how the three most common barbell loads are built. A 45 lb bar starts empty; a 45 lb plate slides onto each sleeve to make 135 lb, a second pair makes 225 lb, and a third pair makes 315 lb. The running total and the plates-per-side count are shown throughout. This is an illustration of a class of equipment, not footage of a specific product.Original animation by BarWeight — an illustration of this class of equipment, not footage of a specific product, and not a demonstration of how to perform a lift.

Need a different number? Run it through the plate math calculator.

Barbell deadlift video demonstration

Reading the steps only gets you so far, and a render cannot show you what a human body does under a bar. This is the barbell deadlift demonstrated by a coach, not by us — we did not make this video, we do not host it, and we do not earn anything from it.

Demonstration

"How To" Deadlift

Alan Thrall (Untamed Strength)

"How To" Deadlift — Alan Thrall (Untamed Strength). Embedded from YouTube; this site did not produce the video.Alan Thrall co-owns Untamed Strength Gym and has produced widely-referenced barbell technique tutorials for over a decade; long-standing reputation in the strength training community.

Common barbell deadlift errors

  • Jerking the bar off the floor without taking out the slack.
  • Hips shooting up first, leaving your back to do all of it.
  • The bar drifting forward away from your legs.
  • Hyperextending and leaning back at lockout.
  • Rounding the lower back under a load you have not earned yet.

Barbell deadlift: muscles worked

Primary

  • Gluteus maximus
  • Hamstrings
  • Erector spinae

Secondary

  • Quadriceps
  • Latissimus dorsi (isometric)
  • Trapezius
  • Forearm flexors (grip)
  • Medial gastrocnemius

How we know: Backed by the electromyography sources listed at the bottom of this page.

Barbell deadlift: what the evidence does and does not say

The most-cited comparison here is Escamilla et al., which measured 13 collegiate football players at a 12-rep max. That study found hamstring and gluteus maximus activity roughly equal between sumo and conventional pulls, and medial gastrocnemius higher in conventional (26% versus 19% of maximum voluntary isometric contraction). Those are real numbers from a small, specific sample, and they should never be quoted without the sample attached.

How to program the barbell deadlift

Training convention: heavy and low-volume for most people — 1-5 reps, 3-5 sets, once or twice a week. It costs more to recover from than almost anything else in the gym, so the volume that works for squats will not work here.

Rep ranges are training convention. They are what most lifters and coaches do, not a measured result, and nothing on this page is medical advice.

Run the numbers

Knowing the lift is half of it. The other half is loading the bar correctly.

Questions people actually ask

▶Where should the bar start for a deadlift?

Over mid-foot, close enough to graze your shins. From there you hinge, grip just outside your legs, and drop the hips until your shins touch the bar.

▶What does taking the slack out of the bar mean?

Pulling up on the bar until it clicks into the plates and the bar is loaded but not moving. It removes the loose play in the bar and plates so your first movement lifts the weight instead of jerking it.

▶What muscles does the deadlift work?

Glutes, hamstrings and erectors do the primary work, with the quads, lats, traps, forearms and calves involved. An EMG review of the deadlift and its variants backs the general picture; the specific sumo-versus-conventional figures come from a 13-lifter study.

▶How often should I deadlift?

Training convention, not a sourced fact: most people run heavy low-rep work — 1 to 5 reps, 3 to 5 sets — once or twice a week. It costs more to recover from than nearly anything else, so squat volume does not transfer to it.

The kit this lift needs

Straight from this movement’s own equipment list. Each page below compares published specs across every model we have verified — no prices, no ratings, nothing we claim to have tested.

Same pattern, different lift

All barbell exercises

Sources

How this page is built and what we will and will not claim: read the methodology.