Bodyweight Deadlift

How to do it

1. Stand tall with feet hip-width apart, arms hanging loose at your sides, and your core lightly braced.
2. Push your hips back as if closing a car door with your butt, letting your knees bend just slightly.
3. Hinge forward at the hips with a flat back and let your hands slide down the front of your thighs.
4. Lower until you feel a strong stretch in your hamstrings and your torso is roughly parallel to the floor.
5. Drive through your heels and squeeze your glutes hard to stand back up to a tall position.
6. Lock out at the top by squeezing the glutes — do not lean back, just stand fully upright.

Common mistakes

• Squatting down instead of hinging back, which removes the hamstring stretch entirely.
• Rounding the lower back as you bend forward, which is the exact pattern a hinge teach should fix.
• Bending the knees too much, which turns the lift into a half-squat instead of a clean hinge.
• Hyperextending the back at the top instead of finishing in a tall, neutral standing position.