Page 114 - Muscle & Fitness (February 2020)

FIX YOUR

DEADLIFT

NOW

> Rounding your back

during deadlifts doesn’t

just look ugly—it can put

you at serious risk for

injury. Here’s how to right

your deadlifting wrongs.

B Y A N D R E W H E F F E R N A N , C . S . C . S .

N THEORY, NO MOVE IS EASIER THAN THE DEADLIFT. You bend
over and pick up a loaded barbell off the floor. But experienced gym rats
know that the mechanics of the move are full of nuances that are surpris-
ingly hard to get right. One tip you hear a lot from trainers is to keep your
lower back arched throughout the lift—but the moment many lifters start
I lifting heavy weight, their lower-back arch is the first thing to go. Why this
happens is a thornier question than you might think. To answer it, we tapped
Jordan “the Muscle Doc” Shallow (themuscledoc.com), a chiropractor special-
izing in sports and performance and a sponsored powerlifter who can squat
and deadlift more than 600 pounds. Here are his top five reasons your back

goes out of whack when you pull that bar off the floor—and how to fix them.

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