The Deadlift Checklist.

Lets start from the beginning.

As you approach the bar, all you’re thinking about is perfect execution.

Your feet. Screwed into the floor beneath you. Feeling the pressure spread evenly across your soles. Ready to apply power when the light turns green.

Your hands. Gripped so tight around the bar its like you’re squeezing blood from stone. The tighter you grip the more tension there is in your body.

Your arms. Stretched as long as possible. You tell yourself: “the longer my arms, the shorter the bar travels”.

Your shins. Slightly contracted and eager to tense when the feet says go.

Your quads and hamstrings. A slight stretch as you lengthen your arms and open up your chest.

Your hip flexors. As if a finger is applying pressure on each side. You smile at this sensation because it has taken a lot of reps learning how to engage the hip flexors at the start of a deadlift.

Your glutes. Flexed and coiled tight. Eager to convert this tension into power off the ground.

Your core. Braced through deep nasal inhalation filling your diaphragm. Protects the lower back and maintains a neutral spine.

Your lats. Contracted like the bottom of a straight arm pull down. Keeps the bar close to the body during the lift.

Your posterior chain. Alert and ready for action.

You’re ready.

You push the ground away from you and the bar rises from the dead.

You keep the flow all the way to lockout.

You deadlift.

And it is awesome.