Deadlifting: Firing The Glutes

Over the past year I have posted a lot of articles containing cues to keep in mind while you deadlift--"pack the neck", "put your shoulder blades in your back pocket", "bar at or against the shins for the set-up". One cue I haven't written or posted about, though, is that of firing the glutes. While this may seem obvious to an advanced lifter, the more mediocre lifters tend to miss this point. And it isn't just firing the glutes in general that is important, but timing it out for when the bar is at the base of your patellas.

I could, and should, dedicate an entire post to deadlifting technique, but something to point out for this article is that a deadlift, when pulling conventional style, is not the same mechanically as a squat. The hips start higher and the chest lower, causing greater hip flexion and allowing for greater potential cross-bridging of the hip extensors: the three divisions of glute max, adductor magnus vertical fibers, semimembranosus, semitendinosus, and biceps femoris long head as the major players. What this means is, because you are starting in a position of greater hip flexion than knee flexion, there is a greater potential to generate force by the hip extensors than the knee extensors based on their current cross-bridging potential. The longer a muscle fiber is, the greater potential is has to cross-bridge and generate force.

Starting Position Of The Deadlift

A side-angle view would be more appropriate to illustrate my point, but hopefully you can tell what I'm talking about as far as relative hip and knee flexion are concerned from this photo.

Okay, so it is clear that hip extension is going to play a pretty huge role in somebody's ability to deadlift both safely and effectively based on the mechanics of the lift. As the bar is first traveling up there will be a fair amount of knee extension to accompany the hip extension. Once the bar gets to your patellas, though, you should be getting closer to maxing out knee extension while still having a good amount of hip extension to perform. This is where the cue comes in.

Once the bar gets to the bottom of your patellas, concentrate on squeezing your glutes as hard as you can and firing your hips through into extension. The first time I tried this, I noticed two things: First, I thought I had fired through too late in the lift, meaning I thought I was already near-lockout by the time I fired my glutes. The reason was, the bar traveled up so fast over the last third or so of the lift that I thought there was no way the bar could have traveled that distance in that short of time. The second thing I noticed was that the bar felt virtually weightless as soon as I cued myself to fire through. It was a pretty crazy experience, to be honest.

Bar At Your Patellas? Fire The Glutes!!

So if you are looking for a new cue or technical change to help you pull more, make sure you are firing your glutes as the bar hits your patellas.

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Get big or die tryin'.

Charlie Cates, CSCS

Self Made®, Owner and Founder

Charlie Cates is a strength and conditioning specialist and the owner and founder of Self Made® (http://selfmadefitness.com/) in Chicago, IL. He has worked with competitive and everyday athletes of all ages and ability levels, from 9-year-old kids to NFL MVP’s. He can be reached via e-mail at charlie@selfmadefitness.com.

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