Train To Gain: Exercise Dos and Don’ts

Do keep your back flat throughout the exercise’no rounding.
Do stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart.
Do keep the bar close to your legs throughout the entire stroke.
Do keep a slight bend in your knees.
Do keep your abs and lower back tight as you do the exercise.
Do try to feel a stretch in your hamstrings at the bottom of each rep.
Do inhale as you lower the bar and exhale as you pull the bar back to your upper thighs.
Do reverse the bar’s downward movement at midshin level to prevent lower-back injury.
Do use a two-seconds-up/two-seconds-down cadence.

Don’t round your back’keep it flat and tight throughout the exercise.
Don’t let the bar travel past midshin level’unless you’re looking for a lower-back injury.
Don’t jerk the bar at the bottom’make the transition smooth.
Don’t hitch the bar on your thighs to get it to the top; if you have to do that, the weight is too heavy.
Don’t pause at the top or bottom of the stroke’keep the bar moving.
NEVER hang around the deadlift area and howl, ‘Hot buns toasting,’ or, ‘Now I see why they’re called stiffies,’ as women do the exercise (you pig).