Most Amazing (and Ridiculously Simple) Trick For Stiff-Legged Deadlifts You Will Ever Read In Your L


The stiff-legged deadlift is one of the best exercises you can do for your hamstrings. The only problem is, it can also be one the hardest exercises to perform properly.

For years, I tried to feel my hamstrings working when I did the stiff-legged deadlift. I knew it was the best exercise to work the hip extension function of the hamstrings but I never succeeded in feeling my hams work until I came up with this simple technique.

Let me tell you, the very rep of the very first set I used this technique on, I could feel my hamstrings like never before! It was like a revelation. It was also extraordinarily simple. I guarantee if you've never had success with stiff-legged deadlifts, you will definitely have it after applying this technique.

The trick? Elevate your toes on weight plates while you do the exercise. That's it! It's very simple but very elegant in the way it addresses the kinesiology and anatomy of the hamstrings. I will explain exactly how to set it up and the mechanisms of why it works so incredibly well.

How To Do It:

Set two 25-pound weight plates on the ground butted up against each other (one for each foot). They should be right beneath the barbell you will be using for the exercise and placed side-by-side so you can set your feet on both of them.

Stand in front of the barbell with your feet half on the plates and half off. The front parts of your feet will be on the plates and your heels will be on the ground. Use the weight plates to brace your feet up so that your toes are up in the air and your feet are flexed up (known as dorsiflexion). At the end of this article you will find a link to a picture of how to set up this exercise.

Bend over and grasp the bar at about shoulder width with an overhand grip. Keep your knees locked but slightly bent while doing this exercise and keep a tight arch in your lower back.

Look directly forward while you are coming up and going back down. This will help you to keep an arch in your lower back.

Squeeze the bar off the ground slowly and deliberately, coming up only until your upper body is slightly above parallel. Any higher and you'll start to lose tension in the hamstrings and throw it on your lower back. The real value of this exercise lies in the stretch at the bottom anyways.

Come down slowly, being absolutely sure to keep the arch in your lower back. As you near the bottom, stick your butt out and try to raise your toes as high up as possible. This dramatically intensifies the stretch you put on your hamstrings. Hold that stretch for a moment or two then reverse the direction without bouncing.

Repeat this for 5 to 7 reps. At the end of the set, place the barbell down gently then get ready to grab onto something for support. If you've done this technique correctly and intensely, your hamstrings will probably feel like jelly and you might find yourself prone to falling down suddenly (this is not a joke - I can't tell you how many things I've had grab onto to catch myself on after doing a hard set of these)!

Why Is This Technique So Effective?

The reason this toe-raising technique is so effective for the stiff-legged deadlift comes straight from biomechanics and anatomy.

The stiff-legged deadlift exercise places the most tension on the hamstrings at the bottom, stretched position. Therefore, in order to maximize tension on the hamstrings, we must maximize the stretch on the hamstrings at that point.

In the standard stiff-legged deadlift, this is normally accomplished by simply bending at the hips. But this is not the greatest anatomical stretch that can be put on the hamstring muscles.

As you may or may not know, the muscles of the calves are tied in with the hamstrings. Therefore, placing a stretch on the calves also places more stretch on the hamstrings. This is what the weight plates accomplish - they raise your toes, putting a stretch on the calves, which then puts a greater stretch on your hamstrings.

By stretching the hamstrings at both the hip joint and the knee joint (from stretching the calves), you literally force your hamstrings to activate strongly during the stiff-legged deadlift movement.

The difference is quite amazing! Try it for just one set and I promise you'll never go back to doing it the standard way ever again!

For a photograph of how to set this exercise up, visit: http://www.fitstep.com/Misc/Newsletter-archives/issue9-hamstring-tip.htm

About The Author

Nick Nilsson is Vice President of BetterU, Inc., an online exercise, fitness, and personal training company. Check out his latest eBook "The Best Exercises You've Never Heard Of" at http://www.thebestexercises.com or visit http://www.fitstep.com. You can contact him at betteru@fitstep.com or subscribe to BetterU News, his fitness newsletter at betterunews@fitstep.com.

More Resources

Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting

More Building Muscle Information:

Related Articles

An Amazing Technique That Can Make Your Gains Skyrocket While Others Have Reached A Sticking Point!
If you clearly understand and apply the principles involved in natural bodybuilding, you will experience very rapid muscle gains. However, over a long term, eventually a 'sticking point' or plateau in your training may be reached.
Abdominal Exercises For Beginning Bodybuilders.
The abdomen contains the muscles that most beginners struggle with because they take a long time to develop and need a low level of body fat to be seen. The abdominal muscle group consists of three main muscles: 1.
Muscle Growth with Post-Workout Nutrition
If you design your nutrition plans to maximize muscle growth, you must think about planning and taking properly the most important meal of the day. Do you know which?It is easy if you have read the title! Yes.
What Is Strength Training?
Traditional strength training consists of performing one to three (or more) sets of exercises on a specific, isolated muscle group. One rep, or repetition, equals one complete movement of the exercise from start to finish.
Personal Training: 3 Powerful Ways to Position Yourself as an Expert
Regardless of what profession you are in, it is critical that people believe that you know what you are talking about! You won't find very many successful lawyers whose clients never win in court, or popular doctors whose patients are continually misdiagnosed. This concept obviously applies to personal trainers as well, and making sure you are viewed as an expert in your field is as important as having the knowledge to begin with.
Is Your Muscle Building Potential Limited By Your Genes?
It is clear that certain traits are handed down to us by our parents and unfortunately our ablility to grow muscles beyond certain limits is no exception. That doesn't mean to say hard work and carefully planned training won't have a positive effect on your physique - it just means that some people will inherit a greater abundance of the favored physical characteristics than others.
The Anabolic Evolution of Modern Bodybuilding
Since the early days of physical culture, modern man has been searching for the elusive ''Fountain of Youth''. The promise of radiant health, enduring strength and a Herculean physique has drawn millions on this quest for physical perfection.
Weight Lifting 101
WHY WEIGHT LIFTING?What's the one thing that you can do to lose weight, re-shape your body, improve muscle tone, become stronger, fight off osteoporosis, lower blood pressure, etc.?Weight Lifting! Or as it's also called, Strength Training!For the rest of this book I will refer to the art of weight lifting as strength training.
Hair Removal Tips For Bodybuilders
One of the most time consuming and frustrating parts ofbodybuilding is not building muscles, it's removing unwantedhair.For any competing bodybuilder, hair removal is a must butit's also growing in popularity among casual bodybuilders.
Arm Exercises For Beginning Bodybuilders
Most people new to bodybuilding pay a lot of attention to building big arms, sometimes to the point of overtraining. Don't forget, the arm muscles are brought into play during most exercises aimed at other body parts so care must be taken not to overdo things.
How To Get A Flat, Toned Stomach
One of the most common fitness questions this time of year is "How can I tone my stomach for swimsuit season"? Typically, people believe that the guaranteed quick route to obtaining a rock-solid six-pack is a path packed with hundreds of sit-ups or abdominal crunches. Wrong!The reality is that even if you do crunches every day you aren't guaranteed to get the stomach you desire.
Exercise The Right Way - The Bent-Knee Sit-Up
Other articles in this series looked at a number of exercises, mainly from the perspective of developing a comprehensive muscle building program. Sometimes we take things for granted, especially when it comes to performing the basic exercises that constitute the core of most bodybuiiders' training regimes.
Exercise The Right Way - The Back Squat
Other articles in this series looked at a number of exercises, mainly from the perspective of developing a comprehensive muscle building program. Sometimes we take things for granted, especially when it comes to performing the basic exercises that constitute the core of most bodybuilders' training regimes.
Comeback Bench Program
For those who are not familiar with my name, I am a National Level Strongman competitor in the United States. I lift stones that weigh just under 400 pounds, flip a 900+ pound tire routinely, and lift logs overhead.
Exercise The Right Way - The Seated Row
Other articles in this series looked at a number of exercises, mainly from the perspective of developing a comprehensive muscle building program. Sometimes we take things for granted, especially when it comes to performing the basic exercises that constitute the core of most bodybuiders' training regimes.
Beach Body Abs
With the return of warm weather in the spring, thoughts can never be too far behind of the approaching summer and the many wonderful outdoor activities that we'll often associate with it and among our top favorite summertime activities will always be the trip to the beach. Warm blue skies, refreshing ocean breezes, hot sand, cool waves and the many attempts at constructing the perfect sand castle; you can swear you're almost there just thinking of it.
How to Increase Your Bench Press by Doing Squats
My Legs Are Already Big Enough. I Keep Hearing Working Legs Is A MUST.
Exercise The Right Way - The Machine Shoulder Press
Other articles in this series looked at a number of exercises, mainly from the perspective of developing a comprehensive muscle building program. Sometimes we take things for granted, especially when it comes to performing the basic exercises that constitute the core of most bodybuilders' training regimes.
Muscle Gain Visualization Tips
Visualization can play an important part in gaining weight and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Gaining weight can be difficult for many people who don't use their minds to help in the process.
How to Weight Train for Maximum Muscle Gain
Weight training involves the use of equipment that enables variable resistance. This resistance can come in the form of "free weights" like barbells and dumbbells, machines that use cables or pulleys to help you lift the weight and bodyweight exercises like pull-ups or dips.