Going Deeper into the Deadlift with Mark Rippetoe, Part 1
By
Myles Kantor
In the November 2006 issue of CrossFit Journal, Mark Rippetoe
published, “A New, Rather Long Analysis of the Deadlift.” He concluded this
breakthrough article by identifying three criteria for a correct deadlift
starting position:
- The back must be locked in extension.
- The bar must be touching the shins with the feet flat on the floor.
- The shoulders must be out in front of the bar so that the shoulder
blades are directly above the bar.
Rippetoe expands on these criteria in the second edition of
Starting
Strength and has refined his analysis in the Basic Barbell Certification
course that he teaches through CrossFit. I’ve used Rippetoe’s pulling model to
improve my own deadlift and teach clients how to deadlift. The 58-year-old
client I described in a previous article recently increased his deadlift from
340 lbs to 355 lbs using this model, and my 132-lb friend, Cathy, pulled 175 lbs
after a couple of workouts following this model as well.
Rippetoe and I have recently been analyzing deadlifts by powerlifters such as
Andy Bolton, Ed Coan, and Brad Gillingham. Without exception, these videos
confirm his claim that the bar does not leave the floor on heavy pulls until the
shoulder blades are over the bar with the bar over the middle of the foot. I
recently spoke with Rippetoe about some specific points of his pulling model and
how he has refined his analysis.
MK: In
Starting Strength, you discuss the importance of the
quadriceps in the beginning of the deadlift to produce knee extension. You
state, “The quadriceps must participate in the deadlift properly in order for
the movement to be safe and efficient.” In this regard, you have recommended
weightlifting shoes to better utilize the quads. Powerlifters are nearly always
found deadlifting in some kind of flat shoe because it reduces the range of
motion and makes it easier to get on the heels and recruit the posterior chain.
From a powerlifting perspective, would the benefit of extra quad recruitment
with weightlifting shoes outweigh the extra inch of the range of motion (ROM) on
the pull and diminished posterior chain recruitment?
MR: I have deadlifted heavy both ways. In my later lifting career, I
switched over to weightlifting shoes and pulled my biggest deadlift—633 lbs—on
two separate occasions. The shoes I wore were the old, Adidas weightlifting
shoes that had a little heel (about 5/8-inch elevation from the ball of the foot
to the heel).
When powerlifters think about getting back on the heels, they’re putting the
bar over the middle of the foot because when you start pushing on the ground
with a heavy bar, that’s where it’s going to be in balance. If it’s behind the
middle of the foot, you’re going to be off balance backward. If it’s in front of
the middle of the foot, you’re going to be off balance forward. So we don’t
really want to be on the heels. We want the bar directly over the middle of the
foot. A better cue would be to push the middle of the foot into the floor. I
like to think about the contact path directly under the bar and push it into the
floor. That keeps me in better balance than doing it any other way.
If I have a little heel under my shoe, that places my knee in a position that
is a little bit forward, maybe three to five degrees more forward than it would
be in flat shoes. This increases the quadriceps’ effectiveness off the floor
because it increases the knee angle enough that it allows the quadriceps to open
the knee up over a longer range of motion. Thus, the quadriceps has more work to
do. It doesn’t increase the knee angle enough that posterior chain recruitment
is diminished at all. The only way to do this would be to have enough of the
heel so the lift would produce a knee angle so acute that it actually shortened
the hamstrings from the distal end. We’re using the hamstrings from the proximal
end to extend the hip. That’s the action of the posterior chain on the hip. If
the knee angle is made acute enough that you actually put slack from the distal
end into the hamstring you’re attempting to use from the proximal end, you
diminish the effectiveness of the use of the posterior chain.
If the heel is low enough, there is no compromise between posterior chain
recruitment and quadriceps recruitment. You only get that when the heel is too
high. The heel on the shoe, while taking a tiny bit of tension off the
hamstrings and making it a little bit easier to get into that extended lumbar
position, also produces enough increase in the knee angle so that you get a
little bit more work out of the quadriceps off the floor. I think it’s a
reasonable compromise between that and the extra distance that the bar would
have to be pulled. And the extra distance would be the height of the shoe
directly over the middle of the foot, not at the end of the heel because you
lock the bar out over the middle of the foot as well. That’s the extra distance
that you’re pulling.
I also think wrestling shoes almost make it harder to get into the correct
position because of the increased tension that the straighter knee places on the
hamstrings. It’s harder to get the lumbar spine into an extended position
against that hamstring tension. The pelvis is in a war for control between the
muscles of the low back and the muscles of the hamstrings. If you’re going to
pull the bar off the ground and not eventually hurt yourself, the lumbar spine
needs to be in extension. That means the back muscles have to win the war.
In fact, the reason some deadlifters and most Olympic lifters rock forward
onto their toes before they pull is because this takes the tension off the
hamstrings and allows the low back to get into an arched position more easily.
But it also means that the bar has to travel back to the mid-foot during the
pull. This explains the “hook” in the bottom of the bar path in a clean and
snatch, which is light enough compared to a deadlift that the bar can actually
leave the ground in this position. They can be done this way, but a heavy
deadlift won’t leave the ground very far in front of the mid-foot.
The bottom line is that I don’t want less muscle in the movement. I want as
much muscle in the movement as I can get. I need them all because I’m going to
use them all. Whether I’m at my one rep max or on my third attempt, I need as
much stuff helping me out as possible.
MK: When you mention a compromise with the extra distance that one
pulls the bar with weightlifting shoes, one could likewise say that flat shoes
create compromises regarding quad recruitment and proper lumbar position.
MR: Yes, you could. There are compromises on both sides that have to
be appreciated before you can make an informed decision about it. I did it both
ways, and I like a little bit of heel better. I understand that many people are
doing sumo deadlifts right now and that might change the equation a little bit.
I never did sumo. Sumo is used because it produces a more vertical back angle,
and the wide stance reduces the effective length of the femur. There are
mechanical differences between conventional and sumo that might favor a flat
shoe. I don’t pull sumo though so I don’t know. I don’t know anybody who does
pull sumo and doesn’t wear flat shoes.
Now, it very well might be that somebody pulling sumo might find a benefit
out of a little bit of a heel in the same way that a conventional puller would,
but I’d be pulling things out of my ass if I said that I knew for sure.
MK: If weightlifting shoes facilitate greater quad recruitment from
the floor, it seems flat shoes are more advantageous in deadlift assistance
exercises like Romanian deadlifts and good mornings that seek to exclude the
quads. In deadlift assistance exercises like pulls on blocks and pulls with 35s
entailing greater knee extension, weightlifting shoes seem more advantageous.
MR: These all seem to be reasonable conclusions.
MK: What is the maximum heel height that you have found to be
compatible with keeping the bar over the middle of the foot?
MR: I like somewhere between 0.625 inches and 0.75 inches. That’s the
difference between the height under the ball of the foot and the height under
the heel. We have investigated this at length, and we don’t think that you can
get somebody in position with the bar over the middle of the foot with a
1.75-inch heel.
MK: You mentioned the sumo deadlift. What are your thoughts on the
sumo deadlift as opposed to the conventional stance?
MR: As I said, the sumo is a way to increase the verticality of the
back angle. This shortens the moment arm between the hip and the bar by
effectively shortening the length of the femur when the stance width is
increased and by shortening the moment arm between the hip joint and the
scapulas when the back angle is made more vertical. It is interesting that there
are some people who can’t deadlift efficiently with a conventional stance. For
example, some people have femurs and tibias that are so long relative to their
back length that they can’t get their back angles much above horizontal without
a stance that sufficiently shortens the effective femur length. We found a woman
at one of our seminars whose femurs were four inches longer than her back. She
had never been able to deadlift conventionally without having the bar ten inches
in front of her mid-foot at her start position. When she was in the conventional
stance with the bar over her mid-foot, her hips were actually much higher than
her scapulas. We put her in a sumo stance, and she got her back at what would be
a normal angle for a more proportioned person. She set a PR in her deadlift by
10 kg that day.
MK: In order to have the bar over the middle of the foot, what
variances have you found in the distance the bar is from the shins in the set up
with people of different foot sizes?
MR: Essentially none. I teach 35 people at least twice a month to
deadlift using this model. I’ve seen everyone from a girl with a women’s shoe
size of four to a guy with a men’s shoe size of 17. All were in essentially the
same place with the bar about an inch away from the shin when the shin is
vertical. It’s surprising that there’s that little variability. But,
nonetheless, if you line up about an inch from the bar when you’re standing
straight up, you’re going to be in the right place. Human foot and leg
proportions are remarkably consistent no matter how big or small they are.
Another thing that we have recently begun to understand about this is the
necessity for most people—and especially bigger guys—to point the toes out to
activate the hip and make room for the gut between the femurs in order to
express the correct back angle. The correct back angle is, of course, where the
scapulas are directly over the bar. Generally, the thinner you are, the less
important it is. But the heavier you are, the more important the toes-out
position is.
What we find is that if you take your vertical jump stance right under the
bar (relatively narrow stance), place the middle of the foot under the bar, and
then point your toes out maybe 15–20 degrees, you make it much easier to express
the correct back angle when you’re in thoracic and lumbar extension. It also
enables you to place a little bit of tension on the adductors with that external
rotation. To a certain extent, you can call them into hip extension because the
adductors are hip extensors. They’re part of the posterior chain. When you point
your toes out and point your knees out a little bit, you actually tighten them
up and get a little bit of help out of those muscles. If you look at old videos
of Vince Anello, he figured this out
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQD9mHTLFCA).
For more information on activating the hips, see Rippetoe’s forthcoming
article in CrossFit Journal on “Active Hip.”
Myles Kantor is a personal trainer and powerlifter from Boynton Beach,
Florida. He has competed in the APF and USAPL.
Elite Fitness Systems strives to be a recognized leader in the strength
training industry by providing the highest quality strength training products
and services while providing the highest level of customer service in the
industry. For the best training equipment, information, and accessories, visit
us at www.EliteFTS.com
