Conventional Deadlift
Reviewed by Bryan Cortez, MS
Heaviest stimulus, heaviest tax — low reps, low frequency, never to failure.
Coaching profile
general pulling-strength option. This page is the practical coaching layer: use it for setup, cues, programming, pain-free adjustments, and substitutions. The complete biomechanics tier list lives on the muscle page.
How the rankings are built →Demonstration
Demonstration production queue
The written coaching card is ready. The owned video is next.
Physique Skool is filming one canonical demonstration per exercise. Until this movement is published, use the setup, execution, common errors, programming, and substitutions below.
Browse Physique Skool on YouTubeHow to do it
Setup
- Bar over midfoot, ~1 inch from shins
- Grip just outside the legs
- Drop hips, chest up, lats engaged (‘protect the armpits’)
- Take the slack out of the bar before pulling
Execution
- Push the floor away, bar drags up the legs
- Hips and shoulders rise together
- Lock out by squeezing glutes, not leaning back
- Lower under control, hinge back first
Common Errors
- Hips shooting up first (stiff-leg by accident)
- Bar drifting away from the body
- Rounding the upper back under max load
- Hyperextending/leaning back at lockout
Cues That Work
- 'Take the slack out of the bar'
- 'Push the floor away'
- 'Protect your armpits' (lat tension)
- 'Stand tall, don't lean back'
No-Fly Zone
over 12 reps (form decays and lower-back fatigue outpaces the stimulus)
Programming
Sequence priority
Opens the session
Most systemically fatiguing lift in the program and highly technical under load — always early, never after the spine and grip are already fatigued.
Progression
Model — Linear
Fallback model — RPE
Add 10 lb per session early on at the same low reps. When bar speed slows or you stall twice, switch to RPE-capped triples/singles or back off 10% and rebuild.
Best program fit
Pull, Lower, Full body
Load increments
If it hurts
Pain is information, not a challenge to push through. Stop the set if pain is sharp, worsening, or changes how you move. These are exercise-selection options, not medical diagnosis or rehabilitation advice.
Work down this list in order. Stop at the first change that removes the pain.
Step 1
Setup tweaks
Conventional vs sumo stance; grip just outside the shins; bar over midfoot; double-overhand vs mixed/hook grip.
Step 2
ROM / tempo / bias
Elevate the bar (blocks/rack pulls) to shorten ROM if the floor hurts; pause off the floor; slow eccentric or deadstop reps.
Step 3
Implement swap
Barbell → trap-bar (more upright, knee-friendlier) → RDL for a hamstring-biased hinge → hip thrust to unload the spine.
Substitutions
Approved fallback
Barbell → trap-bar (more upright, knee-friendlier) → RDL for a hamstring-biased hinge → hip thrust to unload the spine.
Compare all glutes optionsThe Evidence
Builds full posterior-chain strength and total-body mass. Does NOT need high reps or high frequency — and grinding it to failure is a bad trade.
SFR — 0.3
Put the exercise inside a system.
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