The WELLthy Mom Deadlift Exercise

The WELLthy Mom Deadlift Exercise is one exercise Hubby and I enjoy at home when we don’t get the chance to hit the gym. Being parents taught us the art of dividing and conquering because in order to workout, we had to figure out a strategy of day and time that worked best for Hubby and I.

One morning we decided that instead of going to the gym, we will work out at home together and it felt really good to train together. As some of you may know, it’s difficult when you have little ones to get to the gym. I was very active with my first two but slacked with my third. It’s been tough but I am making it my priority to work out at least two times, if not three times a week.

I am not fond of machines as I’d rather be creative in my workout to achieve total body conditioning so when Hubby and I heard Shawn Stevenson on the Model Health Show podcast talking about the Only 5 Exercises You Need to create an amazing physique, we were curious and started to implement them in every workout as much as possible. Those 5 exercises are squats, pushups, lunges, dead lifts and pull ups. He also advises planks as a bonus which we usually include in our exercise routine .

Hubby and I decided to showcase the WELLthy Mom Deadlift Exercise today because it’s one of those weight training exercises I was not familiar with and I wanted to make sure to get the proper form for better results so online I went. According to Wikipedia, the conventional deadlift can be broken down into three parts: The setup, the initial pull or drive, and the lockout.

Setup: Set up behind the bar with it touching or nearly touching the legs.
Begin by hinging at the hips and knees, setting one’s weight predominantly in the heels while maintaining flat feet.
Spine stays long and straight as hips hinge back, taking care not to allow knees to track forward over one’s toes.
Gripping the bar either between the legs or on the outside, a lifter will depress their shoulders away from their ears in an effort to load the lats and generate force throughout their erectors.

Drive: The next section of the deadlift produces the highest amount of force. By pushing down through their heels while simultaneously pushing up and forward with their hips and maintaining depressed scapula and a long tense spine an individual can remain safe during this motion. This is considered the most difficult part of the entire movement due to the amount of work required to drive the bar off the ground initially.

Keep the muscles of the back contracted tightly in order to maintain a safe posture throughout the motion.
Drive up and forward with the hips and legs to move the bar up and oneself erect simultaneously.
Take a deep diaphragmatic breath and hold it in during the movement. Thus creating an outward pressure on the core to further stabilize the lumbopelvic hip complex and core throughout the motion.

Lockout: The finish is the most critical aspect of the motion. This requires being totally erect with the spine and forceful hip extension to engage the muscles of the lumbar spine and abdomen in unison with the glutes.

Finish by driving the hips completely into the bar and getting as tall as possible. Contract the glutes while shortening the rectus abdominus to finish the movement with the pelvis in a neutral position.
Contracting the glutes as well as the abdominal muscles is critical towards low back health and safety.
Lowering the weight: Finishing a deadlift is simply performing these same steps, yet in reverse order. As the muscles of the back and core must remain tight throughout the motion, one should simply hinge at the hips and knees to bring the weight down. Lowering their chest towards their knees while keeping the bar close will be the safest way to ultimately complete the motion.

The WELLthy Mom Deadlift Exercise activates a variety of muscle groups: torso, legs, arms, hips and forearms. When the deadlift is done properly, you can feel it activated in those muscle groups. Hubby always reminds me how crucial it is to do few right than many wrong! I agree wholeheartedly as I do not want to harm myself while working out because it happened before and it’s painful.