Have you ever seen the competitive sport where candidates show off their big, muscled bodies in front of a panel of judges and a roaring, admiring audience? Do you want to join such competitions and display your own trim, well-toned body? If you do, then you should undergo a bodybuilding workout.

Bodybuilding has come a long way since it became a popular competitive sport in the late nineteenth century. Its primary goal is to develop muscles in appropriate parts of the body and sculpt them so they look aesthetically pleasing. This can be achieved by performing a specialized regimen of exercises that utilize free weights and exercise equipment.

Dumbbells and barbells are examples of free weights. Not only do they allow variable resistance, they are also used to stimulate most muscle fibers, thereby giving you an effective muscle workout. Free weight exercises such as the bench press, the dumbbell press and the squat let you significantly work out certain muscle groups. They allow you to gain more muscle and develop your muscle strength.

Exercise equipment serves a vital purpose in a bodybuilding workout because it helps target isolated areas of the body. If you are a beginner, you should only focus on a limited combination of machine exercises. As your muscles become used to strenuous physical activity, you can perform more advanced exercises. However, machine exercises should only be used after all free weight exercises have been completed.

You have to keep in mind that the sculpted, muscled bodies you see in bodybuilding competitions were not achieved overnight. You will need a lot of hard work, determination, and patience to achieve the look you want. It will take time and effort for your body to bulk up sufficiently. But in the end, the results will be worth it.

When it comes to bodybuilding and weight gain, there are a few factors that are going to affect how much protein you need to be getting. While it doesn’t necessarily benefit you all that much to get more protein than you need, getting to little will have very detrimental consequences in terms of your progress.

Here is what you need to think about when deciding how much protein you need to be taking.

Total Calorie Intake

Calories tend to be protein sparing, so the higher the calorie intake, the lower your need for protein.

For example, those who are really dieting hard, must up their protein intake so they do not risk muscle loss. Those who are eating maintenance will require between one gram and 1.5 grams per pound of body weight to maintain their current nitrogen balance.

Those who are eating in surplus may be able to get away with slightly less than one gram, but one gram per pound is generally the recommended value.

Cardio Activity

Again, cardio activity can also impact how much protein you should be getting, with the more cardio you are doing, the more total protein you require.

Those who are combining their weight lifting with a good amount of distance running for example, would probably want to take in closer to the 1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight, assuming a caloric surplus. This will help to offset any protein that may be used while doing the cardio activity for

energy, or any extra muscle breakdown that occurs while doing it.

Stress

Stress is one thing that many people forget to think about when it comes to protein needs. If you are a high stress person in general, or just going through as stressful period in your life, getting a bit more protein is a very smart plan.

When under stress, the body tends to shift into a slightly more catabolic position, which could then impact your ability to build muscle. By getting that extra bit of protein you can help prevent any negative consequences from taking place.

Aside from that, obviously do whatever you can to rest up so that serious stress-related health problems don’t start up.

Quality of Protein

For the most part, in America, most of our main protein sources are of good quality, however if you happen to be eating with a more vegetarian approach, getting the majority of your protein from beans, legumes, and grains, then you need to pay extra attention to ensuring not only that you are achieving full proteins (often by mixing certain foods together) but that you do get enough as well.

If you are on a vegetarian diet, I’d actually aim to take in slightly more protein, if possible, just because of this fact.

If you have trouble doing so, look into some of the vegetarian protein powder options that are available as this will make it easier to meet your needs.

So, be sure to take into account these factors when assessing your protein needs and coming up with a weight gain diet. It’s something that you simply cannot overlook if you hope to achieve any type of results.

Are you troubled in having to mingle and interact in school because of your lanky body structure? No one likes to feel left-out, discriminated or made fun of because of the old body weight issue. We all know that in order to gain confidence, we definitely have to feel good about ourselves, not only in the inside but also in the out. Looking good exudes an aura of confidence that will then allow us to mingle and socialize with others. If this is your case, then you have come to the right place. We have awesome tips on how to build muscle fast, especially programmed for teenagers.

At a young age, it’s good to know that you have the desire to get a well-designed body. It is important to have your body toned and sexy, to establish confidence- and at the same time enjoy a healthy and invigorating lifestyle. Here, you will be guided by proven tips based on experience and research on how to achieve muscle growth in a more speedy and convenient manner.

Progressive Muscle Development

Building muscles should be rooted from basic exercises until your body is ready for a more intensified set of exercises. You have to prepare your body little by little to condition the muscles you wish to develop progressively. Progressive muscle development allows the muscles to become stronger and sets the right conditioning in preparation of the different sets of exercises that will be needing execution for faster muscle growth. The muscles cope-up and adapts with the exercises little by little. Once the muscles are solid, you may advance to another set of exercises. This is a proven technique for fast muscle development.

Prepare a Balance Diet

You have to eat the right kind of food to supply your muscles with the much needed nutrients for immediate muscle progress. Avoid eating foods that are processed and soaked in oil or preservatives. You have to eat a balanced diet as you must carefully choose the foods that are rich in protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and fats- fats from nuts, avocados and the like. These foods contain the essential nutrients that are good for muscle repair, maintenance and development. It is best for you to eat 4-6 times a day. Eat in small portioned meals. Frequent meals will provide your body the needed energy it needs to last throughout the day.

Eating frequent meals allows the body to break down the food that you eat approximately 2 hours after you finish eating the said meal. Since you are into building your muscles, constant supply of nutrients and energy is needed to cope-up with the tiring workout sessions you will go through. You also need to drink 4-6 liters of water, on a daily basis. As you sweat throughout the day, and most especially throughout your workout, you must replenish the lost liquids to rehydrate your body. Our approach on how to build muscle fast for teenagers is extremely effective. All that needs to be done is you must utilize a healthy approach, consisting of a well-balanced diet, hydration and follow our recommended workout regimen.

Adequate Rest

Increasing muscle mass will not happen overnight, rather it will happen throughout a lengthy duration of consistent workout, dieting and loading up on liquids. It is about balancing everything for a remarkable muscle building technique. You have got to sleep at least 8 hours a day to allow your body to gain strength and recharge for the day ahead. Sleeping well will provide the body with proper ammunition of bagged energy to perform and deliver exercises on a daily basis. It also allows your body to repair the muscle cells that will inevitably be damaged during exercises as this is how the body works into building bigger, stronger and buffer muscles. Adequate rest will surely deliver the results you are aiming for in a shorter amount of time, as you are empowered and energized during your workouts, allowing you to endure the intensity of your workout until you reach your desired structure and shape.

In this article I will share with you proven eating and training strategies that will help you to add high quality lean muscle mass to your frame.

I know that you want to gain weight, but the fact is that you do not want to gain any kind of weight. You see, a lot of people who are new to fitness do not realize that gaining weight is not about eating whatever the hell you want and increase your body fat stores. No way! Gaining weight is about gaining high quality lean muscle mass so eventually you would have an aesthetically pleasing physique. Got it?

Now let me share with you few simple tips that will help you to achieve that:

Increase your daily caloric intake

I know that you have probably heard this before, but the fact is that there is only one way to make your body grow and that is to increase your daily energy intake. Energy which is needed to make your body grow can only come from calories, therefore the first step you need to take if you want to start gaining lean muscle mass is to increase your daily caloric intake.

The fact is that some calories will make you fat, whereas other will make you gain high quality lean muscle mass. To avoid gaining body fat make sure that you get your calories from high quality proteins, complex carbohydrates and healthy fats.

Start lifting weights

To start gaining high quality lean muscle mass you will need to start pumping iron. The single most effective way to start gaining weight quickly is to combine a good eating plan with a good weight training workout plan.

At the end of each weight training session your muscle fibers will break down on a micro level and once they will recover they will grow bigger and stronger.

Forget about supplements

A lot of people who are new to gaining weight think that there is some sort of pill or powder that will make things easy. The fact is that all of these pills and powders that are promoted by the fitness gurus will not make you big!

Everything that works is right in front of you. Stop looking for secrets, stick to the basics, take the baby steps and move one step at a time.

Apply proven eating and training principles and you will add high quality lean muscle mass to your frame.

I am going to show you how much to eat to gain muscle, because most people do not realise how much is enough. You see, muscle building nutrition is one of the most important aspects of packing on muscle mass.

All your training will go to waste and will not mean squat, if you do not eat enough to fuel new muscle growth.

It is a bit like paying someone to build you a wall, but not giving the builder any bricks. You can pay the builder as much as you want, but they still cannot build a wall without the bricks.

So, enough of the reasoning for eating and all that, lets take a look at how much to eat to gain muscle.

How Much To Eat To Gain Muscle

I will show you some examples on how to put all this together at the end of the article. But for now, it is important to understand how to work out how much food you need.

How much you need to eat to gain muscle, will depend on your metabolic rate and how much energy you take in and out, from food and exercise.

Your metabolic rate is basically a combination of how much energy your body needs to stay alive. Processes like breathing, maintaining body temperature and the like. All affect your metabolic rate.

There are formulas to work out your metabolic rate, but I do not want to turn this into a mathematical article, as they are quite long.

Therefore, I have put a simple calculation you can use to guide you below:

Slight weight gain: 30-35 calories per kg OR 14-16 calories per pound

Greater weight gain: 35-40 calories per kg OR 16-18 calories per pound

To use the figures above, you simple multiply your bodyweight (in kilograms or pounds), by the figures shown. For example: if you weight 200 lbs and you want to put on a lot of weight, you multiply 200 x 16 = 3600 calories.

The above calculation means that you need 3200 calories a day to gain weight.

Now that may seem like an awful lot of eating, but that is the sort of calories you need to be eating, to put on muscle!

Maybe now you realise why some people have a hard time gaining muscle?

If you are going to use the above figures, you will need to use some trial and error. As the figures are not set in stone, so you may have to increase or decrease your calorie intake. You are best aiming for your calorie target, for a few weeks, while keeping an eye on your weight and muscle gains.

Alrighty then, are you still with me after this? Starting to realise how much you actually have to eat? I hope you are.

Now lets take a look at what food to eat to gain muscle, as this is terribly important. Because eating the wrong calories from foods can ruin all your efforts.

What Food To Eat To Gain Muscle

Once again, I am going to keep this next section as simple as possible. Not because I do not think you are not smart enough, but because I want to keep this article as streamlined as possible for you. I do not want you reading any ‘filler’ information from me.

The foods you need to eat can be broken into 3 different categories, which are also called; macro-nutrients. Every food that you eat has these 3 macro-nutrients in them, these 3 macros are:

Protein

Carbohydrates

Fat

So, what does this have to do with you? Well, it is very important to eat the right macro-nutrients to fuel new muscle growth. Each macro-nutrient provides your body with certain nutrients which are essential.

Protein: is the building block of life and is what your muscles are actually made up of. If you take the water content away from a muscle, you are mainly left with protein.

Carbohydrates: are sugars which provide you with energy. You can get energy from other macro-nutrients, but it is important to eat carbohydrates so that other nutrients are not wasted on energy.

Fats: are an often misunderstood nutrient, but should form an essential part of your diet, be it for muscle gains or even weight loss. Fats are involved in literally thousands of bodily processes; One stand out one being hormone production, (can you say testosterone?)

The list above is not exactly a complete detailed look at the macro-nutrients, but I put it there to give you an idea of what they do. What is important to know, is how much of the macro-nutrients you should be eating.

I will show you a sample plan on what food to eat to gain muscle, with these macro-nutrients. But for now I will give you a quick guide, to let you see how it is worked out.

The best ratio of these macro-nutrients to use is the easy to remember 40-30-30 ratio. Do not worry I will explain what this means and it is quite simple.

The 40-30-30 ratio basically means to get 40% of your diet in carbohydrates, 30% protein and 30% fats.

Remember this is only a guide, so do not start sweating at the thought of trying to work all this out exactly. But your total calorie intake should be roughly made up of: 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein and 30% fats. Understand?

Stall bars, aka Swedish bars, should be part of your strength training equipment. While they are used in gymnastics, you can also use them for strength training. As a matter of fact, stall bars can be effectively used for muscle development and increase flexibility in your body. Let’s know you can use them.

According to many gymnasts, stall bars is on the list of most powerful tools that have been invented so far. They are used mostly by fitness enthusiasts and gymnasts. Aside from this, they are also used for rehabilitation, pre-rehabilitation and mobility in order to prevent injuries, correct posture and enhance body alignment.

You can use the equipment at your local gym. You can also build your own if you want to.

The Use of Stall Bars for Strength

Straight Arm Strength

This exercise can help you improve the strength of your straight arm. To do this exercise, what you need to do is lean toward the bars supporting your weight with your arms.

At first, this exercise can be hard for you to do. You can use your legs for assistance. Over time, you should try to get support from your arms only.

With the passage of time, this training will give strength to your elbows, lats and shoulders.

Straight Arm Strength

By contrast, this training is more difficult. In this exercise, you support your body weight; however, your back is against the bars. You may find this progression difficult. If you do, make sure you use your leg for assistance.

With back support, you can make your tendons stronger, thus preparing your body for a harder training. However, this exercise can give you a lot of benefits even if you don’t do other exercises.

You may feel it uncomfortable to hold your position since your body will be in an odd position. Moreover, there is no support and you will need to put in a good deal of strength to maintain your position.

We suggest that you use different grips since the stimulus may be a bit different.

Human Flag Training

You can also use stall bars for human flag training. If you want, you may change the grip width since they are quite comfortable to hold.

It won’t be possible for you to do the human flag at first. You can use the progression described below.

In this progression, you learn how to support your body and develop the required strength. What happens is that you try to turn yourself sideways attempting to elevate your legs.

You should take a grip and hold it for a while. You may fail to do so at first. If you do, make sure you work on building your overall strength.

To cut a long story short, if you are going to use Swedish bars for strength training, we suggest that you follow the advice give in this article. This way you will be able to get the most out of your equipment while staying on the safe side throughout the process. Hope this helps.

How many Calories

Are you eating enough calories? So many ectomorphs get this wrong, they think they can follow the same diet plan their buddies in the gym are following and that’s why they are not seeing weight gain.

The ectomorph has to eat more per pound of body weight than the average guy. There is some debate on the exact number but here is a good place to start.

The skinny guy should multiply each pound of body-weight by 20-24. So if you weigh 150 lbs. times 20 equals 3,000 calories a day.

This is where you should start, and if you don’t see weight gain at this level than start adding 150 calories a week until you do.

The other part of this equation is the diet break-down. Now most people would limit the carbohydrate intake so the diet based on percentages of calories a day would be 45% protein 30% carbs and 25% fat. Because the average guy is scared that carbohydrates will put on body fat.

The ectomorph doesn’t have to worry about that because of a high metabolic rate. So for the ectomorph I would start with a 40% protein 40% carbs and 20% fat. This should aid in packing on weight and muscle.

You can always make adjustments to this as you see how your body responds.

How much sleep is right

Too many weight lifters under estimate the importance of rest and sleep. They put so much concentration on their training they end up hurting their gains because of lack of rest.

When you are sleeping your system releases natural growth hormones that help build and repair muscle fibers that get broken down during your workout.

Without this very important process that only happens when resting, the less you rest the less you gain.

Of course the other side of the coin is too much sleep. Because an ectomorph has such a high metabolism, it makes it more difficult to gain weight and muscle. Getting a solid 8-10 hours is sufficient rest to help your gains.

Once you start to go over this amount, you risk hurting your gains.

Remember you need to eat a lot of calories a day and you need to eat often. When we are sleeping we are not eating. If you sleep too long your body will start needing fuel to survive, remember that fast metabolic rate?

While you are over sleeping, that is more than 10 hours your body is looking for energy to keep going and muscle mass is what it is going after.

So you have to maintain a healthy balance between calorie intake and resting to make sure you are getting the optimal muscle building process.

Full body workout

Something that happens far too often for ectomorphs is following a workout that just doesn’t address the needs of a skinny guy.

The ectomorph will not benefit from a workout you find most bodybuilders doing these days. It’s not their fault they just don’t know any better.

They go to the gym and follow what ever workout their buddies are doing. They see their friends packing on muscle each week and they can’t figure out why when they look in the mirror after months of training they see the same body they had when they started.

This is what makes most skinny guys give up, they believe that they just can’t gain muscle, end of story.

But it is just a matter of using the right exercises in combination with the right amount of reps and sets. You see, an ectomorph body type responds to compound exercises and a full body workout.

Compound exercises allow you to get the most joints and muscle groups to work at the time. An example of a compound exercise is the squat. Think of all the joints and muscles involved when doing a squat.

You have your hips, knees, and ankles involved, and at the same time your quads, glutes, back, hamstrings, and core are involved, and that is not even counting all the small stabilizing muscles that are connected.These are the types of exercises that an ectomorph thrives on. When you do a full body routine with compound exercises you will start to see muscle gain.

Less is More

What do we mean by less is more? Well this is a very important point to understand if you are a skinny guy. Because just like the skinny guy who is doing the wrong exercises by following his buddies he is also working out as long as they do.

The problem is the ectomorph frame is not designed for a lot of stress. Your buddies might be putting in 2 or more hours during a workout and they might be doing this 4-5 times a week.

This is a disaster for the skinny guy. Because your frame and bone structure is smaller and frailer the amount of stress this type of workout will put on your body will assist in hurting not helping in any kind of muscle gain.

That’s why for the skinny guy less is more. Your body will thrive on a 45 minute routine doing a full body workout with compound exercises like stated above 3 times a week.

Your rest periods between sets should also be longer than the average guy. If you have only been resting for 30 seconds between sets while trying to keep up with your buddies you have probably noticed that you can’t keep up with the rep level.

Rest longer and make sure you are getting between 7-10 reps on each exercise for 3-4 sets.

Forget about what your friends are doing and don’t think of it as some kind of competition. You have to come to terms with your body type, when you do and start working out according to your body type you will quickly see gains.

And isn’t that really what you want. And think of it this way, how great is going to be when you are gaining muscle quickly and working out half as much as your friends. Soon they are going to becoming to you for advice on muscle building, and working out how sweet is that?

If you’re not exercising regularly, the answer to how much protein you need is pretty simple: Government recommended levels are more than adequate – around 0.3-0.4 grams per pound of bodyweight. However, if you’re lifting weights, running, cycling (or taking part in any kind of physical activity, for that matter) you should probably up your intake a little.

While exercising, you put more stress on the body. When you train, you damage muscle cells. Protein synthesis is the process whereby biological cells create new proteins which help repair and rebuild the tissue. Higher levels of protein help with this process as well as contributing to improved brain function and insulin response.

When endurance training, you should up your intake to around 0.45-0.65 grams per pound of body weight – depending on level of activity. If powerlifting, or looking to bulk up, this increases further to around 0.75-1 gram per pound. There are rarer situations where it is necessary to increase intake further. For example, if you are training 5 times per week, you are in a caloric deficit, you are already very lean, and you are looking to build or preserve muscle you should consume more than 1 gram per pound. Even so, the upper limit should be 1.4 grams per pound of body weight.

Complete Proteins

When planning your diet, it is important to take account of whether the protein is complete or not. Bread, for instance, contains protein but lacks certain amino acids. This means that it is “incomplete”. However, by combining bread with other foods (such as beans, which contain the missing amino acids), you can form a complete protein. A complete protein is one which contains all nine essential amino acids.

When it comes to forming complete proteins, it can be hard work trying to find foods which complement each other. For this reason, there is a great site which allows you to examine the protein profile on thousands of foods. When viewing an item, there is even an option to view foods with complementary amino acids profiles.

Calculating Daily Requirements

If you are unsure about how much protein you need while exercising and/or dieting, there are a few online calculators which can help you find the answer. This is probably one of the better protein calculators as it takes account of a wide range of criteria while including references to the research used to build it.

Isolateral exercise is a technique that is used in strength and fitness training to work one particular side of the body at a time rather than trying to train both sides at once. For instance, if you are used to doing traditional push-ups then a more isolateral based movement would be to execute a one-arm push-up. This a great way to maximize the strength on that one side of the body.

So why do people do isolateral-based movements? Well to start, when considering developing a highly effective strength and conditioning program one must include isolateral based movements in their program to optimally develop symmetry and equal total-body strength. There are basically 2 benefits to executing this type of movement. The first is that you allow the working side of the body to lift the weight or resistance on its own without any assistance or compensation from the other side. This allows for a greater increase in strength independently on each side of the body.

The second benefit includes a transfer of strength, or cross transfer, from the working side of the body over to the side that isn’t executing the lift at that particular time. This is why it is still beneficial to train the body, if possible, even during an injury. Your body can still benefit from exercise even if you aren’t training a particular body-part. An example here would be that if a person broke their right arm and that arm is in a sling, then it can’t perform any tasks. However, the left arm can. Doing something as common as arm curls with the left arm can cross transfer strength over to the injured right arm.

So now you know what isolateral exercise is and how it works. You are beginning to learn the secrets of strength and exercise!

Exercising with the deadlift is when you get serious about your physique. It’s the original full-body exercise and very few other exercises bring emotions out quite like the deadlift. They can allow you to enjoy that amazing feeling of raw power when you move that really big weight off the ground. They can make you sick to the stomach just at the mere thought of actually doing them.

Nevertheless, the deadlift can produce incredible results, which is why it should be one of the staples of almost everyone’s weight training program. You’ll still get some people telling you it’s too dangerous, or that the deadlift will have the effect of turning women into men. Never mind that though!

Improving With the Deadlift

This exercise is one of the very few that can improve strength, overall power, explosiveness, as well as speed in almost any athlete, whether you are a weekender, or seeking to gain a healthier lifestyle, or if you’re a pro. It develops strength in those areas that are tied to athletic performance – the core, the legs, and the back. No matter what you want to improve on, the deadlift can provide support to that growth.

Keep in mind though that although it may appear simple, it’s not. It’s not merely about bending over and picking a heavy object off the ground. An object that is sitting plainly on the ground will have no motion. And Newton’s First Law of Motion is that an object will remain at rest until an outer force causes it to move – also termed as inertia. During a deadlift, this is what must be overcome.

Which Deadlift is The Right One?

Two basic forms exist – sumo and conventional. Both focus on the same muscle groups but both are somewhat variable in nature. The sumo deadlift takes a wider stance, and thus more of the load will be on the legs and hips. The conventional deadlift on the other hand focuses more on the posterior chain muscles and the back.

You may be familiar with the Romanian deadlift? Well, the way most people perform this lift means that it’s technically not a deadlift because between repetitions, the weight does not actually touch the ground. It helps to develop similar muscles to the deadlift, but that’s about all.

So which one is best for you? What it comes down to is body characteristics. What feels more comfortable for you is probably the right lift for you.

Rule of thumb – long arms and short torso tend to mean that the conventional deadlift is the better option. Shorter arms and lengthier torso – the sumo will generally be the better fit, because the distance the bar must travel from the ground is shorter.

And it’s for these reasons that women often prefer the sumo deadlift over the conventional format, regardless of the macho name for it. Further, the sumo is regularly better for anyone who suffers from problems with mobility, which in turn can mean it’s difficult to get the right form for the conventional lift.

On the other hand, there’s a view taken that the conventional format is the “more pure” of the two, but the truth is that neither one nor the other is necessarily safer or better. Both actually offer similar benefits, and you’ll see many lifters who alternate back and forth between the two.

Before You Try

You should be aware that the deadlift is not something that is merely tossed in towards the conclusion of a workout. The best results will be achieved if it is treated as the centerpiece. In order to get the best results, either complete it at the very beginning or near the beginning of your workout program.

It’s the same for complex and compound movements such as bench, pull-ups, and squat. The most benefit is to be had when the muscles are not yet tired, and so they should be performed prior to auxiliary exercises.

Also keep in mind that, when planning your workout, the deadlift is more about strength than anything else. So even if you are not intent on entering a powerlifting competition, no matter the style, deadlifts are not supposed to be high-repetition, which requires a lot of endurance.

Your progress will be slow if you try to hit 20 reps. Fatigue and muscular failure take hold pretty fast when performing the deadlift, thereby the potential for injury rises because form has taken a nose dive.

Keep the load heavy and the amount of reps low. This depends on your own training cycle, but rep count should be between one and six, and the weight should remain at 85 to 95 percent of your 1RM. If that confuses you, then choose a weight that feels heavy to you, but allows you to complete your sets while still retaining good form.

Starting off a bit lighter than you can handle is fine. Get the form nailed first and foremost, and don’t focus on going too heavy early on. This is worth planning for and working up to because the overall results will be worth that little bit of extra effort.

Footwear – What’s Best When Performing the Deadlift?

To perform a deadlift, you begin by pushing your feet against the floor, and thereby generating power through the legs and into the remainder of the body. It’s imperative to wear non-slip shoes, and ideally, those shoes will have a solid base and supportive sides.

What is not recommended is to wear overly cushioned shoes like the ones that have air-filled soles and are more appropriate for long distance running. These shoes do not offer enough support to the foot in order to deal with the levels of stress we are describing here.

And this is particularly true with the sumo deadlift. The conventional deadlift allows the force to be generated upon the feet to be relatively straight downwards. However, with the sumo lift, the force on the feet travels in a more outward motion – from both the sides of the feet as well as forward from the toes. You don’t want your shoes blowing their sides or any slippage occurring during a deadweight lift!

Hand Grip to Perform the Deadlift

Whichever style you wish to use, the grips are the same. Find which one allows you more control of the weight – the lift that you feel most comfortable with.

What’s the most popular grip? The “mixed” or “alternating” grip are the most popular. One of your palms faces forwards, the other backwards. It’s up to your own preference which hand faces which way, while many people alternate this in order to avoid any potential for uneven development in the upper body.

One advantage of this particular grip is that in comparison to an overhand grip, there’s not as much grip strength required, which means that there’s less of a chance that the bar will twist or slip from your grasp.

Nevertheless, the overhand grip is also popular, where both hands face backwards. Here, grip strength is developed more as is upper-body strength. You may lack the ability to pull as heavy a weight with the overhand grip, but a good policy is to work both grips in rotation.

The third grip for the deadlift is called the hook grip. It’s more difficult to get used to but potentially it’s the strongest of the three grips. This grip is usually applied during the snatch process and it allows for the better control of heavier weights. Both palms should face backwards in an overhand grip, but wrap your thumb around the bar before placing your hand on the bar. Next, wrap your fingers around the bar as well as your thumb. The index finger or index and middle finger will act to hold the bar correctly in place.

Finally, you may be wondering about the use of straps? Well, unless you have some form of medical condition whereby you have difficulty holding onto the bar, straps are best forgotten. A strong grip is a necessity when it comes to lifting weights, and developing it can be extremely helpful, both in and out of the gym. If you can’t hold onto a weight, it’s best you don’t even try.

The Stance

So, let’s say that it’s now time to head on to the gym and find your deadlift bar. And you are now wondering which one? Don’t opt for the short, weight-specific dumbbells. Instead, use a standard Olympic barbell. If you decide to use a trap bar, well, that’s an article all to itself, really.

If you are using a commercial gym opt for the Olympic bar and a power cage with a wood and rubber platform at the front. And that’s another benefit to performing the deadlift – there’s rarely a queue for this apparatus.

For the conventional lift, ideally your feet should be between shoulder and hip width apart, toes pointed a little outwards. Squat down and hold the bar using one of the grips we’ve mentioned. Hands need to be a little wider apart than shoulder-width. Arms outside the legs and the elbows need to be extended.

On the other hand, for a sumo lift, the feet need to be positioned more specifically to the body than in the conventional style.

The distance the bar has to travel will be reduced if the feet are wider, and the body is closer to the ground. Plus, it’s easier to keep the knees from being knocked by the upward-traveling bar, and the bar will be closer to the center of gravity. Don’t be tempted to go too wide though because then you lose the mechanical advantage of the correct lower body positioning, and thereby the level of force which is generated from the hips is reduced. In turn, this means that the smaller muscles (which are also weaker) of the lower back and inner leg are exerted. Not what we would want!

Everyone is different however, so you need to find the best positioning for you in order to achieve the greatest results.

If you’ve never snatched before, focus on these directions for hand positioning:

Take a measurement (roughly) from the outside of your shoulder to the first knuckle of your closed fist on the opposing arm. Your arm should be pointing straight out from your body, and to the side. This should provide for the measurement between the index fingers once they are positioned correctly on the bar.

Then find the same position using an Olympic bar, and keep it in memory. It should be somewhere around the second ring of knurling, fairly near to the collars on the bar. Next, position your feet right beneath these places on the bar. Toes should be pointing a little outward, and in line with the knees. With arms leading directly down from your shoulders, reach for the bar.

From This Point Forth

It’s wise to come up with a mental checklist in order to work the way through the pull. The main focus should be on the actual movement, but at the same time, the amount of mental processing should be at a minimum. In order to remember these points, do what suits you best. The checklist applies to both sumo and conventional deadlifts.

First, the Set-up

Keep the shins close to the bar – right up against it.

Squeeze the shoulder blades – pull shoulder blades and lats together, down and back.

Chin down but head up – where the head goes, the body should follow suit. Keeping the chin down and the head up will stop the head from drifting forwards or hyper-extending, which in turn allows the back to round.

Fix your vision – find a spot in front of you and focus on that. This helps to keep the head up and in a fixed position.

Keep the chest up – helps to get the bar on the move and creates a strong upper body.

Hips back and keep the back tight to ensure that there is no possibility of rounding.

Breathe deeply – fill the belly with air so that the back is supported.

Triceps tensed – this helps to avoid the biceps pulling the bar up. You certainly do not want your biceps to be converting the deadlift for you.

The Pull

Hips below the shoulders – we don’t want an RDL to occur whereby the hips rise before the shoulders, which increases the chance of injury.

Use the legs to push – drive with the feet and the huge power of the legs.

Use the back to pull – the second part of the movement is to use the large back muscles to pull.

The bar should be kept close to the body – no drifting. If you keep the bar close to the body as possible, you are maintaining a healthy center of mass, which then means less chance of injury, and less workload to be endured.

To finish the pull, squeeze the glutes – to help complete the pull, squeeze the glutes at the top of the movement. This then prevents the hyper-extension of the spine, which is a common error, and that can easily lead to a bad injury.

The trickiest part of the lift is now over, once the lockout is achieved. All there is to do now is to get the weight back on the ground, and there’s obviously a little more to that than simply dropping the bar. Nevertheless, it’s far easier to lower the bar than it is to raise it, but because of that, some lifters take the easy way out, which can once again, lead to an injury.

Keep your mind on form at all times. Perfect form is the mainstay of a good, solid lift every time. So in order to achieve the lowering of the weight, simply turn the given method on its’ head and do things in reverse.