The deadlift

The most functional exercise you can do is the Deadlift. It stimulates your whole body, with emphasis on legs, anterior and posterior chain, buttocks, back, arms and trapezoids. It is one of the best exercises that stimulate hormone replacement therapy (testosterone) that exists!

Want to gain muscle mass? Do squats and deadlifts!

We are born with this ability, but over the years have forgotten the correct way to lift something from the floor.

Watch a 2-3 years child when it will take something from the ground. It squats. It uses the knees, the legs, not only uses the back. That's it! This is the movement! Just do it with a bar instead of a toy. Add logic, repetitions, biomechanics and that's it! You have the deadlift!

Tips to do the deadlift:

- Set the bar at a comfortable height to the ground. Place it at a height where you can reach it without bending your back. If you need to elevate a little, do it. Otherwise, it may be from floor. Its your flexibility (back of the leg and buttocks) that will say.

- Approach the bar, keep the bar close to your body throughout the movement.

- Keep your back straight or arched back (pigeon breast), never bend your lower back to get a weight off the floor.

- After doing a repetition, I advise you to drop the bar, stand, breathe and then do another rep, or, you have to "reset". Do not "bounce" the bar on the floor, drop it! The deadlift don't has its eccentric phase (the phase where you're putting the bar on the ground). Do not put stress until the end. In fact, lowering the bar slowly (very close to the ground) increases the risk of injury to the weaker parts, usually the back, the lumbar area. Then lower the weight just enough, and passing the knee, drop!

- Start light, I mean it. You can receive many benefits just having to hold the correct posture, then place little weight (get 10 to 30 kilos) and only add weight when you feel that your technique is perfect.

- Add weight gradually.

- Do reps hard. Do not let a careless manner. If you feel that by the fourth or fifth repeat his form declined, even just a little, it's time to stop and rest. Just make perfect repetitions, you know? This exercise does not work if you break the line. It breaks you.

- Make as many sets as necessary, but keep the number of repetitions low, between 4 and 6. It is often difficult to maintain the correct posture after the sixth repetition.

- It's a good exercise to train the hook grip.

Hook Grip

Crossfit Deadlift Intro

Jouko Ahola Deadlift

This is a basic exercise and you have to know how to proceed to perform more advanced movements, like the Olympic Lifts, which means to lift the weight from the floor to overhead.

Squat. To the point.

The squat is considered by many the "king of exercises." It is the most feared exercise in the gym. He makes you mad because it's difficult. To do it, it takes concentration and strength. This is the exercise, along with the deadlift, that delivers more natural hormones (aka. Testosterone) which not only affect legs, but the whole body, including arm's muscles.

How to perform the full squat:

- Feet approximately aligned with the shoulders (or feet at a comfortable distance apart).

- Now squat down as much as possible, basically balancing on your heels and keep your back straight, try to go bellow parallel / ass to the grass, look forward. It requires balance and strength to maintain that position. Is basically that position of Jeca-tatu or the orientals, leaning on the heels, but with the back straight.

Image Credit: Crossfit

- At this point it is not given a chance to relax, you will find that is an exercise that requires not only the legs but the abdomen, back, neural attention to the form does not fail. And if you are holding a weight: the shoulders, deltoid , trapeze, arm and forearm, heart, or almost everything.

- Now go on and continue with the repetitions (10 to 15 reps with light weight, 4 to 8 reps with heavy weight)

- Breathe when you feel better, but you will usually hold a little while in the "hole" of the squat, is instinctive, sometimes you can exhale slowly on the rise, this is the "Valsalva maneuver", also valid.

It is an exercise that requires the whole body. Explore the perception of the neural-muscular ways from neck to the heels. The motor recruitment is large. It is difficult, requires attention and concentration. The weight does not matter more than the perfect execution. You should come down as much as possible to the point where the flexibility allows, without bending the back. Keep your back straight (or slightly arched position a "neutral", "beach chest"), always. The lower the better (ass-to-grass), wide amplitude. No parcial squats.

Healthy Squat

It is not bad for your knees, in fact, it's good. Exercises all that the knee is capable of, and it becomes stronger. Compressive forces at knee's ligaments in a deep squat position with more than 380 pounds do not reach 50% of its maximum physiological capacity.

Source (in Portuguese):

Squats and knee

http://www.saudeemmovimento.com.br/conteudos/conteudo_frame.asp?cod_noticia=843

A study was conducted comparing the pressure in the knee joint between two different exercises: the squat and leg extension. While in the squat, patellar total strength was considered within normal range (because of the hamstrings activation and the position of the tibia, which protects the knee), the leg extension showed an excessive instability that can cause injuries.

Source (in English):

Leg Extensions vs. Squats

http://www.ironmanmagazine.com/site/?p=1424

It is not an exercise for the quadriceps only! You use all the muscles of your legs. Including the glutes, which are the largest muscles of the body.

Source:

http://stronglifts.com/why-you-should-always-squeeze-your-glutes/

There's no excuse! When you go to the bathroom, you're already squatting. If you can squat once, can do 3 sets of 1. And if you can make 3 of 1, can make 3 of 2. And sooner or later you'll be able to do 3 sets of 10 repetitions 3 times per week, which is the minimum you should aim to keep your legs working properly.

"The squat is the basic movement of human beings." Cláudia Raia - brazillian actress and dancer

Please stay away from the guided bar / smith machine when you do squats. The natural path of the bar is not a straight line. Make it free weight.

Anatoly Pisarenko squatting

Start with no weight, only with the bar. Add weight. Make 3 to 5 sets. Many times you can. Many times is necessary.

Types of squat:

- Back Squat: It is done with the bar on your back on your traps. It is the most classic. It is one of the three powerlifting exercises. Powerlifter training.

- Front Squat: You keep the bar in front, resting it on your shoulders. And balances at your fingertips. When you're in the hole, force the elbows forward / up (it helps to balance the weight on your shoulders). Increases the flexibility of the forearms. It is a basic exercise of the clean and jerk, an Olympic lifting.

- Overhead Squat: Squat down holding the bar above your head with a large grip and arms outstretched. Stretch it "like a towel". The bar is always on the same line of the feet (balance). It is a basic exercise of the snatch, an Olympic lifting.

- Side squat: With legs spread wide, squat with one leg to the side, then with the other.

- Lunges:

- One-Legged Squat: It's Punk! Or do the assisted version of the exercise and find a good use for the smith machine in the gym: ExRx's Single Leg Squat Assisted Self.

- No-no-no Squat: Full squat, heavy. No belts, no straps, no spotters. Down to the ground / Ass to the grass (ATG)!

- Air Squat: It is done without weight. Good for training posture and warming up.

If you never did it, prepare yourself to be unable to climb stairs for about 2 days. It will hurt because you never used. Perhaps you will squat again after a week. But your body adapts quickly. And gets stronger!