How to Do It
- Stand with the bar over your mid-foot, feet hip-width apart, and grip it just outside your legs.
- Bend down and grip the bar, then drop your hips until your shins touch the bar and your back is flat, chest up.
- Take the slack out of the bar by pulling it slightly before you lift, so the plates lift together instead of jerking.
- Drive through the floor with your legs while keeping the bar in contact with your shins and thighs on the way up.
- Lock out by squeezing your glutes at the top, standing fully upright without leaning back.
Common Mistakes
- Rounding the lower back at the start of the pull, which is the leading cause of deadlift injuries.
- Letting the bar drift away from the body, turning a vertical pull into a much harder curved one.
- Hyperextending the lower back at lockout instead of stopping at a neutral, fully upright position.
- Starting with the hips too low, turning the deadlift into a squat and losing leverage.
The deadlift trains more muscle mass in a single rep than almost any other exercise, and it’s the most direct test of total-body pulling strength. Get the setup right and the rest of the lift takes care of itself.
Keeping the bar close is the single biggest technical factor. Every inch the bar drifts forward multiplies the stress on your lower back. If you’re new to the movement, practice with lighter weight until the bar path feels automatic before adding load.
Because the deadlift is taxing to recover from, most programs schedule it once or twice a week rather than every session. If your lower back fatigues quickly, the Romanian deadlift is a good accessory to build hamstring and glute strength without the same systemic fatigue.
Sumo vs Conventional Deadlift
Both pull the same weight off the floor, but stance and grip width change which muscles do the most work. The conventional deadlift uses a hip-width stance with hands outside the legs, creating a longer bar path that leans more on the back and hamstrings. The sumo deadlift widens the stance and brings the hands inside the legs, shortening the bar’s travel and allowing a more upright torso, which shifts more emphasis onto the quads and glutes.
| Conventional | Sumo | |
|---|---|---|
| Stance | Hip-width | Wide |
| Torso angle | More forward lean | More upright |
| Range of motion | Longer | Shorter |
| Emphasis | Back, hamstrings | Quads, glutes |
Neither is universally better; body proportions matter more than preference. Lifters with long torsos or short arms often find sumo more mechanically efficient, while others pull more weight conventional.
Muscles Worked by the Conventional Deadlift
- Primary: hamstrings, glutes
- Secondary: lower back, lats
- Stabilizers: core and forearms, which brace the spine and maintain grip through a heavy pull
Conventional Deadlift Alternatives
- Romanian deadlift: starts standing instead of from the floor, isolating the hip hinge with less systemic fatigue.
- Sumo deadlift: a wider stance that shortens the range of motion and shifts more load onto the quads and glutes.[1][2]
- Trap bar deadlift: a different, more upright pulling pattern with high- and low-handle options; do not assume its load is equivalent to a conventional deadlift.[1][2]
- Barbell back squat: not a direct substitute, but a compound alternative that builds comparable total lower-body strength.[1][2]
References
- Anaerobic and Muscle Endurance Development: Lifting Guidelines. National Strength and Conditioning Association (2017)Back to claim
- American College of Sports Medicine Position Stand. Resistance Training Prescription for Muscle Function, Hypertrophy, and Physical Performance in Healthy Adults: An Overview of Reviews. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise (2026)Back to claim
- Updating ACSM's Recommendations for Exercise Preparticipation Health Screening. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise (2015)
- Kinematic Differences Between the Front and Back Squat and Conventional and Sumo Deadlift. (2019)Back to claim
See our exercise methodology for how this evidence is applied and its limits.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the conventional deadlift for?
- The conventional deadlift is for building total-body pulling strength, training the hamstrings, glutes, lower back, lats, and core in a single lift that starts from the floor. It carries over to almost every other strength and athletic task that involves picking things up, which is why it is one of the core lifts in most strength programs.
- Which is better, RDL or conventional deadlift?
- Neither is better outright, they train different things. The conventional deadlift starts from the floor and trains total-body pulling strength with more quad and back involvement, while the Romanian deadlift starts standing and isolates the hip hinge for hamstring and glute development. Most well-rounded programs use both rather than choosing one over the other.
- How much should a 150lb man be able to deadlift?
- A 150lb man deadlifting in the range of 185 to 225 pounds, roughly one and a quarter to one and a half times bodyweight, is a reasonable novice to intermediate target for the conventional deadlift. Advanced lifters at that bodyweight often pull well over 300 pounds. Bar weight matters less than steady progress, so track your own numbers over time rather than chasing a generic strength standard.
- Are RDL and conventional deadlift the same?
- No, they are different exercises despite sharing the name deadlift. The conventional deadlift starts each rep from the floor with the bar resetting between reps, while the Romanian deadlift starts standing and lowers the bar only to around mid-shin before reversing, emphasizing a controlled hamstring stretch rather than a full pull from the ground.
- What is the difference between conventional deadlift and trap deadlift?
- The conventional deadlift uses a straight barbell positioned in front of your shins, requiring more forward torso lean and lower back involvement, while the trap bar deadlift uses a hexagonal bar you stand inside of, allowing a more upright torso and shifting more emphasis onto the quads. The trap bar version is generally easier on the lower back.
- Sumo vs conventional deadlift: what's the difference?
- The conventional deadlift uses a hip-width stance with hands outside the legs, favoring the back and hamstrings through a longer range of motion. The sumo deadlift uses a wide stance with hands inside the legs, which shortens the bar's travel distance and shifts emphasis onto the quads and glutes with a more upright torso. Lifters with longer torsos or shorter arms often pull more weight sumo.
- What is a good conventional deadlift alternative?
- The Romanian deadlift is the closest conventional deadlift alternative for training the same hip-hinge pattern with less systemic fatigue, since it starts standing rather than from a full dead stop on the floor. The trap bar deadlift is another strong substitute if a straight bar bothers your lower back.