The Deadlift: Pushing the Floor

by Mark Rippetoe | August 09, 2023

The deadlift involves more than just pulling the bar off the floor. It is not an idiot's lift, although you might get that impression at a powerlifting meet. The mechanics of pulling the bar off the floor are not immediately apparent, and were not actually described in detail until the publication of Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training 3^rd edition in 2011. The short version is that the bar must come off the floor in a straight vertical line over the middle of the foot, with the shoulders a little forward of the bar. The “why” is explained in detail in the book.

The “how” is the perhaps-not-obvious part. High school “powerlifting coaches” yelling “JUST PULL IT OFF THE FLOOR!!!” in their best Macho Man Randy Savage voice do not actually get the job done. “Pulling” the bar off the floor is the wrong approach to generating the straight vertical line over the mid-foot that efficient mechanics demands, as we shall see.

The mid-foot position of the bar is not negotiable – a limit deadlift cannot be pulled to lockout if the bar is forward of this point, whereas a lighter deadlift can obviously be pulled inefficiently. When you take a stance with the bar directly over the mid-foot, take your grip on the bar, and prepare to pull, your knees must travel forward a short distance to close the gap between your shins and the bar on the floor. In the process of assuming this position, if your hips drop more than just a little, your knees will drop forward and the shins will move the bar forward of the mid-foot start position. Ass bone's connected to the … knee bone, knee bone's connected to the … shin bone.

Likewise, if the shins are perfectly vertical and your hips are higher than a deadlift, like in a stiff-leg deadlift, your shoulders are too forward and the bar can swing forward of mid-foot because the lats can't do their job. Lats pull back on the upper arms, and their function in a pull is to keep the bar over the mid-foot. The most efficient angle for them to pull against the humerus is 90 degrees. If your setup position is correct, lats will be at 90 degrees to the humerus and the shins will block the bar in a perfect mid-foot/vertical alignment. If your ass is too high, the lat angle on the arm is more than 90 degrees and the bar can't be controlled.

The geometry is simple: hips too low, knees and shins push the bar forward – hips too high, shoulders too forward, the bar swings forward – hips correct, bar is over the mid-foot in contact with the shins, lats keep it there as the bar comes off the floor. But if the bar goes forward of mid-foot at limit weights, you miss the pull.

So here's the point of this dissertation: if the bar is going to come off the floor in a vertical path, and if the shins are inclined forward of vertical, the shins will have to become more vertical as the bar leaves the floor. And this is accomplished by actively extending the knees as the first motion you think about. The best cue for this movement is “Push the floor away from the bar.” You actually push the middle of your foot down into the floor, like a leg press, but where the hips move up instead of the foot plate. This extends the knees and pulls them out of the way as the bar rides up the shins.

Thinking about “pulling the bar off the floor” often results in the opposite of an efficient pull. It usually looks like the lifter is attempting to extend hips first, instead of knees. If hips extend before knees, the knees remain forward of the bar and the bar path will have to go forward around the knees – this can actually happen at warmup weights. At limit weights, the knees have to move back because the mid-foot position is The Law, so the position sorts itself out at the expense of inefficiency. But if you start the bar straight up by pushing the floor straight down, you save time, energy, and aggravation.

It also gives you a way to think about the start off the floor by actively involving the quads while they're still in a position to contribute to the work. The start position of the deadlift shows an already extended knee angle and a fairly closed hip angle, meaning that most of the actual work of moving the bar will involve hip extension and isometric control of the back position – quads don't really have much to do. But if you can consciously tell them to start the movement off the floor by pushing the floor away, it's a much more efficient use of your brain and your quads. “JUST PULL IT OFF THE FLOOR!!!” doesn't really tell you how to get it off the floor. Something precise to think about when the bar is heavy is always useful.