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Comment by someguy101010 | Hacker News Reader

Truthfully I dont think there is any reason for a regular person to deadlift. It's a pretty high risk exercise and you can hit those muscles groups with different exercises. If you are hard set on deadlifts though I recommend the hexbar deadlifts to reduce the chances for injury.

https://youtu.be/TU2xZ7s4jus

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The deadlift is one of the most well-rounded, important lifts out there. I don't understand what you mean by "regular people"; are you saying that only eg powerlifters should do deadlifts and that casual lifters should avoid it?

IMO anyone interested in developing their strength (that is physically able to deadlift) should learn how to do them safely and then work on them.

Rippetoe laying out how to do a deadlift: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwQQZCi6OHA

I hear the argument that deadlifts are great if you have perfect form a lot. However, if you don't have perfect form they can be extremely dangerous. Very few other excercises have such high risks, and there are plenty that are just as good. A lot of people think they have great form but don't record themselves from the side so they don't notice how much their back is bending. On the other hand excercises like the pull up, push up, dumbbell press, row, dumbbell squat, etc are also very good with little potential for life threatening injuries even if you have bad form.

Of course form is very important. If your deadlifts are "extremely dangerous" and can potentially cause "life threatening injuries", then yes, take a good hard look at your form and work on improving it, staying away from heavy weights until you get there. But the idea that most people have form bad enough to seriously injure them isn't my experience at all. Deadlifts can be done safely, and having good form isn't some unattainable, Mt Olympus feat.

I'll leave these here as I think they're both relevant to your point, in different ways:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgK6Y1j7ACA

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhOQCwJvwlo

Form isn't just about the movement but strengthening your stabilizing muscle groups that keep your body aligned during that movement. By the time you start dead lifting serious weight, your core should be like a tree trunk and your muscles should be strong enough to support your body's alignment while flexed during the lift.

I do think too many people go overboard with the olympic lifts. You don't have to be red faced and shaking to get a good pump from a deadlift. Just because you can lift the weight in some way 5 times, doesn't mean you should. I bet most people who are boasting about their >400lb dead lift can't do that movement for 3x10 reps with good form. Lower the weight and it's as safe as the dumbbell squat.

I'm not saying that it's not a great lift, I'm just saying that most people can reach their fitness goals without it, and it's pretty easy to injure yourself doing a deadlift relative to other exercises.

[edit]: took a quick look at that video you posted though and that's an amazing resource! I look forward to checking out more of there videos.

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