The deadlift is simple to describe — pick the bar up, put it down — and easy to get wrong. Almost every problem starts in the setup, so this guide spends most of its time there.
Set up to the bar, not the bar to you
Roll the bar over your midfoot, then walk up until your shins almost touch it. Feet about hip-width apart, toes slightly out, the bar an inch or two from your skin.
Push your hips back and bend your knees until your hands reach the bar. Keep your arms straight and long — they are ropes, not levers — with shoulders pulled down and chest proud. Eyes on the floor about a meter ahead, spine long and neutral.
Grip, brace, and take the slack out
Grip just outside your legs, both palms down or with a mixed grip on heavy sets. Before you pull, squeeze your armpits down and pull gently on the bar until you feel the plates load up. That slack coming out of the bar is the difference between a lift and a yank.
Now take a big breath into your belly and brace like you are bracing for a nudge. Your hips should be high enough that your shoulders sit slightly ahead of the bar. If your hips shoot up first when you pull, they started too low.
Push the floor away
Do not think of lifting the bar; think of pushing the floor down through your legs. Hips and shoulders rise at the same rate and the bar stays glued to your legs.
Keep it dragging close: over the midfoot, brushing the shins and then the thighs. Once the bar passes the knees, drive the hips forward and finish standing tall — glutes squeezed, shoulders back, no leaning back at the top.
Lower the bar with the same spine
The way down is a rep too. Hinge at the hips first and let the bar travel down your thighs; bend the knees only once it passes them. Control the descent for a second or two instead of dropping it, unless you are training heavy singles with bumper plates on a platform.
Hold the brace until the plates touch the floor. Most deadlift back tweaks come from rushed, sloppy lowerings rather than from the pull itself.
Progress without rushing the weight
Add weight in small jumps — 5 kg at first, 2.5 kg once the bar slows — and end the set when your lower back starts to round or the bar drifts forward from your legs. One clean heavy single beats five ugly reps, every time.
Warm up with lighter sets that rehearse the exact same pattern, and log your top set plus a cue or two in Bulky. A note like "hips shot up on rep three" is worth more than the number on the bar.