Geometry

(DeadLift)

A Dead Lift is when a competitor to lift a barbell with as much weight attached as possible from the floor up to their hip (until the competitor is standing erect). This must be a fluid lift; meaning the bar can't rest on ones legs, but can glide across it. The video below is a video of myself completing a deadlift warmup.

When dead lifting your body will start by forming different angles. For example, the picture below was extracted from the video above and one of my dead lifts began with my knees  creating a 85 degree angle and my hips and back creating a 44 degree angle.

The lift will move in an upwards motions as seen below and I will continue to drive up by pushing from my heels, pulling my hips forward, looking up, and keeping my back straight and tight.

I will continue to drive up until my body is straight. I should be able to draw a line from my heel to my shoulder. Therefore my body should follow the left side of the yellow box in the picture above.  (It is evident in the picture that my body is still in the process of reaching a full line of 180 degrees) In order to to reach 180 degrees my knees should be locked and not bent. My hips and back should also create 180 degrees by not bending as well.

Form is key! If I don't reach 180 degrees in one fluid motion then the lift will not count and my final powerlifting score will "bomb" (erase all other scores; it's like a disqualification)