Barbell Deadlift
The barbell deadlift is the classic pull of a loaded bar from the floor to standing. It trains your back, glutes and hamstrings as prime movers, with your traps and quads helping. Pick it for total posterior chain strength and as one of the heaviest lifts you can train, with simple, measurable progress.
Muscles worked
The barbell deadlift trains the back and glutes and hamstrings, with traps, quadriceps helping.
Primary
Helpers
Weekly sets for back
Hard sets per week that Swole.fit plans for back, counting every exercise that trains it. Start a cycle near the growth line and climb toward the recovery limit before a deload.
How to do the barbell deadlift
- 01Stand with the bar over your midfoot, feet hip width apart and toes slightly out.
- 02Hinge down and grip the bar just outside your shins, then bend your knees until your shins touch the bar.
- 03Lift your chest, flatten your back and pull the slack out of the bar while bracing your trunk.
- 04Push the floor away with your legs, keeping the bar against your shins and thighs.
- 05Drive your hips through to stand tall, then lower the bar by hinging back along the same path.
Coaching cues
- Push the floor away.
- Pull the slack out before you lift.
- Drag the bar up your legs.
Common mistakes
- Letting the bar drift forward off your legs makes it far heavier, so keep it touching your shins and thighs.
- Jerking the bar off the floor loosens your position, so pull the slack out and build full-body tension first.
- Leaning way back at lockout adds nothing, so finish by standing tall with your glutes squeezed.
How Swole.fit programs it
Log it once and the app plans the next session for you.
- Most sets land between 8 and 15 reps, the range the plan steers compound lifts toward for size.
- Week one starts around 2 to 3 reps in reserve. Each week you train a little closer to failure, ending around 0 to 1 in reserve before a deload week.
- Hit the top of the range on every set and the next session adds the smallest real jump in weight, rounded to the plates, dumbbells or stack you actually have.
- Sets for this exercise count toward your weekly volume for every muscle it trains: a full set for the primary muscles, half a set for the helpers.
The full method, with the maths, is in how mesocycles work.
Barbell Deadlift alternatives
Same muscles, different tool. Swap in one of these when the equipment is taken or your joints want a change.
- Trap Bar DeadliftKettlebell, band and specialty bar, glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps
- Cable Pull-ThroughCable, glutes, hamstrings
- Cable Romanian DeadliftCable, hamstrings, glutes
- Dumbbell Romanian DeadliftDumbbell, hamstrings, glutes
- Glute Ham RaiseMachine, hamstrings, glutes
- Kettlebell SwingKettlebell, band and specialty bar, glutes, hamstrings
Free programs that use it
Ready-made splits from the Swole.fit library. Pick one and the app runs the progression.
- Arm Blaster3 days a week, biceps, triceps, shoulders
- Athletic Power3 days a week, quadriceps, hamstrings, shoulders, back
- Beach Emergency3 days a week, chest, shoulders, biceps
- Core Four3 days a week, chest, back, shoulders, quadriceps
- Deadlift Religion3 days a week, back, hamstrings, glutes
- Full Body Power3 days a week, chest, back, quadriceps, hamstrings
Log it. Let the app plan the next one.
Track your barbell deadlift free. Swole.fit picks the next weight, counts your weekly sets and tells you when to deload.