Run to Win

In the gym today, I was doing some deadlift shrugs. It is a fairly simple compound exercise. You load a bar on the floor as you normally would with a deadlift: feet shoulder width apart, over hand grip, and your back in a natural arch. The only difference is that rather than stopping the deadlift when your are standing straight up, you continue the motion and shrug shoulders, lifting the bar that extra six inches or so. You then relax your shoulders until your arms are straight hanging as they normally would be at the end of a deadlift and return the bar to the floor.

In the process of performing this exercise, however, I discovered a new danger for men when they are lifting weights. I am sure that this is not the only exercise where this is apparant, but it is the first time that I had trouble with it on almost every single repetition.

Note: The rest of this article discusses the male anatomy. If this bothers you, please do not click through to read the rest of the article.
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Last night had some random notes about site improvements and a couple news notes along with talk about races, Barry Bonds.

• I talked about two races this week last year. The first was the Dan Cardillo 5k, which many people have been reading over the last week or two while looking for this year’s results. I also spoke about the Portland Trails 10k; this year’s race is tomorrow.
• Barry Bonds surprised me by actually playing in a game last year. It didn’t take long for him to start hitting home runs again.
• I linked to a video of how not to deadlift. There is also a link in there for the proper way to deadlift.
• From the football front, I discussed the melee between the Eagles and Falcons.

Strength News has a video about how not to deadlift. My back starts hurting just looking at that video. The kid should use his legs more, should not bow his back so much, and should not rely on gravity and momentum to lift the weight. If he does that often, he is going to seriously hurt himself. Since that weight is probably more than he could properly lift in the first place, he should wear a lifting belt to help support his back in the attempt.

Men’s Health has a video on proper barbell deadlift form.

Remember: If you are unsure how to perform a particular exercise, then you should always seek the instruction of a professional. Most gyms have employees that would be more than happy to help show somebody proper form in a particular exercise.