Deadlift

[Guinness]

After reading tons and tons of posts bragging about deadlifts as a great mass builder (especially for hammies), I finally got around to adding them to my leg routine last night. In the past, I never really did them for legs, I always did them for lower back, and with bent legs so that the empahsis would be taken off of hamstrings to an extent.

Well, last night, I did them stiff-legged for the first time and was a little concerned that my form might have been poor. So, getting to my question (finally), how low do you guys/gals go when doing stiff-legged deadlifts? I was going all the way down to the point of touching the bar on the top of my feet. I was using a very light weight, mainly because I hadn't done them this way and didn't know what to expect, and also because I'm trying to stick to HIT protocol which calls for at least 2 second concentric/4 second eccentric pacing on your reps. My hams are smoked today, but I actually stopped short of failure on both of my sets that I did, but only because my forearms gave out before my back/hams did...next time I'll use straps, so I'll probably kill myself even more. But, I wanted to check with the bros on proper stiffy form before I did them again next week. I'm just a little concerned because I think going as far down as I did is putting some arch in my back, which I know can't be good for the old spine. The weight I'm using under this protocol is very manageable, and my back felt fine afterwards, but long term, I want to make sure I'm not jacking myself up.

 

[minion]

I personaly believe that moderate weight is pleanty, but I do alot of cross training as well.
I bend the knees slightly, and stretch my hams on the way down, and contract them on the way up, and hold for sec. on the top similar to the dead. I don't touch my knuckles to my feet but I come close more like my shoe laces. My form is exactly the same no matter the weight IMO you don't need too much weight.

 

[BodybuildingUniverse]

anything new will make you sore. I personally dont feel that stiff-legs are good for mass. Imagine the hams as the biceps of the leg. Would you train your bi's with some sort of strecthing exercise in hopes of gaining mass? No. You would curl something. And you would use a heavy weight.

I say do leg curls and do them before you squat instead of a few wimpy sets at the end of a grueling leg workout.

my $.02

 

[Guinness]

Heavy,

Agreed, with most of your post...I've often wondered why people rave about deadlifts for ham development when essentially, all the movement seems to do is stretch the muscle...I figured one of the more educated bro's on the site could explain the physiology of this movement and why it works as a glute developer...

the only thing I didn't agree with in your post was the part about doing leg curls before you do squats...I was always under the impression, and especially with squats, that you would want to do your compound exercise first and then move down to your isolation movements...If I did leg curl or leg extension first before doing squats, I would even be able to do the piddly-ass weight I do now for my normal reps...I'd be way too smoked...I always do squats at the beginning of my leg routine, then give my hams and quads a chance to rest a bit, by moving to calves 2nd, and then I finish my legs off with leg extension and leg curls...I threw in the stiffies yesterday as a sort of experiment to see what all the hype was about...they are definitely sore today, but that could also be because of the squats, the lying leg curl and the seated leg curl that I mixed in....