equipment

Barbell

sets

3-5

reps

3-8

rest

3-5 min

1. Stand with your feet about hip width apart, bar over your mid-foot.
2. Hinge at the hips and bend your knees to reach the bar.
3. Take an overhand or mixed grip just outside your legs.
4. Set your chest up, flatten your back and pull the slack out of the bar.
5. Brace your midsection hard, with your shoulders just in front of the bar.

1. Push the floor away with your legs to break the bar off the ground.
2. Keep the bar in contact with your legs as it rises.
3. Once the bar passes your knees, drive your hips forward to stand tall.
4. Finish standing upright with your hips and knees extended, without leaning back.
5. Lower by pushing your hips back first, then bending the knees once the bar passes them.

Take a big breath and brace before each repetition. Hold it through the lift and exhale at the top or once the bar is back down.

• Keep the bar close to your body the whole way.
• Push the floor away rather than pulling with your back.
• Keep your back flat from start to finish.
• Finish by standing tall — do not lean back at the top.
• Reset your position for each repetition rather than bouncing off the floor.

• Rounding the lower back to reach the bar or during the pull.
• Letting the hips shoot up first so it becomes a stiff-legged pull.
• Letting the bar drift away from the legs.
• Hyperextending and leaning back at the lockout.
• Bouncing repetitions off the floor and losing the braced setup.

From the bar on the floor to standing fully upright. If you cannot reach the bar with a flat back, raise it on blocks rather than rounding to reach it.