One-Minute Deadlift Tip: Pause Reps

I believe in a few things: the Earth is round, The Bourne Ultimatum is the best Bourne movie, and most accessory work should fix a weakness in one of your main lifts. That’s where paused deadlifts come in. They can be brutal, but they achieve a few important things: they help keep your shoulders and hips from rising too fast, they improve upper back tension, and they build strength where you’re weakest in your range of motion. For programming, aim for sets of 3–5 reps at about 50–65% of your one-rep max, pausing 2–3 inches off the floor (or at mid-shin, depending on you and where the bar tends to stall) for a 2–3 second count per rep. If you want to push it further, pause fully at the same spot on both the way up and the way down. You’ve got this.