Why Deadlifts Rule the Weight Room

A Training Tip from Don Alessi:
"For a thick, muscular back, deadlift, deadlift, deadlift, and then finish with a little deadlift! Deadlifts of all kinds strengthen the pulling chain (forearms, delts, traps, rhomboids) and allow the trainee to lift the greatest load. Remember, strength and mass are 66% correlated, so the stronger you are, the thicker the structural units that must lift the load. Also, deadlifting is one of the few exercises that develops the deep back muscles that lie under the traps, including the longissimus thoracis. When developed, these deep muscles add a third dimension of muscular thickness!"

Source

Don Alessi is a NSCA certified personal trainer and co-founder of Alessi Fitness personal training studios. He specializes in body composition transformation and corporate seminars.

If you're new to the deadlift, or have avoided the exercise because you're intimidated by it, here's a great "how-to" video. Proper form (like any exercise) is key to deadlifing--so there's no room for body English here. Capiche?