Why Does Deadlifting Make Me Feel Like A Boss?

“What is this exercise doing for me?” is what I get from most clients.

This usually means, what is this stretch or movement doing for my body?

As a trainer, I prefer to coach an individual so that the physical sensation of a well-executed exercise is so powerful that there isn’t much question left to wonder what’s happening in the magical skeletomusculonerve jungle that we call our bodies. (And I know, there’s fascia in there, too, but throwing around anatomy jargon always comes with the risk of a stray term flying over someone’s head. So let’s keep it simple.)

However, due to varying degrees of individual body awareness — ie: the ability to sense one’s own skeletomusculonerve jungle — the answer to the opening question isn’t always crystal. Especially if the exercise or movement being performed is awkward or unfamiliar, which means that the person’s body is going to tense up under that feeling of awkwardness, which impedes their reception to the good parts of it.

So it was interesting when one of my clients, upon learning to deadlift, didn’t ask what was the exercise doing for him. Instead, he commented on how it made him feel “like a boss.”

You see, the deadlift is one of those exercises that, when carried out correctly, doesn’t need to be translated.

Let’s shift up “What’s this doing for my body?” for a better question:

“What is the body actually doing?”

I’ll tell you.

It starts by standing with the bar in hand: tall, locked, and strong. The feet are screwed into the ground. The shoulders, abdominals, and glutes are engaged — whenever you see or hear “engage” in a fitness context, just squeeze the heck out of those muscles as if you were packing them together — for an all-over feeling of tightness and control. Remember how to “engage your core”? This is why.