There’s a reason the deadlift is often called the king of all lifts.

When it comes to conventional gym exercises, it’s probably the movement that gives you the most scope to lift the heaviest weights.

That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best exercise for building every muscle group, but it certainly sends a fairly unambiguous signal to your body: we need to adapt. We need to get stronger.

If your deadlift has stalled, however, and you’re looking for a way to break through that plateau, the eccentric-first deadlift could be exactly what you need.

One of the things that makes the deadlift such a powerful movement is that you’re lifting a weight from a complete dead stop on the floor.

That’s the ‘dead’ in deadlift.

It’s also the thing we’re going to remove.

Instead of beginning with the bar on the floor, you’ll start with it in a rack at roughly the height it would be at lockout. You’ll unrack it, lower the weight first and then reverse the movement, potentially allowing you to handle loads heavier than you could ordinarily pull from a dead stop.

That lets you overload the eccentric portion of the lift – where you’re generally stronger – exposing yourself to heavier weights and giving your body a convincing reason to adapt.

The eccentric-first, or ‘top-down’, deadlift shouldn’t technically be called a deadlift at all, but that’s semantics.

After a thorough warm-up – and we’ll come back to just how important that is – place the bar in the J-hooks of a rack at hip height and load it up.

Rather than beginning your first rep from a dead stop, stand the weight out of the rack and begin at the top.

From here, lower the bar under control towards the floor.

Lowering the bar first allows you to take advantage of the stretch-shortening cycle, storing elastic energy as the muscle-tendon unit is loaded and helping you produce more force as you reverse the movement.

Technically, you’re no longer taking the bar from a dead stop on the floor.

Allow the plates to lightly kiss the floor rather than completely relaxing at the bottom, then immediately stand back up, maintaining tension throughout.

Once you’re sufficiently warmed up and familiar with the movement, you may find you’re able to perform the exercise with more weight than you could deadlift conventionally from the floor.

That’s where you start getting the real bang for your buck.

Overload Your Deadlift

There’s a fairly obvious problem with trying to get stronger by simply lifting more weight than your current maximum.

You can’t.

At least, not in exactly the same lift.

Eccentric-first deadlifts provide another route. By beginning at the top and taking advantage of the fact that you’re typically capable of handling greater loads eccentrically, you can expose yourself to weights around – and potentially beyond – your normal deadlift max.

It’s not magic. You’ve simply changed the conditions of the lift to give yourself an advantage.

Remove the Dead Start

The dead start is part of what makes conventional deadlifts so difficult.

There’s no preceding eccentric, no bounce and no momentum to borrow. The bar is sitting motionless on the floor and it’s your job to persuade it otherwise.

With an eccentric-first deadlift, you’re lowering the bar before you lift it.

Maintain tension, let the plates kiss the floor and reverse the movement without completely switching off, and you’ve removed one of the hardest parts of the conventional lift: generating all your force from a completely static start.

Give Your Body a Reason to Get Stronger

Heavy lifting is ultimately a problem your body has to solve.

Expose yourself to a sufficiently demanding stimulus and, provided your recovery, nutrition and the rest of your training are in order, your body adapts.

The eccentric-first deadlift allows you to introduce loads that may currently sit beyond what you can pull conventionally.

Used intelligently, that makes it a useful overload tool when simply repeating the same weights from the floor isn’t moving things forwards.

Build Confidence with Heavier Weights

Sometimes a new deadlift PB feels heavy before you’ve even attempted it.

Taking a heavier bar out of the rack gives you the opportunity to feel that load in your hands, brace against it and control it through the eccentric before attempting to stand back up.

That doesn’t guarantee you’ll suddenly pull the same weight conventionally.

But becoming accustomed to handling heavier loads can make previously intimidating weights feel considerably less daunting when you return to your regular deadlifts.

• Glutes: Extend your hips as you stand and work hard to control your descent as you lower the bar.
• Hamstrings: Help extend your hips while working under substantial tension through the eccentric portion of the lift.
• Quads: Extend your knees as you drive the bar away from the floor.
• Back: Your lats, traps and spinal erectors work to keep the bar close and maintain a strong torso position throughout the rep.
• Core: Creates the rigid trunk you need to transfer force while controlling a heavy bar.
• Forearms: Grip the bar throughout both the eccentric and concentric portions of the lift, although straps can be useful here to stop your grip becoming the limiting factor.

• Warm up thoroughly. Don’t rush this part. Work progressively through your normal deadlift warm-up until you’re completely primed and comfortable handling heavy loads.
• Set the J-hooks, safety pins or blocks just below hip height and load the bar. Stand it out of the rack so you’re beginning in your normal deadlift lockout position.
• Take a deep breath, brace hard and hinge at your hips, keeping the bar close as you lower it towards the floor. Maintain as much tension as possible throughout the eccentric – you’re controlling the weight down, not simply dropping it.
• Allow the plates to lightly kiss the floor without completely relaxing or allowing the bar to bounce. Reverse the movement immediately, driving the floor away and standing back to full lockout.
• Initially, use loads you’re already comfortable handling before gradually experimenting with weights closer to your maximum.
• Only once you’ve built familiarity with the movement should you consider going beyond what you can currently pull conventionally from the floor.

The warm-up is important.

Very important.

Not optional.

Capisce?

If you’re going to expose yourself to a heavier weight than you’ve ever lifted before, you want to make sure you’re properly primed. We’re not just whipping a heavyweight out of the rack and hoping for the best.

Think about the bench press.

You wouldn’t have a friend help you unrack considerably more weight than you’ve ever pressed before, simply slam it down onto your chest and hope everything works out.

Treat this exercise with the same respect.

Warm up thoroughly. Use chalk or straps if necessary so your forearms don’t become the weak link. And focus on maintaining as much tension as possible throughout the eccentric portion of the lift.

We’re trying to control the bar down.

If you simply drop it towards the floor and bounce it straight back up, you’ve removed a large part of the strength-building stimulus you’re trying to create, while still experiencing all of the downsides of having a very heavy bar in your hands.

Treat eccentric-first deadlifts carefully and use them sparingly as a tool to break through plateaus.

They’re not a party trick for lifting more weight than you ‘should’ be able to, and they’re definitely not an excuse to write cheques your body can’t cash.