The deadlift is a fantastic strength exercise in its own right, but after a certain amount of progress, you will need to supplement it with other lifts to keep getting stronger. This is where deadlift accessory exercises become an essential part of your strength training programme.
How to Include Deadlift Accessory Exercises in Your Programme
These accessory exercises will help you rectify the weak links in your deadlifting game and strengthen important muscle groups. The downside to this is that these exercises will be hitting the same positions and muscle groups as deadlifts. This means you won’t be able to train every exercise on this list at the same time and deadlift heavy; you’ll have to choose what you want to focus on.
In the breakdown below, I’ll discuss when to use these accessory exercises to improve your deadlifting ability.
Bonus Warm-up Exercise: The Rolling Deadlift
This is my go-to exercise for preparing my clients to deadlift heavy. It’s similar to a Jefferson curl in the way that it prepares the back muscles to be trained through a longer range. However, it goes one step further in that you can use this exercise to practice building tension at the bottom of the deadlift.
Unfortunately I filmed this exercise as a YouTube Short, so you’ll have to watch it over there. Click here for this deadlift warm-up exercise.
1. Romanian Deadlifts and Banded Romanian Deadlifts
None of my regular readers will be surprised to see Romanian deadlifts at the top of this list.
They replicate the top half of a deadlift, so they will help you build strength in that portion of the lift. Romanian deadlifts train the hamstrings through a loaded stretch whilst also training the upper and lower back to maintain a static position against the weight.
By adding a band to the bar, the Romanian deadlift can also train your ability to keep the bar close to your body, which is an important part of your technique.
2. Pull-to-Knee
As the name suggests, this exercise focusses on pulling the bar from the floor to the knee.
This accessory exercise trains your ability to lift the bar from the floor. It’s a great technical lift for improving your setup and bracing for deadlifting. As you never fully lock out, it also creates a lot of time under tension for the back muscles – as long as you don’t rest on the floor for too long.
I took this exercise from Olympic weightlifting, where the bar generally moves a slower from the floor to the knee. For this reason, this exercise does not suit well when you’re closer to testing your deadlift and want to focus on pulling with maximum effort.
3. Single Leg Deadlift Variations
Performing single-leg variations will help you focus on the hamstrings and glutes. Because you’ll be using lighter overall loads, you can do these exercises whilst sparing the lower back and grip. This fact makes these some of the less demanding deadlift accessory exercises.
There are two single-leg accessory exercises that I like to programme for my strength training clients:
1. The supported single leg deadlift.
2. The split-stance Romanian deadlift.
Both exercises provide slightly different options for loading the hamstrings and glutes of one leg without constantly losing balance.
4. The Full-Range Row
After training the deadlift for a while, your technique will start to change. You will eventually lift a heavy enough weight that you can no longer keep your shoulders perfectly retracted as you lift. This means that as you lift the bar from the floor, your shoulders will become more rounded.
This is not a bad thing. Experienced deadlifters will often start the lift with their upper back already rounded as a result. It’s still possible to develop tension with a rounded upper back, and this position allows you to start with your hips higher.
However, a lot of new deadlifters are unfamiliar with the idea of loading their back in a rounded position. This is where the full-range row becomes a useful deadlift accessory exercise.
Although you are retracting your shoulders in this exercise, the main benefit comes from training the loaded stretch at the bottom of each rep. This will help you prepare for the demands of deadlift on the upper back.
Conclusion
There are so many more amazing deadlift accessory exercises we could have included in this list. I’m sorely tempted to do a part 2 in the future. There’s so much detail to discuss in relation to deadlifts; that’s why I listed 10 things you need to know about deadlifting. If you have any other questions, or you’re interested about personal training in Liverpool Street, get in touch below.