If you want to have a nice hip line and increase the strength of your glutes, the hard lift is undoubtedly the first choice of training action! What do you need to know about hard lifts to train effectively and avoid injury?
What is a hard lift? How is it different from a deep squat?
The original concept of hard lift is to lift a heavy object off the ground, such as the barbell hard lift commonly seen in weightlifting competitions, the main action occurs in the hip joint, while the deep squat is more of a knee bending action, so the hard lift can be more targeted to the gluteal muscle groups for training.
Which muscle groups can be worked in the deadlift?
Obviously, the core muscles and the quadriceps on the front of the thighs are involved in keeping the trunk stable and lifting the weight; in addition, as the upper body holds the weight to keep the chest up and the shoulders from slumping, the stabilizing muscles of the shoulder blades and the wide muscles of the back are also worked.
What are the benefits of hard lift training?
Strengthens the glutes
As the weight increases, the gluteus maximus requires more strength to lift the weight and return the body to an upright position.
Improves tightness in the posterior thigh muscles
Many people have tightness in the posterior thigh muscles, but stretching feels like they can’t get rid of it, sometimes it’s actually because the posterior thigh muscles are not strong enough, so they stay in a state of overworked tightness; In the process of bending the hip joint with the upper body leaning forward during the hard lift, the posterior thigh muscles are trying to stretch themselves, which means they are training the power of centrifugal contraction, and this action can effectively improve the posterior thigh muscles This action can effectively improve the tightness of the posterior thigh muscles.
Avoid or improve the problem of back pain
Due to the sedentary lifestyle of modern people, the strength and use of the gluteal muscles is inadequate, so the muscles of the lower back will have a lot of extra load to compensate for the inadequate gluteal muscles, causing low back pain. Therefore, training the strength of the gluteal muscles and hamstrings through hard lifts can prevent lumbar spine injuries and is considered an important rehabilitation exercise after lumbar spine pain.
The Ideal Hard Lift Position
The ideal hard lift position is to keep the spine in its natural curvature, not to bend the waist, and not to over-extend the waist into a forward pelvic motion so that the main movement is in hip flexion. In addition, when standing straight with the weight lifted, keep the pelvis above the arch of the foot, do not push the pelvis too far forward, otherwise it will easily cause pressure on the lumbar spine.
Variations of Hard Lift
In addition to the standard hard raise, several variations can be used to emphasize the training of specific muscle groups.
Sumo Hard Raise
This movement increases the distance between the feet while challenging the inner thigh muscles.
Single legged hard lift
One-legged can be more targeted to unilateral gluteus maximus training, especially the two feet muscle imbalance people more need to single-legged training, in addition to training to single-legged stability and balance, when the first difficult single-legged can also be the other foot back to the ground without lifting off the ground.
