One of the Best Exercises Ever

I love the deadlift, which says a lot considering what it did to me once.

It's one of the best exercises because it works nearly everything, especially the often-overlooked posterior chain, which includes the glutes and hamstrings. You get power for nearly every sport from the posterior chain. Some of the best trainers will tell you that the deadlift is a great move to include in your training -- but only if you do it right.

And that's what I once didn't do. Well, actually more than once. When I first started deadlifting, I didn't understand well enough how to do it. Looking back, it's fairly clear that my core wasn't strong enough either. So one night at the gym, with what most would consider a modest weight, I went to pull the bar up and could've sworn I heard a pop from the left side of my lower back. I could barely straighten up enough to put the plates up and walk out of the gym.

My biggest problem was that I was rounding my lower back on the pull, a common mistake.

But it didn't stop me from deadlifting, after a break, of course. Simply put, the benefits were too big to walk away from. So I worked with Marco Ferdinandi, the sports performance director at Velocity Sports Performance in Manhattan, on my form. With each pull, I concentrated not on how much I was lifting but on my form. I worked on my core more than I ever have, too.

Today, I felt great after my last deadlift. The weight I'm pulling is still awfully modest compared to many guys, but I'm moving up.

If you want to try it, wikipedia.org has a good explanation of the move, and at T-Nation.com Eric Cressey has a great article on it.