How to do Dumbbell Dead Lifts

Back to Exercises

Difficulty: Hard

Impact Level: Normal

Target Body Parts: upper back, lower back, calves, glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps

Instructions

Stand with your feet at hip width and a dumbbell in each hand, by your sides. Drive your hips back and hinge forward at the hips, maintain the natural inward curve of your lower back. From the bottom position, keep your shoulders drawn back and down, then straighten your legs and drive your hips forwards to return you back to standing with the dumbbells at your sides again. You do not need to lift the dumbbells higher by bending your arms.

How to make Dumbbell Dead Lifts easier

This exercise can be done with lighter weights, or even just as a body weight exercise to learn the technique slowly. Also try our Good Mornings exercise as a great drill to understand how to hinge at your hips and maintian a neutral spine.

How to make Dumbbell Dead Lifts more challenging

To increase the intensity of this exercise, increase the weight of your dumbbells or try lowering the weights really slowly. You can also increase the difficulty with our exercises: Kettlebell Suitcase Deadlift and Kettlebell Single Dead Lift.

Looking to add this exercise to your workouts?

Customize your workouts simply by adding or removing Sworkit exercises. Sign in or sign up to get started.

Try It Out