H.I.N.G.E.

Hide your knots.

Bar over the knot in your laces
WHERE TO PLACE THE BAR
WHERE TO PLACE THE BAR
WHERE TO PLACE THE BAR
Line up with the bar over the middle of your feet. A big mistake a lot of people make is they'll start with their shins right up to the bar... the problem is when you're right up against the bar and you get down here, the bar is going to run into your shins/knees and slow you down a little bit. Start with the bar a little further away from your shins so it travels in a straight line up to your knees and it's not being kicked out in front of you.
Animal
If she's looking straight down, the bar would be covering the knot in her shoelaces.
Juggernaut
As a general rule of thumb, the bar should start about an inch or two from your shins, or roughly over your shoelaces.
Stronger By Science
Mid foot - so I'm allowing for any knee travel, any forward shin travel when I go down to get the bar. Because I want the bar to be stationary before I take the pull.
Omar Isuf
The reason why you want this bar over the middle of your foot is because the closer that you have things to the midline of your body, the more biomechanical support you have - the stronger you'll be.
Neversate
I line up with the bar over the middle of my foot. It should stay over the middle of my foot the entire lift.
Neversate
You want the bar over your mid foot in a conventional deadlift.
Super Training
While keeping the bar close is important, having the bar too close can actually be a detriment to the athlete in finding a good start position.
The bar should be located about mid-foot. In doing so, your shins can translate forward a bit more, which then allows you to get you armpits directly over the bar (use the bar as a counterbalance to "pull" the chest up), which places you in a better line of pull.
Set up with the bar directly over the feet. If you set up too far away from the bar, you end up doing some kind of half-assed front delt raise.
Feet around hip width
I try to set my feet at a position just like I would if I was going to do a standing vertical jump test... where they are going to create the most forced possible into the floor, which is the exact same thing that you're doing here, except there is a bar in your hands...
Neversate
Bring his feet under his hips and drive his toes out a couple degrees.
Szat Strength
You're going to want to set up around where you do a vertical leap... Take a standing vertical leap, where would your feet set up? That's going to get you close to a position where you would start your deadlift.
Super Training
The best place to start is simply by performing a vertical jump, and noting what stance you naturally gravitate toward...In general, you’ll find that you’ll feel the strongest and most comfortable in this test with your feet right around hip width. Generally, larger people who have a bit more of a gut to fit between their thighs pull with a slightly wider stance than smaller conventional deadlifters.
Stronger By Science
Finding the stance: the place where we like to start with stance width is the same place that you would do a vertical jump from or a box jump from. So the feet are pretty much going to be under the hips... maybe a slight adjustment in or out from that based on personal preference.
Juggernaut
When setting up for the pull, turn the toes slightly OUTWARD. This will enable a fuller contraction of the glutes and help your lockout.
Westside Barbell
If you set up too wide, the knees have nowhere to go but in, and that can spell trouble. Instead, I coach people to set up with a narrower stance and to focus on pushing the knees out slightly.
Turning your feet out a little farther helps a bit with breaking the bar off the floor and generating a bit more speed at the start of the lift, and pointing your feet straighter ahead helps a bit with lockout strength.
Stronger By Science
I try to point my toes out a little bit so that my knees track correctly. If you keep your toes straight forward, a lot of times your knees will tend to collapse in... upping your chance of injury big-time [and] when your knees collapse in your butt shoots back, which is going to make that bar go forward and change the balance which is going to make that thing feel about 20 times heavier than it actually is. So point your toes out people.
Neversate
Drive your kneecaps out
TOES OUT, KNEES OUT
TOES OUT, KNEES OUT
TOES OUT, KNEES OUT
Alan Thrall
I really like to cue full foot contact as well as screw-driving the feet into the ground. This is huge... what you need to think about is your heel, your big toe, and your pinky toe are all in contact with the ground, and wherever your start position is... I want you to twist those into the ground and create an artificial arch in your foot - especially people who have flat feet. This is going to ensure you get your glutes active while ensuring your big toe, heel and pinky toe are down...I do this the entire time. I twist my feet into the ground... and that ensures I'm keeping those glutes active.
Brendan Tietz
To ensure that we're starting the lift as well as possible, she's maintained even pressure throughout her foot. We don't want to be rocked forward onto the toes nor do we want to be so far back on the heels that the toes come off the ground... We wanna have have even foot pressure (big toe, little toe, and heel) even weight distribution between those three points of contact.
Neversate
The more we turn the toes out, the more the hips can rotate out and contribute glute contraction. However you can take this too far. If we go too duck-footed, now we lose our center of gravity [and] we have balance issues and on top of that, the quads can't contribute much.
Brendan Tietz
I'm not thinking about pushing my knees forward. I'm pushing them out. So like if you were to look at my feet, I'm applying pressure this way (outward), so if they were able to slide, they'd be coming out (to the sides)... I'm standing here right now, I'm relaxed, knees are the straight forward, I can't feel my glutes at all. But as soon as I screw them out, when my knees come out... I can feel my glutes firing here.
Omar Isuf
Bending your knees leads to some forward knee travel. Pushing your knees out actually brings them back. You can keep your knees bent to the same degree without setting them too far forward, and now you can keep the bar closer to your body as you pull.
Alan Thrall
Lifters need to learn the "tripod" foot, which means the foot has three points of contact with the ground. That larger base of support is essential for creating a rigid foot through which you can put force into the ground.

Inhale with your lats.

Pull your shoulders down
OVERHEAD INHALE
OVERHEAD INHALE
OVERHEAD INHALE
INHALE WITH YOUR LATS
INHALE WITH YOUR LATS
INHALE WITH YOUR LATS
ARMS UP THEN DOWN
ARMS UP THEN DOWN
ARMS UP THEN DOWN
Juggernaut
The shoulders should be pulled back and held down at lockout. This ensures optimal stability of the shoulder girdle.
By engaging your lats, depressing your scapulae, and extending your shoulders a bit, you’re repositioning your body’s mass forward slightly, allowing the bar to shift backward a bit at the start of the pull, positioning the center of masses for both the bar and your body closer to the system’s center of gravity.
Stronger By Science
The anti-shrug...consists of moving your shoulders in a downward motion as far as they will go. Once you have moved them as far as they will go, move them a little farther. This tends to tighten not only the shoulders but also the pecs, the back, and the core.
I'm trying to ensure my scapula is locked in, my lats are engaging/depressing, my arms are as long as possible. So when I start I don't get any power leaks... What you want to ensure is [your back] doesn't change position as you're pulling. I get up on the bar and I think 'big broad chest' as I'm setting my brace and everything, but I take my shoulders and I put them back and down... you want to think about your arm length too. I really want that shoulder to be as low as possible because... if we start a little too hiked up and retracted, that arm is going to leak out. So you want to think length: shoulders back and down, chest broad...
Brendan Tietz
Repositioning the scapulae and engaging the lats actually work to decrease the required hip and spinal extension demands of the lift...By engaging the lats more, you can extend the shoulder a bit, letting your shoulders move slightly forward relative to the bar. This also lets your hips move slightly forward, decreasing the hip extension moment arm. Depressing the scapulae serves the same basic purpose: It doesn’t extend the shoulder, but it positions the shoulder joint itself a shade further down your torso, bringing it closer to the hips.
Stronger By Science
I'm trying to ensure my scapula is locked in, my lats are engaging/depressing, my arms are as long as possible. So when I start I don't get any power leaks... What you want to ensure is [your back] doesn't change position as you're pulling. I get up on the bar and I think 'big broad chest' as I'm setting my brace and everything, but I take my shoulders and I put them back and down... you want to think about your arm length too. I really want that shoulder to be as low as possible because... if we start a little too hiked up and retracted, that arm is going to leak out. So you want to think length: shoulders back and down, chest broad...
Brendan Tietz
By engaging your lats, depressing your scapulae, and extending your shoulders a bit, you’re repositioning your body’s mass forward slightly, allowing the bar to shift backward a bit at the start of the pull, positioning the center of masses for both the bar and your body closer to the system’s center of gravity.
Stronger By Science
The shoulders should be pulled back and held down at lockout. This ensures optimal stability of the shoulder girdle.
Repositioning the scapulae and engaging the lats actually work to decrease the required hip and spinal extension demands of the lift...By engaging the lats more, you can extend the shoulder a bit, letting your shoulders move slightly forward relative to the bar. This also lets your hips move slightly forward, decreasing the hip extension moment arm. Depressing the scapulae serves the same basic purpose: It doesn’t extend the shoulder, but it positions the shoulder joint itself a shade further down your torso, bringing it closer to the hips.
Stronger By Science
The anti-shrug...consists of moving your shoulders in a downward motion as far as they will go. Once you have moved them as far as they will go, move them a little farther. This tends to tighten not only the shoulders but also the pecs, the back, and the core.
Breathe in + Flex
I would rather have a full cylinder of air in my torso than one that is already dented...We fill up our stomachs as much as possible with air, trying to look fat like Santa Claus, because that is how we can support the most weight... I would tell you not to pull your stomach in like you're doing a vacuum when you're lifting anything. I would tell you that you will always get more output, more energy, and more strength out if you have a full belly of air and you brace it down like you're about to get kicked by a zebra. (And zebras kick hard.)
Neversate
Pull as much air into your belly as possible, then when you think you have all you can get, pull more.
We're going to take a deep breath in, press our tongue against the roof of our mouth (called the valsalva maneuver) and drive our core out as hard as we can. That's going to stabilize the back. This is what stabilizes your spine. This is what protects your lower back; it's your core.
Super Training
Breathing at the top generally allows for more air to be taken in because there's more space. The abdomen cavity has more room to fill up with more air when you're standing upright rather than when you get bent over and things get kind of compacted and constricted. So that would be the ideal thing: to take your air in all the top, reach down, get set and go.
Juggernaut
Hold that deep, diaphragmatic breath throughout the lift, performing the valsalva maneuver. If you need to exhale and get a fresh breath, do it at the top of the lift or with the bar resting on the ground between reps.
Stronger By Science
I take my breath at the top. I'll take my breath down into the core - really squeezing out against my belt and my abdominal wall - not breathing into the chest. Remember, it's always down here for my neutral spine. I find that builds a lot of pressure... pushing out against my belt. It's going to make it harder for me to find position at the bottom. So I have to manipulate myself even harder, pull myself into the bar even more, and that's going to enable me to lift more weight.
Omar Isuf
When you set your air as you take it in from the top, a very effective tool is to have a quick forceful exhale (setting your rib position down) and then from here, filling up, bracing as hard as possible, and maintaining that more neutral position as you reach down to grab the bar.
Juggernaut
Pull arms down with back muscles
NEUTRAL SPINE
NEUTRAL SPINE
NEUTRAL SPINE
When you pick your hands up, you're stretching your lats... So you stretch them out, and then when you pull them down, you just think about trying to get the opposite motion. You don't have to pull them crazy way back, and you don't have to think about doing anything with them. You don't have to flex them or spread them or anything. You're just trying to pull them down and back as if... you are trying to pull your lats all the way down into your back pockets... Get those lats engaged.
Mind Pump
To properly engage the lats, begin by raising your arms as far above your head as possible as if you were stretching. Try to feel your lats extend, pushing your hands closer to the ceiling. While keeping your lats in that tight position, drop your arms so that your hands are pointing directly at the ground. Keep your arms straight the entire time. Your lats should feel like you’re doing a pullover...Pulling your arms down like this will also engage your traps. Be sure not to shrug your traps at the top of the lift — that’s not helping your lockout and may lead to red lights if the bar descends after the top of your shrug.
You need to engage your lats... as a stabilizing muscle in the deadlift. Your lats are gonna help you to keep your lower back in a flat position. They're gonna help you keep that neutral spine. If you're not engaging the lats, you're gonna have a tendency to round... [and] you're gonna lose a lot of power. In addition, it's placing a lot of stress on your lower back.
Mind Pump
So one way I like to cue that is to do a little reach (up) and exhale before we get down to the bar.
T-Nation
The other thing I like to have people do is to do some very light sets of either pull downs where you're trying to pull down all the way to your belly button... or stiff-arm pull downs like at a tricep machine. You've got your arms out in front of you and you're pulling down... because that's a very similar motion to how you should be getting set.
Juggernaut
When I set up for a deadlift, I raise my hands up because that gives me a nice stretch in my lats and helps me think about my lats. When I pull them down, I'm still thinking about my lats, even though the position is the complete opposite. So that when I get set up, I'm still thinking about my lats. I can still keep them locked in...
Juggernaut
Your lats should be engaged in a good position... if your lats were not engaged in the setup, you're going to have a really tough time making up that real estate. You're going to have a hard time locking out the bar with heavy weights. It's really tough to get your shoulders back if you gave them up earlier in the lift.
Neversate

Knees to your shoulders.

Push your hips back
DEADLIFT GRIP + HIPS
DEADLIFT GRIP + HIPS
DEADLIFT GRIP + HIPS
Jeff Nippard
CLOSE THE CAR DOOR
CLOSE THE CAR DOOR
CLOSE THE CAR DOOR
Bret Contreras
DRINKING BIRD
DRINKING BIRD
DRINKING BIRD
whiteboard_daily
Because the first move is gonna be a hip hinge, she's gonna push back with her hips to reach down and grab the bar, and it's gonna allow her to maintain this pretty vertical shin position and a lot of tension through the hamstrings. A good way to think of this is if you were buried up to your knees so your shin is locked into position that she can only move now from the hip. So the hips push back, we load tension into the hamstring as she reaches down to grab the bar.
Juggernaut
My first move to reach down and grab the bar is to begin driving my hips back. I'm maintaining even pressure throughout my foot the whole time and I'm trying to trying to arch and keep a flat low back position until I can barely touch the bar here and then I'll use the bar to leverage myself and pull myself down into position the rest of the way.
Juggernaut
I really think about hinging at the hips, or pushing these hips back. I'm really loading the glutes, loading the hammies, so that that muscle's going to lengthen. You're going to feel a bit of a pull through there.
Omar Isuf
From here, all you really need to do is stay tight during the descent... you need to make sure that you're going down at a pace that allows you to keep hamstrings tight. I'm not losing that tension in my lats... The easiest way I find to do that is to think about spreading the floor apart. Your feet shouldn't actually move, but if you do that it's going to naturally cause you to engage most of the muscles in your lower body... If that cue doesn't work for you, you might try something else. Some people like thinking of digging their heels backwards, and that helps them to engage their muscles. The really only thing that matters is that you are keeping tight.
Mind Pump
You want to maximize that hamstrings tension in your start position.
Juggernaut
[Do] a Romanian deadlift down to the barbell. Keep the tension on your hamstrings.
Alan Thrall
Proud chest
Keep your chest high while pushing your hips back. Imagine someone has a rope tied around your waist and is pulling you backward.
FINISH WITH A PROUD CHEST
FINISH WITH A PROUD CHEST
FINISH WITH A PROUD CHEST

Grip and dip.

Grab the bar shoulder width
3 GRIPS
3 GRIPS
3 GRIPS
Grip the bar with your arms hanging straight down from your shoulders. If your grip is too narrow or too wide you'll have to bend down farther increasing the range of motion, and negatively affecting your leverage at the start.
Take the narrowest grip you can without forcing your knees to cave in, or without causing undue friction between your arms and thighs at the start of the lift...If your arms are brushing your thighs but not really grinding against them, your grip width is solid.
Stronger By Science
Generally I suggest a lifter takes a shoulder-width grip on the bar that produces vertical arms from the front.
Alan Thrall
DEAD-GRIP-WBD
DEAD-GRIP-WBD
DEAD-GRIP-WBD
whiteboard_daily
Grasp the barbell with a grip that puts your forearms right up against the sides of your thighs; the further out they are, the harder it'll be for you to maintain neutral spine — and the further the bar will have to travel.
I try to keep my hands as close to my legs as possible, because the further apart you get... it lengthens your bar path, which makes it heavier and harder. So you want to shorten that as much as possible by keeping your hands as tight as possible to your legs...
Neversate
You're gonna want to grab the bar as close to your shins as possible...just outside the knees.
Juggernaut
Sit your hips back and down
WHERE’S THE BEEF?
WHERE’S THE BEEF?
WHERE’S THE BEEF?
whiteboard_daily
HIPS BACK, PULL UP
HIPS BACK, PULL UP
HIPS BACK, PULL UP
Jeff Nippard
SET-UP DIFFERENCES
SET-UP DIFFERENCES
SET-UP DIFFERENCES
PULL UP ON THE BAR
PULL UP ON THE BAR
PULL UP ON THE BAR
Kabuki Strength
DON’T JUST SIT DOWN
DON’T JUST SIT DOWN
DON’T JUST SIT DOWN
Alan Thrall
DON’T SQUAT THE DEADLIFT
DON’T SQUAT THE DEADLIFT
DON’T SQUAT THE DEADLIFT
One method that works very well is to consider wedging your hips under your shoulders while creating some upward pull on the bar prior to starting the rep. The closer you can get your hips to the bar, the shorter the lever acting on the hips and low back, which makes more of an effective pull versus having that weight farther from the hips and working on a longer torque arm.
Dean Somerset
Rather than just sitting your hips down I want you to let your hips fall back and gradually sink down as you fall back. Use the barbell as a counterweight to prevent yourself from falling on your back. Pull up on the barbell as your hips fall back. You'll need some weight on the bar to actually be able to leverage it. You are loading your spring so that when it's time to drive your feet into the floor all of that energy in your body transfers into the barbell. Once you are in the correct starting position, that weight will be quivering to come off the ground. I'm not just sitting my hips down in position. I'm pulling myself down into position.
Alan Thrall
[Wedge] your ass in underneath your shoulders. I always like to think of it as a wedge because you want your momentum going back because that's going to help you lean back and use leverage to lift the weight, while simultaneously getting glute drive... You lean back while squeezing your butt through and that's gonna wedge your hips under you.
Brendan Tietz
Bend over at the waist, pull up on the bar, now pull the hips in. You're going to drive them in, never letting go of that tension... We want to think about wedging our hips under the bar... in the setup and through the lift.
Super Training
When you bend over to grab the barbell, you want to use it as a counterbalance to "pull" your chest up and get the hips down, "wedging" yourself between the bar and the floor. Now think, "Armpits over the bar, with maximal hamstring tension.
Your hips should always be below your shoulders. The way some people are built, their hips are going to be way below their shoulders and people are going to kind of be pushing that line a little bit...
Neversate
The second the hairs on your shin touch to the bar, that's the perfect lifting position...They always tell people to envision themselves in a leg press, and people always lean back into the heels because that's where all the power comes from on a leg press. Once you say that to people, they'll just lean back a couple inches and it just puts that center of gravity perfect.
Eddie Hall
When you sit down into it, I want you to try and sit back into it until you feel yourself starting to fall a tiny tiny bit. Don't actually fall! Just feel some pressure being applied [upward] on the bar... Right when you feel your bodyweight starting to apply pressure and your shoulder is just ever so slightly in front of the bar.
Super Training
Basically, when you bend over to grab the barbell, you want to use it as a counterbalance to "pull" your chest up and get the hips down, "wedging" yourself between the bar and the floor.
Go down, get yourself in position, and pull. Don't stay down there for too long because your body position is gonna start shifting, shoulders can start twisting... you can see a lot of really weird things happen... all that extra energy down there is just burnt energy in a heightened state. You don't want to burn energy in that state. So get down there pull and be done with it.
Elite FTS
Try to get your face and your body back behind the bar a little bit. We also want to intentionally drive the knees forward of the barbell slightly.
Neversate
I'm gonna pull up and then lean back and wedge into position so... I'm almost rocking back to... use [the weight on the bar] as a counterbalance...
Brendan Tietz
...to pull the slack out of the bar and then pull the slack out of my body, I literally use the bar to try to wedge my body between the bar and the floor.
Neversate
So it's hips back - now I have a slight bit of rounding in my back. Let's where I'm gonna use the bar. I'm really pulling myself into position... My spine is getting into a bit a more neutral position, I had a big pull through my hamstrings, through my glutes there, and that's where I want to pull from. Each and every time, I initiate the pull from that position.
Omar Isuf
What you need to do is get down into position... you're going to grip the bar and literally lift up on it and get into a hip shoot so I'm lifting my hips back and what I'm thinking is I'm literally pulling up as I'm doing this. I'm not forward over it, I'm actually pulling up and then I sit back with it. So I'm taking that empty slack, I'm picking it up, and then I lean back.
Brendan Tietz
Vertical shins + Bar under pits
SHOULDER BLADES OVER THE BAR
SHOULDER BLADES OVER THE BAR
SHOULDER BLADES OVER THE BAR
CREATE A WEDGE
CREATE A WEDGE
CREATE A WEDGE
whiteboard_daily
SHOULDERS TOO FAR FORWARD
SHOULDERS TOO FAR FORWARD
SHOULDERS TOO FAR FORWARD
Squat University
The hips should be down and back which will leave the shins in an almost vertical position.
Our starting position for a deadlift is going to be scapula (which is where our arms connect to our body) over the bar and our shins perpendicular to the ground.
Super Training
...Make a window with your arms and the bar. Then you're gonna take your knees and put them through that window. That's gonna ensure that the bar stays close to you, that the bar is just lightly touching the shins - not dug into it at all- because we don't want to add friction, but it'll make sure that you're maintaining as close to vertical shin position as possible. Maybe a little bit of forward knee movement to ensure that you're able to use your legs your quads effectively to push away from the floor.
Juggernaut
First, make sure your armpits are right above the bar. Many people set up with their armpits too far forward. This causes your body weight to tip forward into your toes which puts strain on the back.
Scapula directly over the bar - mid foot, straight line - and you see his shins are perpendicular.
Super Training
Now think, "Armpits over the bar, with maximal hamstring tension."
The best deadlifters in the world start with a vertical shin position... because their bodies are proportionate in such a way to allow them to achieve that. Not everyone is going to be able to start with that great vertical shin position... You may have to have a little bit more forward shin position, but you should be trying to strive for that very vertical shin position.
Juggernaut
The bar should start right beneath the shoulder blades, close to the shins. This will set you up for a proper pull – the bar will go up and down in a straight line.
Push your legs out against your forearms to serve as a tactile reminder to keep your lats tighter…If your lats are loose, your arms are gonna flail.

Elbows locked and loaded.

Squeeze the bar
Grip the shit out of the bar, but leave your upper arms relaxed. Don’t try to row the bar when you’re deadlifting it. Always grip the bar harder than you need to.
Stronger By Science
Squeeze that bar like it owes you money. Never stop squeezing a bar with any lift - never ever stop squeezing as hard as you can!
Neversate
BURY YOUR HAND IN THE BAR
BURY YOUR HAND IN THE BAR
BURY YOUR HAND IN THE BAR
Lock your elbows
ARMS ARE MEAT HOOKS
ARMS ARE MEAT HOOKS
ARMS ARE MEAT HOOKS
When I get my grip, the first thing I'm going to do is lock my arms as hard as I can. You want to think as if your elbow doesn't even bend. That elbow joint doesn't hinge at all. You just want to get these arms straight as possible. That's going to get... your lats locked in tighter. We'll get our grip, lock the arms hard, and then I'm going to rotate the elbows back... We'll just rotate our elbows towards your body. That'll get you even tighter again.
Animal
You need to imagine your arms as just hooks; you shouldn't have any bend in your elbows at the start of your pull. Lest you think this is just a minor distinction, simply "yanking" the bar with your arms is a fine way to wind up on the operating table with a torn biceps!
You can't effectively transfer force from your lower body and core to the bar if your elbows are flexed...this is a great way to rupture a biceps tendon and guarantee that you aren't pulling as heavy as you ought to be.
Rotate your elbows
ELBOWS BACK
ELBOWS BACK
ELBOWS BACK
When I now grab the bar, I want to pull myself into the floor and I'm thinking about screwing my lats. I'm going to screw the bar slightly and you're going to feel the change in position with your lats.
Omar Isuf
WRAP THE BAR AROUND YOU
WRAP THE BAR AROUND YOU
WRAP THE BAR AROUND YOU
Kabuki Strength
Elbows will initiate a move in the shoulder as far as tightness goes...bringing them in close to the body and pointing them back a little bit further, that's one way of winding up the shoulder and getting more tightness. You're taking [your grip] and kind of screwing it in a little bit... so we go from a relaxed position to a loaded position as we get ready to pull.
Super Training
ROTATE ELBOWS
ROTATE ELBOWS
ROTATE ELBOWS
Super Training
SQUEEZE ORANGES
SQUEEZE ORANGES
SQUEEZE ORANGES
whiteboard_daily
Use these two cues to further engage your lats: Protect your armpits. Squeeze an orange in your armpit.
[Imagine an orange in your armpit.] Squeeze the orange in the armpit. Make orange juice in the armpit... When people get set up, they're gonna squeeze the orange in the armpit so their lats are on, their upper back is nice and tight, and then they're going to come up and finish. But I don't want them to lose the shoulders on the way down, so they have to continue squeezing the orange on the way down so they keep a solid back position and keep that upright torso.
T-Nation
As she reaches down to grab the bar, if I was to come here and try and tickle her armpits, she's squeezing her tricep into her lat to block that... We're gonna squeeze the tricep into the lat and protect the armpit to create a rigid torso. Another way that you can think of this if you want to start from the top is to try and reach your arms down as long as you can. As I'm standing up right here and I push my arms down my side I'm not only elongated my arm, which is a great thing to do in the deadlift, I'm also engaging my lats very hard. I can reach down and maintain that same position.
Juggernaut
The next time you deadlift, think about someone tickling your armpits. Your goal is to try to stop them without using your hands.
Once my hips are in a good position, my next cue is thinking about locking in my lats... by trying to bend the bar across my shins like it is a horseshoe, but a lot of other people will get the idea of covering up their armpit with their shoulder or trying to make the triangle of your torso your arm and your thigh shrink. Some people talk about sticking their shoulder blades in their back pocket.
Neversate