Why you really want the dead lift in your life
Q I’m a middle-aged man who cycles and runs to stay fit. I would like to start strength training to build muscle but there are thousands of opinions and almost as many different machines. If you could choose the top exercises for me to do, what would they be?
A Your instinct is right — more variety is not necessarily better and more complicated is not always superior to sticking with simplicity. However, there is no one-size-fits-all formula for everyone, and that is probably the reason there’s such variety in modern gyms.
There are thousands of opinions, and this answer will be yet another — written with an unflinching belief that it is the gospel truth. But first, why would you waste so many beautiful years of your life cycling and running without doing full-body strength training? Have you not read these pages?
Better late than never — some wait until their late 50s when their specialists bemoan a shortage of lean muscle worsening aches and pains before begrudgingly starting resistance training. Welcome to the light.
If you love exercise, walking into a new gym is like a child walking into a toy store. It doesn’t matter if it is a near empty Crossfit box or a modern fitness emporium. Big commercial gyms are a sight to behold — you can literally eat, drink coffee, see a specialist, swim, spin, run on the spot, lift weights, hang around on a jungle gym, hit a punching bag, do aerobics, spend time in a steam room and blow-dry your hair. Who’d want to leave? No doubt they ll start offering suit tailoring services soon.
On the other end of the spectrum, walking into a vacuous space, filled with graffiti and large ropes dangling from roof trusses, complete with Limp Bizkit blaring from nightclub-quality speakers can get anyone’s pulse racing.
However, it doesn’t matter where you go, or where you train: there are fundamentals, and then there are extras.
Some machines at commercial gyms are astounding in their design, functionality and internet of things brain. On the other end of the spectrum you can learn to crawl like our ancient ancestors and swing sledge hammers in a faux nod to working-class grit.
All these machines and ways of moving are good for you, they’ll add colour and texture to your life. But, they’re like décor, or blinds: if you want to develop real strength and muscle, you must build the building first.
You must squat and lunge, you must learn a variation of the dead lift or hinge that’s right for your body, you must press and pull, vertically and horizontally. Then learn to carry and rotate. Ah, as the politicians in SA like to remind us, give someone enough time and they’ll reveal their true colours. The Water Cooler is a functional training advocate.
Within these movement patterns one will find the powerlifting basics and a few others that form the base of the type of training that the men and women in the physical culture era used to build their strength, and physiques — with the modern addition of the horizontal press.
Speaking of physiques, have you watched Physical 100 on Netflix? Besides the glorious dubbing, it proves a wonderful point to all those who mistakenly confuse aesthetic muscle with strength and endurance. The prettiest bodies were eliminated first.
Squat, dead lift or Romanian dead lift, dumbbell or bench press, row, pull-up and overhead press — those would be our choice of six exercises to build strength and muscle. Tick your boxes — the three powerlifting moves, plus another three to develop a balanced body.
Once you have these bases covered, the fitness emporium is your oyster — lunges, leg extensions, adductor and abductor machines, pec dec, lat pulldown, biceps curls and triceps pushdowns — pick your poison and have all the fun in the world.
But here’s the disclaimer — don’t go squat or attempt a hinge such as the Romanian dead lift unless you have seen a knowledgeable personal trainer or biokineticist often. You must learn how to perform the movements properly or injury is likely to wreck your newfound love affair. You may be started on dumbbell goblet squats, for example, and slowly
— or never — move to barbell squats. Listen to the advice.
Invest in a professional and respect the mechanics of movement.