Conventional Deadlift Against Chains Overview
The conventional deadlift against chains is a deadlift with chains on the bar. The chains hang from each side of the barbell. As you stand up, more chain lifts off the floor. So the weight gets heavier near the top. It works your glutes, your butt muscles. It also works your hamstrings, the back of your thighs. Your quads and lower back help too. The chains make the top of the lift harder. This builds strong lockout power. It teaches you to keep driving all the way up. This is an advanced move. You need a solid regular deadlift first. The conventional deadlift against chains fits on a pull or leg day. Use it to get stronger where the lift feels hardest.
What Is The Point of the Conventional Deadlift Against Chains?
The conventional deadlift against chains builds explosive power and strength throughout the entire lift. The chains add variable resistance that gets heavier as you lift higher.
How To Do The Conventional Deadlift Against Chains
- Load your barbell and drape a heavy chain over each end so the links pile on the floor. As you stand up, more chain lifts off the ground, so the weight gets heavier toward the top and lighter at the bottom.
- Position your feet about hip-width apart with your toes under the bar, roughly under the balls of your feet. This is your conventional deadlift stance.
- Hinge at your hips and grab the bar with an overhand or mixed grip, hands just outside your legs. Keep your chest up and your back flat.
- Set your shoulder blades, take a big breath into your belly, and brace your core hard. Pull the slack out of the bar before you drive.
- Drive through your heels and push the floor away, keeping the bar close to your body as you stand up. The bar will feel light at the bottom and heavier as the chains rise.
- Keep your hips and shoulders rising together so the bar tracks straight up. Do not let your hips shoot up ahead of your chest.
- Stand tall at the top and squeeze your glutes, feeling the chains add real resistance as more links lift off the ground during the lift. Do not lean back at lockout.
- Lower the bar by pushing your hips back first, then bending your knees once the bar passes them. Control the descent on a 2 to 3 second tempo as the chains reload onto the floor.
- Set the bar down, reset your brace and grip, and begin the next rep. As an advanced strength move, aim for 3 to 5 reps for 3 to 5 sets, focusing on explosive drive.
Conventional Deadlift Against Chains Form Tips
- Set your feet hip-width with your toes under the bar. This keeps the bar close.
- Keep your back flat the whole time. Do not round it.
- Keep your chest up and shoulders over the bar. Start strong.
- Drive through your heels and push the floor away. Use your legs and hips.
- Keep the bar close to your body. Drag it up your legs.
- Keep driving as the chains get heavier. Do not stall near the top.
- Squeeze your glutes hard at the top. Stand fully tall.
- Push your hips back first to lower. Then bend your knees.
- Brace your belly hard before each pull. This protects your back.
Common Mistakes to Avoid for the Conventional Deadlift Against Chains
- Letting your hips shoot up first. If your hips rise ahead of the bar, your back rounds and the lower back takes the strain, which is worse under the accommodating chain load. Keep your hips and shoulders rising together so the lift stays a proper hinge.
- Rounding your lower back. A rounded spine under a heavy deadlift is exactly where injuries happen. Keep a flat, braced back from the floor to lockout, and reduce the load if you cannot hold it.
- Not driving explosively out of the bottom. The chains make the bottom lighter to teach speed, so grinding slowly wastes the whole point. Drive hard and fast off the floor and accelerate the bar through the top.
- Letting the bar drift forward. A bar that swings away from your body increases the leverage on your lower back. Keep it dragging up your shins and thighs so it stays over your mid-foot.
- Setting up the chains wrong. If the chains fully leave the floor at the bottom, they stop accommodating and just add dead weight. Set them so a portion stays on the floor at the start and lifts as you rise.
- Hyperextending at lockout. Leaning back and cranking your spine at the top does nothing useful and pinches your lower back. Finish tall with a firm glute squeeze and neutral hips.
- Jerking the bar off the floor. Yanking with a loose spine spikes shear force before your muscles are engaged. Pull the slack out, brace hard, then drive with control and speed.
- Losing your brace mid-rep. Letting your air out at the bottom leaves your spine unsupported under a heavy, changing load. Take a big breath, brace hard, and hold it until you lock out.
- Rushing or dropping the eccentric carelessly. Slamming the bar down with chains swinging can be dangerous and wastes the lowering phase. Control a 2 to 3 second descent by pushing your hips back first.
- Attempting this before your deadlift is solid. Chains are an advanced tool, and using them before you own conventional deadlift technique invites bad form. Master the standard lift first, then add chains.
- Using a grip that fails before your body. If the bar rolls out of your hands at the heavy top, you cannot express your real strength. Use a mixed grip, hook grip, or straps so grip is not the limit.
Conventional Deadlift Against Chains Workout Tips
- Understand what chains do. They make the bar lighter at the bottom and heavier at the top, so you can drive fast off the floor and still get overloaded through the lockout.
- Explode off the floor. The accommodating resistance rewards speed, so treat every rep like you are trying to launch the bar and accelerate through the top.
- Set the chains so some links stay on the floor at the start. That is what lets them add weight progressively as you stand rather than just hanging as dead weight.
- Keep your hips and shoulders rising together. Moving them as a unit keeps the bar path straight and your lower back safe under the changing load.
- Brace like you are about to be punched. A big belly breath and a hard brace held to lockout protects your spine when the top gets heavy.
- Keep the bar dragging up your body. A close bar path over the mid-foot is the strongest and safest line, especially as the chains load up.
- Treat this as an advanced strength and speed tool. Keep reps low, around 3 to 5 for 3 to 5 sets, and focus on bar speed rather than a burn.
- Master the standard deadlift first. Chains add complexity, so earn a solid conventional pull before you layer this variation on top.
- Use straps or a strong grip at the heavy top. When the lockout gets heavy, your grip can fail first, so secure it and train the target muscles fully.
- Squeeze your glutes hard at lockout. A firm glute squeeze reinforces a strong, tall finish without leaning back into your spine.
- Progress by adding chain or bar weight in small steps. Progressive overload still applies, and chains are a proven way to build a more explosive deadlift.
- Program this to build speed and a strong lockout. Many strength coaches use chains exactly for lifters whose deadlift stalls near the top.
- Keep your neck neutral. Looking a few feet ahead on the floor keeps your spine aligned and your neck out of strain.
- Film your sets from the side. Bar path, hip timing, and back position are far clearer on video than by feel under a heavy, dynamic load.
- Do not grind ugly reps. Because this is heavy and dynamic, stop the set while your form is still crisp rather than fighting a failing rep.
- Be patient and build gradually. A faster, stronger deadlift comes from months of smart speed and overload work, so add load in small steady steps.
Questions & Comments
Be the first to ask a question about this exercise.