The Smart Deadlift: Technique, Moderation and Mobility | Shebah Carfagna & Nate Wilkins

The deadlift, long seen as a raw test of human strength, has evolved from ancient feats of lifting stones and heavy objects into a cultural symbol of resilience, power, and mastery over one’s own body.

Slightly less grand, yet no less important, it is best seen as a foundational movement for longevity and everyday function. The deadlift teaches us to hinge at the hips and strengthen the muscles we need to sit, stand, and lift safely. It builds grip, posture, and core stability—the qualities that protect us as we age and keep us moving well.

In our latest Move For life conversation with the Ageless Workout’s Shebah Carfagna and Nate Wilkins we explore the deadlift’s role in training the posterior chain—the back, glutes and hamstrings – while differentiating it from ‘good mornings,’ and stressing some safety-first protocols for beginners.  

 You should seek medical advice before embarking on a new exercise.

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Transcript

Peter Bowes: 0:28

The deadlift is one of the most important moves we can do for strength, longevity, and everyday life. It builds the engine that drives us, fueling our strength from the back for power in everything we do. Hello again! Welcome to the Live Long podcast Move for Life with Shebah Carfagna and Nate Wilkins, exploring lifestyle interventions designed to make us stronger, more agile and vibrant as we grow older.

Shebah Carfagna: 1:12

A deadlift is where you hinge at the hips and take your upper body down so your legs are stationary. A lot of times with your feet pointing forward, your knees are not locked, your knees are always soft, so you never want to lock your knees and you hinge forward with your chest from the hip and you come up. Now deadlift can be performed with a weight without a weight. You know, a lot of times deadlifts are performed in yoga. You do deadlifts in yoga, they do deadlifts in bar. Obviously in bootcamp with weights. But that's the basis of a deadlift. You're stretching out the back of your hamstrings or strengthening them and your quads. Sometimes called Good Mornings in a very basic sense, but that's a deadlift.

Nate Wilkins: 1:54

Some have made a distinction between what's called deadlifts, so some can say from a boot camp perspective. You can do if you have weights, you can do bent knee or stiff leg deadlifts. And some suggest that hinging at the hips with the weights up on maybe your shoulders hinging at the hips would be more considered a good morning. So some have made the distinction that way. But. But the other thing about that is actually sort of strengthening the posterior chain. And that's where we run into some question, because some people will say that's going to hurt my back, when in fact it may be helping to strengthen your back again. Get that clearance from your doctor before you get into that. But helping that posterior chain is important.

Peter Bowes: 2:45

When you say posterior chain. What exactly are you referring to?

Shebah Carfagna: 2:49

Everything that goes down the back. So here you're strengthening that. You're strengthening your vertebrae your you know, but it's deadlifts are a difficult thing, you know. And I agree with you that it strengthens your posterior chain. But a lot of people in CrossFit get hurt from deadlifts because they think that that this movement is actually strengthening them. So you have to be careful.

Nate Wilkins: 3:11

Especially if they're lifting really heavy.

Peter Bowes: 3:12

If they're lifting really heavy.

Nate Wilkins: 3:13

So so we're talking about the back. We're talking about the glutes and the hamstring. You can even get some work in the shoulders with that. So that whole back bart of your body can benefit from doing that work.

Peter Bowes: 3:29

So safety is a crucial issue when we're talking about deadlifts. And perhaps something that is not taken as seriously as it should be, especially by someone who's deadlifting for the first time.

Shebah Carfagna: 3:39

I would 100% agree with that. I would not perform a deadlift on the chest. I had some YouTube video or something to show you and without a weight, you know we have a saying. We came up with so many sayings 20 years ago when we started this safety first, technique second. So you want to be safe. You want to be able to get up and go to work the next day and do the things that you enjoy, not spend time in a doctor's office not nursing an injury. So it's always better to be safe than competitive and know your body. Again, I would recommend everyone unless you're already in the gym. Begin with a deadlift hinging at the waist, which they always call a good morning, just so you can see if that posterior chain can handle that. Because if you've not worked out, your posture is probably a little hinge forward, a little chaotic. And so you really want to be careful of that because you could pull something here and there is nothing more painful than back pain.

Nate Wilkins: 4:36

We know for a fact if you've ever listened to how to pick up a package or something from the floor, you want to bend your knees or bend over to pick something up. So we want to make sure that we're not encouraging people to go run and pick up the heavy weights to to work on a deadlift or good morning, but pay attention to the safety first and make sure that you're able to do that lift.

Shebah Carfagna: 5:03

The best thing you can do is to get that doctor's clearance and start without any weights, and start moving with that doctor's clearance. They're going to give you a guideline of what you can and you can't do. Obviously, if you're 30 years old, you're not going to have as many issues if you're trying to get to that longevity kind of area. But I would say that you would just need to kind of temper it a little bit. Just do some movements. Take a Pilates class, go to, you know, a yoga class and see what you're capable of. Typically, those modalities stretch out the body. Okay. If you look at Pilates instructors, yoga insurance, they have the most beautiful posture, but they have no muscle mass when they get in their 50s and 60s. So they're faced with, you know, loss of bone density and everything else. I think it has to be a great combination. I wouldn't rule out deadlifts because you do need to squat to pick up things. You do need a strong posterior chain. You do need to strengthen the vertebrae. And you do need to, you know, have good posture. But I think in moderation the approach is in moderation.

Nate Wilkins: 6:03

And there are variations, right? So say, for example, you can get on your knees and do what what they call bird dogs. And so you strengthen your arms, your back, your legs. Or you can actually do. Cat cow. So that's some yoga stuff. So maybe even in yoga. So you venture into other things in terms of alternatives until you can work your way up to doing deadlifts or what's called good mornings.

Shebah Carfagna: 6:33

And we don't want to give deadlifts a bad rap. We just want you to be safe. Back pain is the worst.

Nate Wilkins: 6:40

The worst.

Peter Bowes: 6:41

And again, we're mimicking everyday life. And that's why it's probably important to consider the different variations and the variations in terms of difficulty when it comes to the deadlift, because you just want to mimic those movements that are essential to everyday life without going to an extreme.

Shebah Carfagna: 7:00

Right. That's and that's what you want to do is very what is good for you. You have to figure that out what it's like. It's like everything else. What is the best thing for you to have a healthy lifespan, a healthy Healthspan you want to be able to continue to do this for a long time. If you get hurt, then you're set back and you've lost your interest in working out. There goes your habit out the window.

Peter Bowes: 7:23

This all goes to preventing frailty as we get older. And that could be arguably the number one issue that we just don't want to become frail, because that can lead to accidents falling over broken bones. And then we know what happens after that, that it's rarely positive.

Nate Wilkins: 7:38

Absolutely. So so, Peter, you know, what we're suggesting is that this is totally different than when we were younger, when we wanted to have the t shirt and the muscles that look good. This is more about, you know, healthspan and lifespan. Our conversation is to make sure you can have those those last years be productive years and not not sitting in a wheelchair and somebody helping you out, wiping your mouth and that type of thing. So let's be clear. Let's be clear that this is to take care of yourself and to make sure that you can do what you want to do. Travel. Play with your grandchildren, whatever it is. I think that's really what we're saying. Right.

Peter Bowes: 8:21

So deadlifts are a powerhouse move. They hit your legs, back and core all at once, fire up your backside muscles and build grip strength. They help with posture, balance, and stability, making everyday movements easier. The Live Long Podcast is a Healthspan Media production. I'm Peter Bowes. You can contact me through our website. Livelongpodcast.com where you'll also find show notes for this episode.

DISCLAIMER: 8:48

This podcast is for informational, educational and entertainment purposes only. We do not offer medical advice. If you have health concerns of any kind or you are considering adopting a new diet or exercise regime, you should first consult your doctor.