Injury Prevention

Should you heed Steele’s advice, it’s paramount to make sure you’re executing these movements correctly.

For deadlifts, it’s essential to maintain a neutral spine throughout the movement. To perform a deadlift, you’ll want to hinge at the waist and keep your knees slightly bent as you bend forward. You should feel tension in your hamstrings as you do this. Once you’ve grabbed onto the barbell or weights, you should push your feet into the ground and stand, keeping your lats engaged as you stand all the way up.

For squats, you want to start in a standing position. Then, sit your hips back as if you’re going to sit in a chair. As you squat down, make sure you’re keeping your chest up and engaging your core. This will help you maintain good posture. As you stand, you want to push your feet into the ground and push your knees out.

If you can’t squat all the way down without compromising your form (rounding your back, knees falling inward), you can squat to a target, such as a chair, bench, exercise ball, or medicine ball and slowly work up to a full squat.

If you’re new to these movements, start with very little or no weight at all until you’re comfortable and your form is solid.

If you’re looking to increase the power generated with your legs in your swing, try adding three sets of 10 deadlifts and three sets of 10 squats to your next workout.

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