How To Reverse Band Deadlift

Ready to add some pounds to your deadlift? BioForce team member and North American Strongman National Champion Patrick “The Cannon” Castelli shows how to increase your deadlift strength faster than ever with a new twist on this age old exercise: the reverse band deadlift.

The Reverse Band Deadlift

The key to most athletic movement is having explosive and strong hips.

Hip drive is extremely important, whether you are finishing a take down or coming off the line in football.

A good exercise for improving hip drive is the conventional deadlift. But why settle for less than the best?

The reverse band deadlift is a necessary adaptation if you want to see improvement in speed and explosiveness faster than ever.

Start by adding bands from the top of the squat rack to the bar.

This helps accelerate the barbell off the ground and places more weight at the top of the movement where you are naturally strongest and have the greatest leverage.

This reverse band deadlift variation does two things: it helps you accelerate off the ground while still working to get your hips extended at the top of the movement.

This variation is also less demanding on the central nervous system (CNS) than the conventional deadlift.

The lower CNS load allows you to use this exercise more frequently in your training program.

It’s a great variation to work on your hip extension strength and power by loading the bar heavier than your typical conventional deadlift.

The movement pattern of the reverse band deadlift also mimics the standard deadlift much better than other deadlift variations.

For example, just doing a rack pull can put you in an advantaged position that you won’t move through in a standard or reverse band deadlift.

To wrap it up, there are a couple of performance cues to keep in mind:

• drive the bar from the ground
• accelerate all the way through to lock out
• keep the chest up
• position shoulders back
• poise eyes forward
• hold a flat back.