Why Deadlift First

You’ve probably noticed that Monday’s usually start with deadlifts or squats first thing in your program. Regardless of goals, training history and injuries, a variation of one of these exercises is a perfect lift to begin most workouts. These are called compound movements, they require the use of multiple joints at once.

Not only do we use more muscles, but we can also get a higher recruitment of the central nervous system. It gets you thinking about bracing your core and (hopefully) how you’re breathing.

The opposite of a compound movement is an isolated movement. These use only one joint at a time. We want bang for our buck, so compound movements are typically they way to go. If we add in a more isolated movement, it’ll be at the end of a workout, after you have got the body working together with compound lifts.

Remember, our body is one unit, it is broken up and comprised of many individual pieces, but these pieces work together to get us moving and controlling our body.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach