Last Update On April 26, 2012
Halting Deadlifts Are A Waste Of Time
by Rusi
The halting deadlift is basically a partial deadlift up to the knees (not to be confused with Sheiko's “deadlift to the knees” where you hold the bar at knee level and then complete the lift). The main idea behind the halting deadlift is to allow you to train the first portion of the deadlift without bothering to lockout. On theory this saves some stress on the body and it's easier to recover from doing halting deadlifts one week and rack pulls next week than full deadlifts. In other words you cut the deadlift in two movements and the first half is a halting deadlift.
The main problem with the halting deadlifts is that it teaches you to stop. Yes, that's right. It teaches you to stop. When you know you will eventually have to stop at knee level your explosion off the floor is limited.
Example: If you start running in your living room you will not start as explosive as if you were running outside. Otherwise you are risking hitting a wall. It's harmful because being explosive helps you lift more weight and hits those all important fast twitch fibers.
Another problem with the halting deadlift is the increased back stress. Why? During normal deadlifts your back gets to “rest” at the top of of the movement. However during halting deadlifts the back is always under stress. Not worth it in my opinion.
“Q: Bro, but what should I use if I want to strengthen my deadlift start?”
There are two things you can try - forget about training parts of the lifts and just focus on getting stronger overall (preferred method for beginners and even more advanced lifters) or add some deficit deadlifts to your training.
Deficit deadlifts are great when it comes to improving your initial deadlift strength because they are quite hard at the bottom and the range of motion is ridiculous. In order to perform deficit deadlifts just load plates smaller than 45s on the bar or use a plate to elevate yourself. The point is to make the start as harder as you can. With that said I believe I a lot of people focus too much on assistance instead of focusing solely on the lifts.
Disclaimer: This article presents my opinion on this particular exercise. Feel free to disagree and if want present your point of view do it in the comment section.
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