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(From Business Today (India))

Byline: Muscles Mani, Roopali Joshi, Kushan Mitra and Alokesh Bhattacharyya

The All-in-one Lift

Quick, what's the one weightlifting exercise that works out the muscles of your back, glutes (butt), forearms, shoulders, legs as well the abdominals? It's the dead lift. You'll rarely find the dead lift being done in gyms and that's a pity because it's probably the most complete weight training exercise that you can do. It's a compound exercise (more about that in a moment) that targets many muscle groups across the lower and upper body. Around 75 per cent of the body's muscle groups are targeted by the dead lift, making it in my view a real gem of an exercise.

Then why is it that you rarely see dudes (and rarer still, dudettes) doing the dead lift? Reason one: the dead lift is a tough exercise to perform and requires to be done in really good form if you don't want to risk injury. Reason two: trainers and instructors at most gyms don't do dead lifts themselves so they don't recommend it!

Well, here's the gen on dead lifts and how to do them. But first a word about compound exercises. Compared to simple isolation exercises (say, biceps curls), compound movements involve more muscle groups-the dead lift involves joints like the ankles, knees, hips, the spine, shoulders as well as fingers. As a result, the movement results in greater strength gains and could also lead to bigger muscle growth.

How to do it: Place a weighted bar on the floor and stand with your feet shoulder-width apart but with your shoelaces below the bar. Now, bend down and grab the bar with your grip just outside your thighs-one hand facing your body, the other facing outward (see illustration). Your shins should be grazing the bar; your knees should be flexed as in a full squat position and your feet flat on the ground. Your shoulders need to be held back and arms straight.