Here are the main things you should be thinking about when doing a deadlift, that will hold true for most of the variations listed above.

let’s first look at feet placement and grip.

• Feet placement: Depending on the deadlift variation, your feet placement will typically be shoulder width apart. More advanced lifters will offset their foot placement to account for subtle leg length differences, but I won’t over complicate things here. Just think feet under hips and shoulders.
• Grip: For most deadlift variations you will grip the bar just outside of your legs (to left and right of your knees). You can use an overhand grip (both palms facing inwards), or reverse grip (one hand with palm facing inwards, the other with the palm facing away from your body). The reverse grip makes it easier to hold the bar when your grip strength is weak. My recommendation is to mix up your grips, use the overhand and alternating reverse grip hand positions. I like to use the overhand grip for as long as I can, to work on my grip strength, then I use the reverse grip when my when grip strength is fatigued – and when doing my heavier lifts. You can also use straps to help, but my recommendation is to mix it up and not rely on solely using straps. Read this for more insight on when to use, and when not to use, straps.

Now let’s go over the movement itself.

• Horizontal movement of the Hips: the deadlift is a horizontal movement of the hips – not vertical displacement. Don’t “Squat The Deadlift,” focus on horizontal movement of the hips. Biomechanically if your knees move forward (as in torwards your toes) your hips are lowering, so this is a good indicator that your hips are moving vertically. If you perform the movement properly bar clearance of your shins and knee won’t be a problem. Here is a good visual and explanation using the trap bar. One exception to the above is for tall people, they will have to lower there hips in order to  maintain a neutral lower back – they have to make an adjustment by “tucking” there pelvis under themselves and raising their chest at the bottom.
• Shoulders above hip position: always pull with your shoulders having the same, or higher, vertical position than your hips. If you have long legs like me, this will not be the case in the initial set up when you go to grab the bar. Therefore, you need to torque the bar and pull your hips underneath you. This will lead to a higher chest position and maintenance of a neutral spine.
• Lock out the upper body: this isn’t an upper body exercise. You aren’t rowing the weight, so let your lower body do the work. Retract your shoulder blades slightly and lock out your lats by “squeezing” your armpits. This will keep the upper body rigid and allow you to let the lower body do the work.
• “Take the slack out of the bar” / Transfer the weight: pull the bar upwards slightly, which is often referred to as taking the slack out of the bar. This just means, pull upwards on the bar without the intention of lifting the weight yet (see picture below). This will straighten your arm and transfer the “pull” feeling to your hamstrings. When you are ready, get your hips “under” you (hips lower than shoulders) and initiate the lift from here.

Photo from Pheasyque

• Stay “Erect”: a good visual, courtesy of Mark Fisher, I often tell people to help them have a proper trunk (upper body) position to help maintain a neutral lower back position is: pretend your upper body is an erect boner. Yes, you read that right. You want to elongate your spine and “push” the crown of your head and hips away from each other forming a nice long, well…boner. Not a rounded back, or otherwise known as a sad boner. Or just think of flat back, whatever works for you. You can change how “flat” your back is by movement at your hips (you get movement here ranging from pelvis tucked under your rib cage, to porn star butt movement) and your t-spine (you get movement here ranging from open proud chest like a silverback gorilla, to rounded shoulder hunched over really unconfident overworked office worker movement). Play around with these two joint positions to get your nice “erect” / flat back position throughout the lift.
• Brace with breath: take in a diaphragmatic breath (this will create IAP – Intra abdominal pressure) to brace your core before you start pulling the weight off the ground. This will help protect your back and allow you to pull significantly higher numbers.
• Push away and through the floor: this has been one of the more useful cues for me when I really started looking to increase my deadlift weights. When you start the lift drive through your feet and “push” into the floor as you lift, while simultaneously pulling the bar up and away. Doing so will help you lift the weight better, and prevent you from overusing your arms and core to lift the weight – the latter protecting your lower back.