Dumbbell deadlift
An approachable deadlift with the weights beside your feet. Part squat and part hinge, and the place to learn lifting from the floor.
The movement
Set
01 Set
Hips back and down, chest over the weights, back flat.
02 Stand
Drive the floor away and stand fully tall.
How to do it
Setup
- Stand with a dumbbell just outside each foot.
- Push your hips back and bend your knees until you can grip both weights with a flat back.
- Set your chest over the weights, arms straight and shoulders set.
Execution
- Push the floor away, with your hips and shoulders rising together, until you stand fully tall.
- Finish standing upright with your glutes squeezed, without leaning back.
- Push your hips back and bend your knees to return the weights, keeping them close to your body.
BreathingBreathe at the top, brace, and exhale past the hardest point on the way up.
Form cues
- Push the floor away rather than pulling with your arms.
- Keep the dumbbells against your legs in both directions.
Common mistakes
- Hips shooting up first, which turns every rep into a stiff-legged heave.
- Rounding your back to reach the weights instead of bending your knees more.
Worth knowing
- If you cannot reach the floor with a flat back, start each set with the dumbbells raised on a step or a stack of books.
General guidance, not medical advice. See how Setkit works.
Notes
Picking a weight up off the ground is the most basic act in strength training, and the dumbbell version is the easiest way in. The weights sit beside your feet rather than in front of them, the distance they travel is shorter, and balancing them is straightforward. That is everything a beginner needs in order to learn how to push the floor away with a flat back.
It mixes a squat and a hinge on purpose. There is more knee bend than in a Romanian deadlift and more hip fold than in a squat. That spread puts work across the whole lower body while keeping the technique simple, which is why it belongs in almost anyone’s first month of training.
Its long-term job is teaching and volume. Once your dumbbells run out of weight, or you want to pull something heavier, the barbell deadlift is the same idea with far more room to grow.