On most workout threads I always read about three main workouts. Bench press, squats, and deadlifts. What are deadlifts? If they are so important, I figure they are something I should learn to do. Not only what are they what muscles do they effect?

What are they? Basically, you bend over and pick a bar up off the ground.

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/ErectorSpinae/BBDeadlift.html

What muscles do they work? Pretty much all of them, to one degree or another, but especially the lower back and glutes.


Check out some youtube videos for form and whatnot.

http://youtube.com/results?search_query=deadlift&search=Search


There are also lots of variations on the basic deadlift. Romanian, straight-leg, stiff-leg, etc. Check out youtube or exrx.net for more info on the variations.

On most workout threads I always read about three main workouts. Bench press, squats, and deadlifts. What are deadlifts? If they are so important, I figure they are something I should learn to do. Not only what are they what muscles do they effect?

At your age, the most important thing is to learn how to lift safely. With squats and deads being the most important, pulling exercises like rows and deadlift variations being the next most important, and pushing exercises like bench press the next most important. After that comes all sorts of lesser exercises.

A lot of the big deal about lifting heavy is that if you aren't careful about some basic safety points, then you can easily really injure yourself.

And you may be thinking about muscles, but you have bones, tendons, and ligaments that are developing tremendously now. It's a bad idea to get the muscles way out ahead of the others, but muscles can grow the fastest. So don't rush into lifting heavy as fast as you can. You will have plenty of time for big gains, and you can't make any gains if you have to take time off because of injury.

There are a lot of things you can read about how to squat or deadlift safely. The trouble is that in reality everyone has slightly different body mechanics. And you could easily have different mechanics next year from this year because you are probably going to develop a lot.

So the thing to learn now is what are the problems that can happen in the big exercises, and what you are supposed to do to avoid those problems.

There are a lot of points to cover, but in the deadlift, the big thing is we can't really line up your mechanics without having seen you lift. So take some of the normal advice with a grain of salt.

One main principle of both squatting and deadlifting that you should be aware of is that your spine is not supposed to have a lot of motion in these exercises. You want to maintain a stable "neutral" position, or as some advocate, an "arched" position. In both cases the idea is the same - you want to put your spine in a strong position and keep it there, otherwise, the forces that are supposed to go down the spine to the pelvis and legs, might end up going across the spine. These forces are really big once you get going, and you can't normally withstand having them applied across your spine; you can be really badly injured from that. The really big safety aspects of the deadlift are about keeping the lift from messing up your back.

Wise advice from Zenpharaohs, about not lifting too heavy at your age, young fellow-me-lad.