Starting Strength, 3rd Edition - Mark Rippetoe [66]
Figure 4-9. The starting stance for the deadlift places the heels approximately 8–12 inches apart, with the toes pointed slightly out.
The bar should be 1–1½ inches from your shins. For almost every human being on the planet, this distance places the bar directly over the middle of the foot, the position over which the bar stays on its way up to lockout. Most people are reluctant to keep the bar close enough to their legs during the pull, as well as when setting it down, and for that matter before the bar leaves the ground. This reluctance is often due to the fear of marring the beauty of the shins and thighs and a lack of appreciation of the significance of balance in the pull. Efficient bar paths are straight vertical lines, and if the bar starts from a position directly over the mid-foot and travels vertically to lockout directly over the mid-foot, the most efficient pull will have occurred. It is common to mistake the middle of the forefoot – between the tibia and the end of the toes – for the middle of the whole foot, the place the bar should actually be. The bar should be positioned with half the foot forward of the bar and half the foot behind it, so that the bar is directly over the middle of the arch of the foot, the point directly under which the weight of the lifter/barbell system is centered across the sole of the foot against the ground.
Figure 4-10. The difference between the middle of the whole foot – seen from the side (A), and from the coach’s perspective (B) – and the middle of the forefoot (C), seen from the lifter’s perspective from above, the most common mistake in stance placement.
When you have the bar in this position, point your toes out. The angle will be at least 10 degrees and maybe as much as 30 degrees (see the picture of George Hechter in Figure 4-39). Your toes might be more pointed out than you want them to be. This stance places the hips in external rotation just as it did for the squat, providing the same benefits: more adductor and external rotator involvement in the movement, as well as clearance between the femurs for the torso so that a good start position can be obtained.
Step 2: Grip
After you have assumed the correct stance, grip the bar, double-overhand and thumbs around, at a width that places your hands in a position in which your hands are close to your legs, without being so close that you rub your thumbs against them as you pull. This grip results in the shortest distance to lockout for the barbell (as should be obvious from our discussion of the snatch grip earlier). Bar markings are the knurling on a standard Olympic bar, which will always have a smooth space in the middle (and which may have a 6-inch center knurl in the middle of this space). Standard bar markings are at about 16½ inches for this middle space, so the grip can be set according to this dimension. Most people’s hands will be about an inch into the knurl, or about 18½ inches between hands. Bigger people will need to use a proportionately wider grip to match their stance, while most women will need to put their hands closer together than this, with their index fingers on the edge of the knurl. Be aware that most people tend to take too wide a grip. If your grip is 3 inches into the knurl and your hands are touching your legs, your stance is too wide unless you are very broad through the hips.
Figure 4-11. The grip width should be just outside the legs when the feet are in the correct position. This placement allows the thumbs to just clear the legs on the way up.
Take your grip on the bar by bending over at the waist, stiff-legged, without lowering the hips. Most important at this point and for the following steps is that you DO NOT MOVE THE BAR. You have gone to considerable trouble to place the bar directly above the mid-foot for pulling efficiency, and if you move it during this or any subsequent steps,