Can We Talk About Dropping Deadlifts?
Are you a dropper or a returner?
When you deadlift, do you consider the lift done when you stand up fully?
Or do you think the return to ground is part of the lift? And do you follow one set of rules in training, and another in competition? Or do you train like you compete? (Or do you not give a damn about competing and you wish I hadn't even brought that part up because all the focus on competing is making you a little nuts lately?)
My friend Matt (normally a controlled and gracious gentleman) got a little crazy on social media the other day: "WTF is with CrossFit athletes dropping deadlifts from the top? Do you dump a back squat in the bottom and count it as a PR/PB?"
And then he cited the CrossFit Total rules, which specify returning the deadlift to the ground: "The deadlift is performed with the bar on the platform or floor. The lifter assumes a position facing the bar, with the bar parallel to the lifter’s frontal plane. The bar is gripped with both hands, and pulled with one continuous uninterrupted movement until the lifter is standing erect with knees and hips fully extended, the chest up and shoulders back. Once this position is attained and the bar is motionless, the bar is lowered under control with both hands back to the ground. The bar may not be dropped."
His comment set off a lively discussion.
Some folks agreed, some folks didn't, and some folks talked about the powerlifting competition rule that you must return the deadlift to the ground or it's a failed lift. (Similar to the CFT rule.)
But Matt had me curious now, so I accessed my CrossFit History Database (aka the memories in my head) to research "When did that dropping thing start?"
As far as I can remember, it was with the 2009 Games.
Prior to that, I'm not sure it occurred to any of us that we could remove our hands from the barbell at the top of the lift. But back then we thought, "That's just for the Games. That's special." And we continued to teach the return to ground, and to do it ourselves, or at least that's what happened in my neck of the woods.
Kelly Starrett started his CrossFit Mobility Cert around this timeframe. In that seminar, I recall him saying that if we were going to move poorly returning the bar to the floor, it would be better if we just dropped the thing, got "reorganized" and then lifted again. Hard to argue with that logic, right?
Fast forward to yesterday. I stood in a CrossFit class (for the first time in over a month—I've only been lifting, but more on that in another column) and what were we doing? Deadlifts. And I heard the coach say something like, "And you can drop it at the top. That's part of the fun of CrossFit, right?"
She's an excellent coach in many ways, so I kept my mouth shut. That was not the time for debating the drop. But why not ask that question here right now?
So, what's your opinion?
Does the deadlift end when you stand up with the weight? Or when you return it to the ground? What do you do? And what do you teach others to do?