Hitching Madness
Mark Brown
March 16, 2022
I have written about deadlifts a few times over the time my blog has been around. The last time I wrote about my confusion at the lack of actually performing the last half of the lift I have seen in the gym since I started lifting at Genesis Healthy Clubs again in January. A bigger concern with deadlifts in the gym is the hitching that is done to complete the lift. I’ve seen it going back through Strongman competition footage and have thought nothing of it until now. Hitching really one of those things in the gym where seeing it in person changes the perception of it. Seeing lifts done really brings them into focus when it comes time to do them myself. Even with mirrors, lifting is still about the feeling the load is giving the lifter. Coaches and spotters can help identify poor form but it is up to the lifter to put the verbal information given and his or her own physical cues together to improve future reps. There is a higher level of concern for strength sports in general that I have when I see it done by the same people repeatedly. I don’t think hitching deadlifts being more acceptable than ever is a bad thing on the whole, but I believe it represents a dangerous direction for strength training. I will explain why.
I have stated the difference between the standards of various competition deadlifts before in previous entries, but it bears repeating here since it is central to the message of this one. A competition deadlift for powerlifting is one that is done without straps to aid grip strength and done all in 1 motion from the floor to the lock out point at the hip without a stop in momentum. The Strongman competition standard is less strict. Wrist straps can be used to enhance grip strength and getting the bar up to the locked out position doesn’t necessarily have to be done in 1 motion. That’s where the “hitch” comes into play for Strongman competitors. I have watched a lot of deadlifts completed at World’s Strongest Man and other competitions where the momentum of the bar was completely stopped but the lift was completed by the lifter using body movements, aka body English, to get the bar to the final locked out position. That is what “hitching” is. In this context, I fully understand and back anyone who wants to hitch to complete the lift. In most cases, hitches have been used on deadlifts that were on competitor’s upper limits. It’s a tell tale sign that the load is either too heavy for the lifter to successfully complete or right at that doorstep. Competition is the time to pull out all of the stops.
What concerns me is when I see it done in a training setting at the gym. I have hitched deadlifts in the past myself during lifting sessions, mostly in 2020 and into the first half of 2021. I was a vastly different lifter during that time than I am now. Hitching really is the sign that the load is too heavy to attempt in the first place. There is value in lifting up into ranges of loads that might require a hitch to complete towards the end of a program during the peak phase; however, that’s a very small chunk of time all things considered. To me, lifting into those ranges is an unnecessary safety risk without much of a payoff in the end if it can’t be done in 1 motion from start to finish. Sufficed to say I no longer see value in lifting so heavy that I need to hitch for a heavy single every week. What I have experienced since the start of 2022 has further cemented that belief because of the progress I have made with sheer volume at the 75% – 95% 1RM range. That’s the powerlifter that I have evolved into over the last half of 2021 coming out. That is where my bias is at this point.
I see quite a few of the teenage lifters and others closer to my age (37) consistently using hitches to complete deadlifts each week. I find this to be unsafe from both a physical and psychological point of view. The former because hitching a deadlift involves using upper, middle and lower back muscles in ways they were not intended to be used on the lift. That exposes them to more fatigue and potential injury than necessary. Injury is always a possibility, but this kind of lifting week to week increases those odds dramatically. It also takes the body longer to recover because of those little movements. A deadlift is about 65% legs, 25% back and 10% grip, in my estimation. Forcing the back muscles to do more of the work than necessary is what gets people in trouble with the lift over the long haul.
Succeeding on hitched deadlifts at max intensity every week doesn’t do lifters any psychological favors because the success feeds their belief that the load wasn’t too heavy when in fact it was. This belief is the basis for what is colloquially known as “ego lifting.” Success tends to keep people doing what they are doing even if the process is messed up. A big part of my concern is those lifters get public affirmation after succeeding at those lifts, done in training, because that just confirms the value of what they just did. I watched one of the personal trainers at the gym I lift at dap up a 140-150 pound teenage lifter who used 4 significant hitches to finally lock out a deadlift at 315 pounds. The load was clearly too heavy for him but he fought through and locked it out. A few weeks back I watched another lifter who looked to be mid to late 20s hitch a small amount at 315 pounds then hitch very aggressively to lock out 1 rep at 365. He then went up to 405 failed to get the bar 2 inches off the ground. His attempt at 365 should have been enough to tell him 405 wasn’t going anywhere close to up. I see these reps being done every week and it makes me wonder why people believe it’s worthwhile to lift this way. I would express concern if I were ever asked by a lifter who I saw hitching deadlifts rather than affirm their path.
I don’t know what the root cause of hitching deadlifts in training is. I would lean more towards the rush a lifter gets when a hard set or rep is completed. The physical and psychological rush is real. The adrenaline flows quite easily after a big lift. It just makes a lifter want to do it again. Then heavier until failure actually occurs. I can attest that the hardest thing to do in those situations is stop myself from going to total failure. That part of our egos that gets fed by success propagates future bad decision making, especially in the presence of other lifters. Part of the blame goes to the idea implanted into the minds of lifters by coaches, influencers, and professional athletes to go after success, even in the face of the smarter decision to just let the bar go or set it down. The rise of Strongman as a sport has played its role in this as well. By not matching the powerlifting standard of one motion from floor to lock out, Strongman has given a reason for lifters to feel good about doing it more often than they should.
I think hitching deadlifts during training is a subject that needs to be addressed by coaches, influencers and strength athletes (especially Strongman competitors). It creates unsafe conditions for lifting physically and psychologically through unnecessary muscle usage and ego affirming success. If it were me guiding or coaching a lifter, I would have them steer away from hitching as much I could until a competition. I don’t see a benefit to hitching deadlifts in training.
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