Fixing the Deadlift “Early Pull”: Why Your Hips Rise Faster Than the Bar

In my years coaching at Metabolic Fitness, I’ve noticed that the deadlift is one of the most misunderstood movements in strength training.

Part of that comes from the name itself. Deadlift suggests that the primary job is to pull something off the floor. And while your hands obviously hold the bar, a strong, repeatable deadlift isn’t built on pulling power alone. It’s built on coordination — legs, hips, torso, and arms working together to move a load efficiently through space.

When that coordination breaks down, one pattern shows up more than almost anything else.

The hips rise.

The bar doesn’t.

If you’ve ever filmed your deadlift and noticed your hips shooting upward before the plates leave the floor, you’ve already met what coaches call the Early Pull.

You see it everywhere. In busy commercial gyms. On heavy platforms. Even in experienced lifters who “know” how to deadlift. The lift begins, the hips pop up, the knees straighten, and only then does the bar finally move.

By that point, the legs have largely removed themselves from the equation. The lower back takes over, and what started as a full-body lift becomes a back-dominant grind.

People sometimes joke about this pattern and call it the “stripper squat.” I don’t love the term. What matters more is understanding what it represents: lost leverage, reduced leg drive, and a spine being asked to do more work than it should.

Over time, that combination usually shows up as stalled progress, chronic tightness, or the familiar feeling of a “tweaky” lower back that never quite settles.

Why the Early Pull Happens

At its core, the Early Pull is a problem of position and patience.

In a well-executed deadlift, your torso angle stays relatively constant from the moment the bar leaves the floor until it passes your knees. That consistency allows force to travel cleanly from the ground, through your legs, into your hips, and up through your upper body.

When the hips rise early, that structure changes immediately.

The hamstrings lose their length-tension advantage.The glutes stop contributing meaningfully.The spine becomes the primary driver.

Not because your back is weak — often it’s quite strong — but because it’s now the only segment left in a position to move the load.

Most lifters don’t do this on purpose. It usually happens because they try to start the lift by pulling with their back instead of initiating it with their legs.

The moment you rush that first inch off the floor, you give up the wedge you worked so hard to build in your setup. Once that wedge disappears, your body instinctively searches for a new strategy. The hips rise, the knees straighten, and the back steps in to finish what the legs started.

It’s not laziness. It’s your nervous system choosing the quickest available solution.

The Deadlift Is a Push Before It’s a Pull

I recently worked with a client who’d been stuck at the same weight for months and was starting to feel persistent tightness in his lower back.

On video, the issue was obvious. His hips were rising a good four inches before the bar even nudged.

We didn’t change his program. We didn’t add accessories. We didn’t chase mobility drills.

Instead, I gave him one cue:

Don’t pull the bar up. Push the floor away.

I asked him to imagine he was on a leg press machine. His only job was to drive his feet into the ground hard enough that the earth moved away from him.

Nothing else.

On his very next set, his hips and shoulders rose together. The bar left the floor smoothly. The lift moved faster. And when he racked the weight, he said something I hear often in these moments:

“That felt quieter in my back.”

That’s usually the first sign you’ve reintroduced your legs into the lift.

The deadlift begins with the quads. The push creates upward momentum. The upper body’s role is to stay rigid enough to transmit that force.

When people say deadlifting feels “all back,” it’s almost always because the push never really happened.

Building a Position That Holds Under Load

Most technique breakdowns focus on angles and joint positions. Those matter, but what really determines success is whether you can keep your position once the weight tries to pull you out of it.

Here are the cues I rely on most in sessions — not because they sound clever, but because they hold up when things get heavy.

Pull the slack out of the bar - Before you lift, gently preload the bar until you feel it click against the plates. This connects your arms to your lats and creates a line of tension from your hands into your torso.

Press through your whole foot - Feel your heel, big toe, and little toe grounded. Start the lift by driving through that tripod, as if you’re trying to leave footprints in concrete.

Wedge yourself in - Lift your chest slightly while letting your hips sink just enough that you feel compressed, like a coiled spring. You should feel tension in your hamstrings before the bar moves.

Let hips and shoulders rise together - Imagine they’re on the same elevator. Same speed. No racing ahead.

None of this is about aggression.

It’s about staying organised long enough for the legs to do their job.

Respecting the Wedge

A good deadlift doesn’t feel rushed.

There’s a quiet moment at the start where everything is loaded — arms long, lats engaged, feet rooted, breath held — and nothing has moved yet.

That pause matters.

It’s where you earn the lift.

People often miss it because they’re eager to get the weight off the floor. But that initial patience is what allows the bar to move efficiently once it finally does.

Think of it less like yanking something upward and more like slowly increasing pressure until the ground gives way.

That’s the wedge.

Lose it, and the lift becomes a battle between your back and the bar. Hold it, and the whole system works together.

At Metabolic Fitness, we don’t lift simply to move weight.

We lift to build positions that last.

If your deadlifts feel like they’re all “back” and no “legs,” there’s a good chance your hips are rising before the bar.

If you’re training around Chiswick W4 and want a second set of eyes on your setup, I’m always happy to help you refine your start position and restore proper leg drive. Small adjustments here often make the biggest difference — not just to your numbers, but to how your body feels long term.

This article was written by Kang, founder and head coach at Metabolic Fitness.

Kang has spent over a decade coaching everyday lifters, professionals, and athletes in West London, with a focus on strength mechanics, joint-friendly training, and long-term movement quality. His approach blends practical experience on the gym floor with established strength principles, helping clients build resilient bodies rather than just chase numbers.

Most of the insights shared here come directly from hundreds of real coaching sessions — watching how people move under load, identifying common breakdowns, and refining simple cues that actually hold up when things get heavy.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Deadlift Early Pull

Why do my hips rise before the bar in deadlifts?

This usually happens because the lift is being initiated with the back instead of the legs.

Most people think they’re pushing through their feet, but under load the body defaults to pulling with the torso. When that happens, the hips rise early, the knees straighten, and the spine ends up doing most of the work.

It’s rarely about strength alone. It’s almost always about losing your start position too quickly.

Slow down the setup, build tension before the bar moves, and focus on driving the floor away rather than pulling the bar up.

Is the Early Pull dangerous?

Not immediately — plenty of people lift like this for years.

But over time, consistently asking your lower back to finish every rep usually shows up as stiffness, recurring tweaks, or stalled progress.

The issue isn’t one bad rep. It’s repeating the same pattern hundreds of times.

Learning to keep your hips and shoulders rising together spreads the load across your legs and hips, which is what the deadlift is designed to do.

Does this mean my glutes are weak?

Not necessarily.

In most cases, the glutes aren’t weak — they’re simply being placed in a poor position to contribute.

When your hips rise early, your glutes lose leverage. They can’t produce force effectively from that lengthened position, so your back steps in.

Fix the setup and the timing first. Strength usually follows.

Should I lower the weight to fix this?

Often, yes — temporarily.

If the pattern only appears at heavier loads, reducing the weight gives you space to practise proper leg drive and position without rushing.

Think of it as rebuilding your start rather than “going backwards.”

Even dropping 10–15% can be enough to restore control and confidence.

Is this the same as a stiff-legged deadlift?

Not quite.

A stiff-legged deadlift is a deliberate variation that keeps the knees more extended to target the posterior chain.

An Early Pull is unintentional. It starts as a conventional deadlift but turns into something stiff-legged because the hips rise too soon.

Different intent. Very different outcomes.

How can I tell if I’m doing this?

The easiest way is to film your deadlift from the side.

If your hips rise noticeably before the bar leaves the floor — or if your torso becomes more horizontal immediately — that’s your answer.

You can also pay attention to where you feel the lift:

• Mostly legs and hips = good

• Mostly lower back = something’s off

What cue works best for fixing it?

For most people, it’s this:

Push the floor away.

That simple shift in intention usually restores quad involvement and keeps the hips from racing ahead.

Pair it with pulling the slack out of the bar before you lift, and you’ll often feel the difference straight away.

The Early Pull doesn’t exist in isolation. It often shows up alongside:

• Poor tension in the lats during setup

• Weight shifting toward the toes

• Rushing the first inch off the floor

• Inconsistent breathing and bracing

• Treating the deadlift as a back exercise instead of a leg-driven hinge

Addressing these usually improves not just your deadlift, but your squats, carries, and even overhead work.

Everything starts with how you create force from the ground.