Starting Strength

while this happens; the hips then extend; and the spinal erectors keep the spine rigid in extension so the transfer of force from the knees and hips to the bar can occur efficiently. The traps and rhomboids transfer this force to the scapulas, from which the arms hang, and the lats keep the arms back so that the load stays in position over the mid-foot during the trip from the floor to the top of the knees and back down.

    Figure 7-1. The bottom (A), middle (B), and top (C) positions of the halting deadlift.

    Take a normal deadlift stance and a double-overhand grip of the same width as for a deadlift. Lift your chest and lock your back into extension, using the normal deadlift setup discussed in Chapter 4. In a deadlift, the back angle will start to become more vertical as the bar approaches the tibial tuberosity, the enlarged bump at the top of the shin, a few inches below the patella. Haltings are a little different in that you actively try to hold the back angle constant as the bar passes this point, so that the back gets worked harder through what would be the middle of the full deadlift. Try to keep your shoulders in front of the bar until it crosses the patellas. The back angle will probably change before the bar gets to the patellas, but your job is to deliver as much work to the erectors and lats as possible by staying out over the bar as long as you can. This extra back work is one of the reasons for the exercise. The amazing part of this exercise is how much work the lats get while doing their job of holding the weight in position over the mid-foot.
    Drag the bar up your shins until the patellas are just cleared, and then set it down. Don’t worry about setting it down slowly, since the work on a halting is supposed to be mostly concentric. Remember: you’re starting each rep from a dead stop. Bill Starr would tell you to hold the bar at the top position for a second before setting it down, and doing so adds greatly to the effort required of the back muscles and lats. It is very helpful to think about 1) pushing the floor with your feet, 2) pulling the bar back into your shins as it comes up, and 3) keeping your shoulders out over the bar for as long as you can pull it that way. Breathing is the same as for the deadlift; take a big breath before you pull, and hold it until you set the bar back down. Start with 135 pounds and take reasonable jumps up to your work-set weight.
    You will not do haltings in the same workout as the deadlift, so you will not be warm when you start them, as you might be with a smaller-muscle-group assistance exercise done after the core movement. Haltings should be warmed up just like deadlifts. Haltings seem to respond well to higher reps, but due to their shorter range of motion, work sets of, say, eight reps will use heavier weights than a deadlift work set of five will, and possibly as high as 85% of 1RM. At this load, one work set is plenty.
    Breathing takes place at the bottom, and is the biggest problem during the exercise due to the bent-over position; the last reps of a long set are no fun when you’re out of air, and you can’t really get a good breath in the start position. The grip is a straight double-overhand, or clean, grip, as mentioned earlier. Supinating one hand for a heavy single deadlift is a necessary evil in a meet, but multiple reps with one shoulder in internal rotation and the other in external rotation produce an asymmetric shoulder stress that some people do not tolerate well. Haltings are very good for developing the grip, since you won’t be using your 1RM deadlift weight for them, and the double-overhand grip is harder than the alternate grip, so use the halting as a grip exercise, too. If you get strong enough that your grip strength is exceeded, then you can either use straps or switch your alternate grip, changing the supine hand each rep. This change is a little trouble, and straps are fine if your grip is otherwise strong enough, i.e., you don’t normally have any trouble hanging onto heavy deadlifts.
    Pay attention to keeping the bar against your shins on the way up – this is the lats’ job. Haltings can be thought of as “pushing the bar away from the floor with the feet” at the bottom, and almost as a row at the top as the bar breaks over the knees.
    Rack pulls
     
    Rack pulls are the other half of this pair ( Figure 7-2 ). They are done from inside the power rack, from level pins set at a point somewhere below the knees. How far