The Bodyweight Deadlift is a beginner-friendly bodyweight strength exercise that targets the abdominals, with the glutes working alongside. Here's how to do it right — and what to stop doing.
Primary musclesAbs
Secondary musclesGlutes
EquipmentBodyweight
LevelBeginner
TypeStrength
3D demo in the EGON app
01 Execution
How to do the Bodyweight Deadlift
Stand tall with feet hip-width apart, arms hanging loose at your sides, and your core lightly braced.
Push your hips back as if closing a car door with your butt, letting your knees bend just slightly.
Hinge forward at the hips with a flat back and let your hands slide down the front of your thighs.
Lower until you feel a strong stretch in your hamstrings and your torso is roughly parallel to the floor.
Drive through your heels and squeeze your glutes hard to stand back up to a tall position.
Lock out at the top by squeezing the glutes — do not lean back, just stand fully upright.
02 The payoff
Why it earns its spot
Teaches a safe hip-hinge pattern with no equipment.
Activates the glutes and hamstrings before loaded hinge work.
Builds lower-back awareness for safer lifting in any program.
03 Don't do this
Common mistakes
Squatting down instead of hinging back, which removes the hamstring stretch entirely.
Rounding the lower back as you bend forward, which is the exact pattern a hinge teach should fix.
Bending the knees too much, which turns the lift into a half-squat instead of a clean hinge.
Hyperextending the back at the top instead of finishing in a tall, neutral standing position.
EGON Put it on record
Track it in EGON.
Log every set of the Bodyweight Deadlift, get your PRs detected automatically, earn aura for the work — and climb five leagues of statues, from Stone to Ego.
