Welcome back to the Daily Dumbbell, the newsletter that knew immediately the first time we shenanned we would absolutely shenanigan.

But don’t worry, our shenanigans are cheeky and fun. Not cruel and tragic like those other health and fitness newsletters.

Today we have:

• Whoop Wednesday!

• Part 2 of our feature on the Deadlift

• A new segment: WTF is going on in Academia Wednesday

Let’s dive in!

Deadlift 2: The Dead-erlift

Last week, we delved into the art of deadlifting, uncovering its myths, highlighting its practicality in everyday life, and providing tips for perfecting your form. But there's more to the deadlift story!

That’s right! We're back with a sequel: 2 Dead 2 Lift oof. Deadlift 2: Bucharest Drift… We’re leaving that in because it’s clever AF, but this is actually a Harry Potter themed newsletter.

Fast X hasn’t sponsored us yet so we’re playing hard ball.

And by hardball we mean quidditch! So, walk fast and break into a light jog if you’re nervous because today, we’re crashing through platform 9^3/4 and boarding the Hogwarts Express.

From Sumo to Straight Leg, Trap Bar to Romanian, we've got the key variations that will take your deadlift game to new heights. So go find your seats and get something from the Trolley cart before Harry buys the lot of it. Selfish ass.

The Main Characters

There are two main alternatives to the Conventional Deadlift: Sumo & Trap Bar.

Each of them offer a different way to complete the standard deadlift.

Harry Potter & The Sorcerer’s Stance

What you need to know:

• Very similar to the conventional deadlift, but your feet are super wide.

• It allows you to stay a little more upright so people with tight hips have a better time with this one.

• Being able to stay more upright can take pressure off the lower back.

• Many lifters will think your claim to the throne is illegitimate as sumo is for &$%@#s. Sorry, mixed up our metaphors there.

60s Tutorial

Harry Potter & the Trap Bar of Secrets

Trap bar deadlifts again allow you to stay more upright and get your quads more active. What’s the difference here? The bar is completely different.

• While you can pull sumo or conventional in powerlifting competitions, you cannot sub the trap bar in.

• This is a favorite among professional athletes. It again allows you to get into a safer position, staying more upright.

• It’s a bit more sport specific and we recommend it for gym newbies and athletes who want the benefits of a deadlift while reducing the risk of injury.

Full Tutorial

The Supporting Cast

Now we are moving into the supporting actors. The Deadlift, Sumo DL, & Trap Bar Deadlift are all main characters. Harry, Ron, & Hermione if you will.

The rest of these are side characters. They’re fantastic accessory movements, they’re important, but not to be confused with the A listers.

Viktor Krum’s favorite deadlift

First up is Viktor’s fav lift. The Romanian Deadlift. Did we have to google if Bulgaria and Romania are two different countries? Maybe. Do we care? No. You’re not here to learn geography.

You’re here to make fun of wildly inappropriate anatomical drawings like this one….

What’s going on with this artist? Seriously, is that guy wearing Tik-Tok leggings? Look at the absolute dump truck on him, the other guy is! My goodness. We digress.

The main difference between the deadlift and the RDL is that you start the movement from the top. Standing with the bar, you bend down, and stand back up. Our favorite cue has always been to imagine someone has a rope around your waist and they are pulling on it. 

This makes you hinge at the hip. But, if like the artist above, you want to imagine it more as presenting yourself to someone behind you… we guess you can do that too.

• RDLs target the Hamstrings and Glutes more directly.

• It is more focused on the eccentric (lowering) portion

• Your form will depend on your anatomy and mobility.

Here’s an Aussie explaining it

The Mad Eye Moody

Lastly, we have the single leg deadlift. Is that rude? We don’t think so.

These are a great warmup to do with just body weight, but also great to do with:

• 1 Dumbbell

• 2 Dumbbells

• Kettlebells

• Barbell

This can be an excellent exercise to prime your posterior chain before deadlifts or another heavy movement that uses the glutes. Using 1 DB will challenge your balance, but you can use two to even it out and go a little heavier.

You can also load up a barbell if you’re feeling adventurous. They can be done with your leg stuck out back like in the picture or with your back leg on a bench for more leverage. The options are endless!

Quick Tutorial 1
Quick Tutorial 2 - With Progressions!

Whoop Wednesday

Welcome back to Whoop Wednesday! Everyone’s favorite guinea pig experiment with our Procrastinator in Chief; Colin.

Each Wednesday we’ll share the data gleaned from the tracker and see if we can suss out any interesting insights. We’re not quite to the 14 day mark yet so we don’t have all of the analytics unlocked but we’ve found some good stuff.

The Good Stuff

• This thing thinks I need a wild amount of sleep. I’m getting on average just under 7 hours. but it’s telling me I need 9.5!

• The recovery numbers have started to normalize and get closer to how I’m actually feeling.

• Last week I was below 30% 3 times but I felt fine. Now they’re much higher/closer to how recovered I’m feeling. It’s learning!

Dashboard

I have slept poorly recently because my GF is a ball of stress and when she isn’t waking me up with an “accidental” elbow to the face, she’s talking loudly on the phone at 3am; apologizing profusely to her brother for forgetting him at the airport.

Whoops!

 The Journal

The function I’m most excited about is the journal. There are around 100 activities/habits you can track. Once we’ve established a baseline it will be cool to see how ending caffeine consumption earlier/later or meditating before bed will impact my sleep.

• Each item you track needs 5 days where you did it and 5 where you didn’t to get an accurate reading.

The first metrics should be unlocked next week. For now, the only insight I have is below:

• My bedtime varies by 1:00 (1 hour) whereas my wake time varies by :08. Which I thought was cool since I don’t use an alarm anymore. Nice one body!

Lastly we have a new segment we like to call:

WTF is going on in Academia Wednesday

Following up on our big feature on Alcohol from a couple weeks ago, we stumbled onto this gem 

Remember those questions we had regarding the potential health benefits in that 1 drink a day range? Turns out researchers are fascinated with this as well and there’s a lot of in-fighting over the potential causes.

Is a low amount of alcohol protective? Anti-Inflammatory maybe? Or do people who choose to drink, but moderate the amount just also do other healthy shit all the time?

Spoiler: There isn’t a definitive answer. We were supposed to get a massive study that would answer all of those questions last year. Unfortunately it was derailed by greed & corruption. More on that later.

Happy Hump Day! Hope you have an amazing halfway mark for your week. If you see Colin’s mom, wish her a Happy Birthday!

And come back tomorrow for our feature on the microbiome and gut health!