Deadlifts: Cues to avoid bloody shins

Quick overview

Scraped or bloody shins are not a badge of honor. They usually come from an inefficient setup that forces the bar to travel around obstacles instead of through your center of mass. The Deadlift is all about positions and this article will give you some options to try if you find yourself scraping your shins. Personally I don't think the bar should be touching your shins at all.

To watch the video version of this topic on Youtube CLICK HERE

The problem with the "drag the bar" cue

Telling someone to drag the bar up or to keep constant contact with their legs assumes the bar should be touching the shins. That creates unnecessary friction and a tendency to pull the bar rather than push with your legs. Think about trying to Deadlift more weight, and adding friction to it from your shins.  That doesn't make sense to me, there is an easier way. To me if it's scraping your shins, you're probably fighting a bar that's too far out front. When you fight a bar that lives out in front of your center of mass, you’ll grind, hitch, and lose mechanical advantage—especially at heavy loads.

It's not about the legs, it's about center of mass

The deadlift is not about your shins. It’s about where the bar is relative to your center of mass. Get your shoulders out in front of the bar and bring the bar into your center of mass so you can push the ground away with bent knees rather than pull the bar up with straight legs. If you've never heard this, PUSH the ground away. That should be how you initiate the deadlift.  Stiff legged deadlifts can be used as a variation but you're omitting a lot of musculature and using a sub optimal position if your goal is to move as much weight off the ground as possible.

Key setup adjustments (what to change)

• Bring your shoulders forward, or ahead of the bar more. The farther your shoulders are ahead of the bar, the easier it is to bring the bar back into your center of mass. This allows you to push into the floor, not pull the bar.

• Bar over midfoot. If the bar is not over your midfoot, you can’t effectively drive through the midfoot. Start with the bar directly over the middle of your foot.

• Feet slightly closer than you might think. Moving your feet a bit closer raises the hips and lengthens the lever between hips and the ground—often improving leverage. Small adjustments matter; an inch can be too close for many people.

• Toes turned out. Turning your toes slightly out helps you access the hips and produces stronger glute contraction. It also changes the knee travel so knees move more to the side instead of forward, keeping the bar away from the shins.

• Knees must be bent to push. If your shins are perfectly vertical and your knees locked, you can’t use leg drive. Brining your shins to the bar, described below should offer a positive shin angle. This allows you to bend the knees so you can push the ground away with intent.

• Engage the lats by pulling your hands back to the bar. This cue gets taken out of context to the point it's hurting your Deadlift.   Let your hands hang naturally in the set up, then bring them back to the bar—this loads the lats and keeps the bar path pure. That's it, you don't need to do anything else.  The video version of this topic makes it much easier to see what I'm talking about.

Step-by-step setup

1. Stand so the bar sits over your midfoot.

2. Place your feet slightly closer than shoulder width—roughly a few finger widths apart from the bar; an inch is usually too close, think 3 or 4 inches. Adjust based on body type.

3. Turn your toes slightly outward to open the hips and allow the knees to track laterally instead of forward.

4. Hinge and position your shoulders well in front of the bar. Aim to feel your shoulders several inches (a foot) ahead of the bar so when you pull your hands back to the bar the lats engage naturally.

5. Bring your shins to the bar (not the bar to your shins). From this position, drive the floor away by pushing through the legs while keeping your chest and eyes facing down for conventional Deadlifts. Chest up and eyes up is for olympic lifts, keep them down for the Deadlift.

6. Finish by standing into the lockout rather than dragging and scraping the bar up the legs.

Why this works

When shoulders and hips are better spaced, the body can produce more force into the ground. That force is transmitted through a longer lever and into the bar with less need to fight around the knees or scrape the shins. Turning the toes out improves hip contribution and changes knee trajectory so the bar path stays clean.

Troubleshooting and caveats

• Will shins ever touch? At maximal loads, if form breaks down or the bar pulls you forward or out of position, shins can still scrape. That’s not the goal, and it shouldn’t be a planned cue, but when dealing with max weight sure it can happen.

• Everyone’s different. Small tweaks to foot width, toe angle, and shoulder position will vary with anatomy. Experiment in lighter sets before applying changes to heavy sets.

• Difference from Olympic lifting. For clean or snatch pulls, you generally want chest and eyes up. For conventional deadlifts, a more downward gaze and chest position helps maintain the bar path into the center of mass.

Practice cues to use

• “Shoulders out front.” Feel the shoulders ahead of the bar before you engage the lats.

• “Hands back to the bar.” Simple lat loading—don’t overthink it.

• “Push the ground.” Think of driving the floor away, not pulling the bar up your legs.

• “Toes out, knees track out.” Helps the bar miss the shins and turns on the glutes.

Final note

Try these adjustments and experiment with small changes to foot width and toe angle, and spend a few sets practicing the shoulder-forward, bar-to-midfoot setup. Most lifters will find cleaner bar paths, fewer shin scrapes, and better mechanical advantage under heavier loads.

Try it next session and see how it feels. Then tweak and repeat—clean, efficient deadlifts come from setup, not from dragging the bar up your shins.