Deadlift with Chains
Also works: Forearms · Glutes · Hamstrings · Middle Back · Quadriceps · Traps
A conventional pull with chains hung from the sleeves so links peel off the floor as the bar rises. The load grows a few kilos at a time instead of jumping, the descent stays as slow as you make it, and every bit of side-to-side imbalance shows up as a visible swing.
Own the movement
Set up first, then execute. Every cue below is something you can check on your next set.
Before the first rep
- Hang each chain from the sleeve with a short leader chain, or drape the middle over the bar so both halves hang level.
- Set the length so a third to a half of each chain is still piled on the platform when the loaded bar is on the floor.
- Keep the chain ends clear of the plates so nothing snags when you lower the bar.
- Set the bar over mid-foot, feet hip-width, hands just outside your shins with a double overhand or mixed grip.
- Breathe into your belly, bring your shins to the bar, and pull the slack out until the bar clicks before applying full force.
Every rep
Breathing & tempo — One breath braced on the floor, held to lockout, exhaled once the chains stop swinging. Fast concentric, roughly two seconds down, reset on the platform between reps.
Before you load it
- Keep your shins away from the links at lockout. A swinging 12 kg chain against the bone is a genuine injury, not just a bruise.
- Set the bar down deliberately and step back. Chain-loaded bars roll unpredictably once they land.
Sets, reps & load
Where to start, and what to change when it stops being hard.
Set bar weight at 55-75% of your straight-weight deadlift max and hang 10-25 kg of total chain, about 10-20% of the bar. Progress by adding chain before bar weight — you are overloading the top half while keeping the break from the floor fast. If your first rep is your slowest, the bar is already too heavy for this tool.
What goes wrong
The errors that show up most often, and the cue that fixes each one.
Shorten the leader chain until a third of each chain rests on the platform at the bottom. A chain that never deloads is just fixed weight that swings.
Record bar weight and chain weight as two numbers with a note that the chain only fully counts at lockout. Otherwise your training percentages drift upward by 10-20 kg without you noticing.
Fix it at the floor: even grip pressure, both feet loading at the same instant, and equal chain length on each side. A persistent swing on one side means you are pulling harder with that arm.
Guide it down with the hips going back and the bar on the legs, then step away once it has settled. A chain-loaded bar bounces sideways when dropped and lands somewhere you did not choose.
Why bother
Your leverage improves the higher the bar goes, so a straight-weight pull that is brutal at the shins feels comparatively light at the hips. Chains cancel part of that: at the floor most of the chain is coiled on the platform holding its own weight, and by lockout the whole length hangs from the bar. Two 12 kg chains might add 4 kg at the break and 24 kg at the top.
Compared with bands, the increase is gentle and linear, and nothing accelerates the eccentric. That makes chains the accommodating-resistance tool you can put on a moderately heavy bar without turning the descent into a controlled fall — which is why they suit lifters whose lower back does not enjoy band days.
Where it fits
Either as a speed lift, 6-8 doubles at 55-65% bar weight with 45-60 seconds rest, or as a supplemental pull after your heavy top set at 65-75% for sets of 3. Once a week. Rotate chains, bands and straight weight in three- to four-week blocks rather than running any one indefinitely.
If this one isn't it
No kit, too hard, or too easy — here's where to go instead.
Same job, different kit
Start here instead
When this gets easy
Asked and answered
My gym doesn't have chains — what do I use instead?
Bands, if you have them and you accept the harsher descent. Do not improvise by hanging kettlebells or plates from straps: they never deload onto the floor, so all you have built is fixed weight that swings. Without chains, run straight-weight speed doubles at 60-70% with 45 seconds rest and score the session on bar speed. That is most of what the chain day was buying you anyway.
Do chains actually build strength, or is it a Westside gimmick?
They genuinely train the top half and they teach you to keep driving instead of coasting once leverage improves. What they do not do is make you stronger at the floor, and that is where nearly every deadlift is missed. If you only have one pulling slot a week, heavy straight-weight pulls and deficit work will move your total further. Chains earn their place as a way to train hard without maximal load on your lower back, not as the centrepiece.
Is this better than just adding plates?
It is different, not better. Chains shift load toward the top of the pull where you are strongest; plates load the whole range including the floor, which is where most deadlifts are missed. Use chains as a supplemental or speed tool and keep straight-weight heavy pulls as the backbone of the programme.
Can I use chains for touch-and-go sets?
You can, unlike with bands — the chain does not accelerate the bar downward. Even so, reset on the floor if your back position slips at all, and keep chain sets to 3-6 reps. The swing gets harder to control as you tire.