King Deadlifts

Want to improve your strength on the bike? King deadlifts are a sure-fire way to increase muscle mass.

The final variation goes by many names – King deadlift, airborne lunge, and shrimp squat are the most common. For this I prefer King deadlifts as Ian King, an Aussie strength legend, first showed these  many years before the other names had ever been used in literature.

How to

The King deadlift is a Bulgarian squat done with the rear foot completely unsupported. This is a true one-legged squat and takes some time to build up to.

You’ll find you can’t use as much weight for this exercise as you can for the Bulgarian squats but you’ll get more benefit, as you also have to counter the natural rotation of standing on one leg.

Unlike with the split squat variations, don’t worry about keeping the torso upright – you’ll actually get even more hip drive built by bending at the waist for this version.