The lift doesn't stop when the bar is at the top. CrossFitting chiropractor John Zimmer provides advice on how to properly deadlift to avoid injury.
If you’ve ever picked up anything from the floor, you’ve deadlifted. And after you pick something up, chances are you’ll need to put it down. Returning the bar to the floor often is the forgotten part of the deadlift.
CrossFit prides itself on its training methods having athletic transferability, and learning how to properly set down a heavy weight has far more practical application than dropping it from the waist.
When it comes to the deadlift, the emphasis is on getting the weight from the floor to the lockout position. Often, athletes will drop a bar rather than lower it. When the bar comes to a complete stop on the floor during a set of reps, the lifter often has nothing left to make the next rep easier. The lifter must overcome the tendency of a heavy barbell at rest to stay at rest. The touch-and-go method from the floor is taken out of play on subsequent reps (if there are any), and there is no advantage of the stretch-shortening cycle from the involved muscles.
But if the workout is focused on muscle endurance or conditioning—instead of maximum strength—then dropping the bar on every rep has several disadvantages.