With your feet in the deadlift position, set your back tightly in a complete arch and tighten your abs. Hinge at the hips as and raise one leg back and up while keeping it fairly straight. Move as far as you can without losing any arch in your back, unlocking the knee of the leg that's balancing as you hinge, allowing it to remain slightly bent until you return to standing vertically, straightening it as you straighten the hips. Resist twisting sideways as your moving down/forward. 

For a video demo, click here.

Experience Levels
Novice: You've done these 1-5 times with coaches watching and giving you feedback. You need reminders about where to put your feet, how far away to be from the bench, how low to go, you haven't tried it using weight yet.

Intermediate: You've done these 6-10 times with coaches watching and giving you feedback. You may need a reminder or two but know generally how to set up and have an idea of what weights you could do for certain amount of reps. 

Well Practiced: You've done these 10+ times with coaches watching and giving you feedback. You know where to put your feet, how far way to be from the bench, what weights you can do for how many reps, how low to go. 

Difficulty and Equipment
This is not an absolute scale, but in terms of progressing in ability here's how you should be progressing:

  1. Unweighted, potentially holding onto something for balance. (Novice)
  2. Holding 1 light single dumbbell or kettlebell in your hand on the same side of the leg that is going back. As you go down, the dumbbell goes down toward the ground.  (Novice/Intermediate)
  3. Holding 1 heavier single dumbbell or kettlebell in the same position as mentioned above.  (Intermediate/Well Practiced)
  4. Holding 2 single dumbbells (Intermediate/Well Practiced)
  5. Holding a barbell (Well Practiced)

Progress in weights before moving onto another difficulty level. How much should you be able to do before moving on? That's not a black and white answer however a good guide is 3 sets, 12 reps per leg of that weight before moving up in weight or difficulty level.