Peter Attia uses deadlifts to prime his spine for traction before flights to help maintain spinal decompression during prolonged sitting.

“i deadlift at least twice a week often three times a week both straight bar and trap bar and bob i don't go that heavy i don't know the last time maybe i've had 400 pounds on one of those on the trap bar in the past year but i usually sort of stop at about 350 to 375. on the straight bar i'm even lighter maybe 185”

“what i could get out of doing that deadlift perfectly is do i have just the right amount of thoracic extension do i have just the right curvature in the lumbar spine am i activating my glutes am i activating my hamstrings am i pulling back instead of pulling up am i wedging correctly like all of this little stuff translates biomechanically to the activities of daily living that matter to me like getting up off the floor picking up one of my kids lifting a piece of luggage or something like that”

“i do a lot of slow eccentrics i film every single rep of every single set and i study it and i send it to beth lewis who is my coach and we do so much around making this deadlift perfect and i'd rather take a lightweight and dead lifted perfectly several times a week and i'm not doing like killing crusher sets like i mean it's today was four sets of ten five sets of ten maybe and at no point was i like past my limit”

“and that's why dead lifting is the most important thing i do before i get on an airplane because when you're on an airplane and you're sitting there for five or six hours what you really want to do is not let your spine be compressed and the deadlift primes me to then go and sort of maintain that activated form of traction”