So simple but so effective.

We don’t like to think of ourselves as lazy, especially when we’re working out. But for those of us who don’t love being in the gym full-time — hard to believe, I know — we do want to make the best use of our time. When that time is spent adding and dropping weight to the bar, we can live with it.

With deadlifts, though, we enter new territory. We’re usually using bumper plates for deads, if we can. (I am, anyway.) So as we add weight, we’re not provided any more clearance from the ground than we would if we were adding smaller denominations  of steel or iron plates. So you’re either dragging your plate across the floor, trying to scoot it on to the bar, or you’re racking the bar for clearance, which puts you in the position of then having to get it back to the ground to start your lifting.

Look, these are first-world problems, to be sure.

So this is where the Dead Wedge comes in. I bought it. It isn’t a “problem” in the ultimate sense of garage gym problems – it’s not up there with an insect infestation or 30-degree temps at lift time. But, for 10 bucks, a stupidly delightful invention meant to make loading and unloading the bar on the ground easier is a really nice buy.

I love little toys like this – one-use items that are essentially indestructible and perform their job perfectly. They don’t do anything else (though in a pinch, I guess the Dead Wedge could make a decent doorstop).

Will the Dead Wedge help you shatter your PRs, brah, or ultimately shatter your perception of what the deadlift can be? Nah. It’s a piece of orange rubber and it sits on the ground and it works as the world’s smallest little barbell jack. But it’s a quality-of-life add, to be sure.

My last deadlift workout, I took note of how nice it was to leave the bar on the ground, roll it onto the wedge when it was time to add and drop weight, and, oh, look — the bar’s still right there, on the ground, ready to be lifted again. I liked it.

I try to find things that will help transform my garage gym into a smart, close-to-commercial space; I think the Dead Wedge would be perfectly at home in a commercial gym (unless that gym is Planet Fitness, because deadlifting is loud and scary there).

I didn’t give the Dead Wedge the full review treatment here, quite honestly, because it’s $10. I’d recommend you grab one if you think you’ll be likely to change plates mid-set, but if you absolutely hate it or can’t find a use for it, well, you’ve eaten worse investments than $10 before. So, buy it here, and remember that doing so through that link helps support the blog.