This is something that has been on my mind a while now.
I'm a firm believe that it is always better to control the weight rather to slam it down.
However i have seen many (much better deadlifters then me) bring the weight down slam it to the ground and then bring it back up.
Now correct me if I am wrong but aren't you relaxing the muscle for a fraction of a second when the weight is all the way down on the ground? And subsequenty arent you more prone to hurt your back when you rip it back from the ground?
So what is better to lightly touch the ground and keep you muscles in control
Or slam it to the ground?
You get better strength training by holding the bar controlled all the way down.
The eccentric part of a lift is important.
Personally, I try to keep a fairly controlled tempo on the bar on the way down on all lifts, excepts perhaps the near-max lifts (I don't do max lifts in the gym).
I try to accelerate it with as high speed as possible up on all lifts though.
