Deadlift Form Check

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Mcmoon

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This is at 405. There is obviously some flexion in my lower back and certainly needs to be worked out. Been playing with a few things trying to help get that tightness but haven't quite got it down yet. Any advice would be great. Thanks in advance.

 
That looked pretty good. What I saw was you might come too far forward when you come up from the squat during the set up. You should play around with keeping your shoulders behind or above the bar.

Another option might be looking at the floor instead of looking in the mirror and really trying to pull the bar back with the lats during the set up.
 
Thanks. I have definitely thought about going with a more neutral head positioning and have recently started incorporating paused deadlifts. I've heard about activating the lats but don't really feel like I have it down yet. Any cues you know of?
 
Most experts agree that deadlifts are an absolutely worthless lift on every level
 
faustian said:
Most experts agree that deadlifts are an absolutely worthless lift on every level
Click to expand...
Not only are they worthless (as evidenced by most experts), they are considered the most dangerous lift on every level. Lower back injuries are a ticking time bomb with this type of exercise.
 
Revolver said:
Not only are they worthless (as evidenced by most experts), they are considered the most dangerous lift on every level. Lower back injuries are a ticking time bomb with this type of exercise.
Click to expand...

You can already see the extreme kyphosis/scoliosis suffered by this dude yet he still insists on deadlifting smh

1077894.1148501319127.lewis_DL_(cropped).JPG


Deadlifts also apparently make it impossible to burn fat because the back has to store as much fat as possible just to keep from crumbling
 
Mcmoon said:
This is at 405. There is obviously some flexion in my lower back and certainly needs to be worked out. Been playing with a few things trying to help get that tightness but haven't quite got it down yet. Any advice would be great. Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...


You shouldn't be lifting 405 if you haven't got the form "down" yet. My advice is to never do deadlifts again in any capacity.
 
Mcmoon said:
Thanks. I have definitely thought about going with a more neutral head positioning and have recently started incorporating paused deadlifts. I've heard about activating the lats but don't really feel like I have it down yet. Any cues you know of?
Click to expand...

I couldn't tell you any cues you haven't heard before, but one thing that's really helped me get more coordinated with my lats is learning the front lever. The other thing I do is a stiff leg deadlift with my shoulder way WAY in front of the bar. I use my lats to kind of "artificially" keep the bar over midfoot. So my arms and legs are like this \|

The lats are the limiting factor in that lift. If you can keep the weight swept back it's nothing for your hips to stand up with it. I think of it as an upper body lift.
 
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Mcmoon said:
This is at 405. There is obviously some flexion in my lower back
Click to expand...

I'm no groundhog expert, but I didn't see any bending in the lower back. It looked like the bending was in the mid-back- AFAIK that's a bit of a waste of power and makes the lift a little harder but it's not harmful.

To me, it seems like you're rushing your setup. You squat down, then your hips raise, then you start pulling almost immediately. A bit like a lot of Oly lifters pull- but I think for DL it is better to spend a bit of time getting set in your pulling position and making sure you are tight as hell. Are you "pulling the slack out of the bar"? For me the point of this is also to "pull the slack out of your body"- by pulling a little bit you can feel where you are loose and tighten everything up.

I'd hold on for some more/better advice though- there are some strong and experienced lifters here, one of them will show up at some point.
 
I wouldn't be worried about the mild back flexion unless it causes some discomfort. It's not excessive in any way and like Jaunty side it's more mid-back. You can probably fix that by focusing on keeping your chest up and doing heavy upper back work (eg rows). Personally I'm not a big fan of crouching down so much before a pull. I'm sure lots of strong guys do it (especially Oly lifters) but for a newer lifter I think it's an easy way to lose tightness, especially if you aren't sure exactly what being really tight feels like. A better to get the feel for it is to bend at the waist and grab the bar, then crouch down and lean back a bit while pulling slightly on the bar. I find this to be a good way to get really tight.

Ignore anything the guys with the green names say, they are trolls.
..
 
JauntyAngle said:
I'm no groundhog expert, but I didn't see any bending in the lower back. It looked like the bending was in the mid-back- AFAIK that's a bit of a waste of power and makes the lift a little harder but it's not harmful.

To me, it seems like you're rushing your setup. You squat down, then your hips raise, then you start pulling almost immediately. A bit like a lot of Oly lifters pull- but I think for DL it is better to spend a bit of time getting set in your pulling position and making sure you are tight as hell. Are you "pulling the slack out of the bar"? For me the point of this is also to "pull the slack out of your body"- by pulling a little bit you can feel where you are loose and tighten everything up.

I'd hold on for some more/better advice though- there are some strong and experienced lifters here, one of them will show up at some point.
Click to expand...

Thanks. My little squat pull back is when I am trying to pull the slack out of the bar but because I am not using round weights they don't roll so probably doesn't help as much as it could. Yes I may be rushing the set up a little.

DrBdan said:
I wouldn't be worried about the mild back flexion unless it causes some discomfort. It's not excessive in any way and like Jaunty side it's more mid-back. You can probably fix that by focusing on keeping your chest up and doing heavy upper back work (eg rows). Personally I'm not a big fan of crouching down so much before a pull. I'm sure lots of strong guys do it (especially Oly lifters) but for a newer lifter I think it's an easy way to lose tightness, especially if you aren't sure exactly what being really tight feels like. A better to get the feel for it is to bend at the waist and grab the bar, then crouch down and lean back a bit while pulling slightly on the bar. I find this to be a good way to get really tight.

Ignore anything the guys with the green names say, they are trolls.
..
Click to expand...

Thanks. I have actually played around with my deadlift form a good bit in the last year. It seemed like I was having trouble getting some upper back tightness so I just recently started experimenting with the squat and pull back to help pull my shoulder blades together. I am also not a fan of the not round plates but it is what it is.
 
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