This part just comes down to bracing. You set up with a flat back but I see you have trouble holding the position, you need to brace your abs as well as engage your lats to keep your spine stable.
This is mostly due to the fact that you don’t have great proportions for deadlifting, at lockout the bar is right up at your crotch. I am the same. You start in a very bent over position which affect the rest of the lift but there really isn’t much that can be done about it. You might be better off with sumo.
I agree you may be better off sumo depending on your goals. Your back isn’t super rounded. Brace your abs (expand them out). I personally push my knees more forward to bring my hips down and think about pushing my feet through the floor. That might help a little With hips rising first. With conventional in my opinion it’s always hard to get your chest up unless you drop your hips super low almost Brian Shaw style
I personally brace after grabbing the bar and getting into position, but it depends on how much time you take to grip and get into position. People who pull mixed grip and have aggressive and fast execution tend to brace standing up. If you use straps or basically take more time to wiggle your hips and feet into position you would brace after everything else is in position.
Not to completely hijack this post, @greenacre I think your form is good considering you have only been powerlifting for a short time. I am not sure if this was just for the benefit of the formcheck, but I would suggest to do the actual lift with a bit more impetus. This to reduce chances of developing sticking points.
You could try both and see what works better for you, but if you take a breath and brace before you get down to the bar you will have to pull pretty much right away. I once tried that and I didn’t like it at all, seems like it increased the pressure in my head more than anything and didn’t help at all.
A lot of great comments on this so far. I personally feel that bracing at the top provides a much stronger brace since you can suck in more air. I’d also make sure that you are fully engaging your lats before you start the pull. Finally, it might help to try sitting down more right before you pull, best example of this I’ve seen is with Eddie Hall. Right before he pulls he sits down and back which automatically puts you in a position of not leaning forward and making sure you have an optimal bar path as well as ensuring your hips don’t rise first and you are engaging your legs optimally.
This is how I always deadlift. I know some people are not a fan of taking the hips lower, but the extra quad drive off the ground pretty much takes your back out of the equation at the initial pull. It also gives you more speed off the ground.
This is how I coach my clients. I tend to have them adopt a slightly lower hip level than normal.
Both. For the first rep, I brace standing and reach down to grab the bar slowly. On subsequent reps after that, I have no choice but to brace in position. I think my brace while standing is better than subsequent reps where I brace in position. I don’t lift as heavy as the other guys here yet though so just a little disclaimer
Good feedback from others. My initial thought is even the way you setup to grab the bar puts you into an undesirable position to brace throughout the movement.
Try dropping the hips a bit more as you bend to grab the bar; the amount of flexion you currently exert leaning forward/down to grab the bar makes it tough for you to get in the ideal position afterward. I’m not sure what effect this will have for you, but it may be worth tinkering with.
