Deadlift Form Check

Just joined and just starting to focus on deadlifts. Seem to have lots of (permissible?) upper back rounding on this 350# pull. Anything look funny? Comments very much appreciated.

sit back a little further at the beginning (push the hips back),and keep a tighter arch in the low back. your shoulders were out in front of the bar, putting you at a mechanical disadvantage, sitting back a little further and getting your hips down will help keep your shoulders over the bar, thus making the bar travel in a straight line upward during the pull.

Your shoulders are too far out front at the beginning of the pull. I think your low back is a little bit rounded too. I would not drop the weights ever.

You never got yourself setup before you pulled. Back was rounded before you even started to pull. The weight doesn’t seem that heavy for you, clean up the setup and I’d bet the numbers go up even faster.
Also, silly rubber weights. LOL

Unless you’re KK or an advanced lifter, never think of back rounding as being “permissible”. Even if it happens during a max attempt (which it often does), the intent should always be to keep your back flat.

This happened to me quite often, if you haven’t already, try and keep your head down. if you watch the video back, your head is at quite a severe angle compared to your thoracic spine. If you think about the structure of the spine, if the cervical spine and thoracic spine aren’t in alignment when your head is up like that. This means that because of the position of the bar, your upper back (i.e thoracic spine) is at its weakest when the cervical spine isn’t in alignment.

This fully depends on the individual and their anatomical make up. If you natural have thicker musculature surrounding your upper spine, then you are less likely to round. I had exactly the same issue of my back rounding and changing my head position was the biggest change I made, going from my back rounding at 308lbs when my head was up, and now I can pull 418lbs with no rounding of the back.

I don’t think you were too far forward actually, the bar looked to be about right under your scaps. I would agree that you should try to get your head into a more neutral position and flatten your back out. Also don’t drop the bar, your lift will get red lighted and it’s quite disrespectful to both the equipment and the people around you.

It looks like you need to strengthen your upper back and put your lats in a stronger position by bringing your hips down a bit and having a proud chest while squeezing the lats as tight as possible before the lift.