Hello everyone, my name is Martin i’m from Argentina and I come here looking for your help.
I started lifting about 6 months ago, read Mark RippetoeStarting Strength and i’ve been practicing the deadlift, squat, ohp and bench along with some other accesories. I went all my way up to 315 in the deadlift but after recording myself for the first time that time i realized my form sucks. So today i just dropped the weight to 135 and started practicing and recording me doing both sumo and conventional deadlift, tried all the tips i learned from some people on youtube (i mostly watch allan thrall, brian alsruhe latest dl vids) but i still don’t know if my form is acceptable, so i was hoping you could give me a form critique.
First thing–before watching the video–if you got up to 315, then there is no reason to back down to 135. Back down to 225 or so. It is still light enough compared to your old pull that you can work on technique, but it has a more realistic strain on yor body. 135 is about 35% of your max…anybody can pull that % with good form. They won’t start struggling until the weight is a bit more challenging
After watching the video–there are a couple things I might suggest…but in NO way is your form anywhere near bad. If you can keep that, start increasing the weights back up in the high 200s.
Your form as shown is safe, and pretty good. You should work on form issues as you go now rather than start back at square 1. Besides as I said, technical problems may not show up until the weight becomes challenging. Keep growing and getting stronger while you work on it–take a cue from powerlifters. They very almost never drop to 35% of their working weight to work on form. They work as they continue trying to get stronger, and if necesary they might drop to 60% of their max, or maybe 75% of their working weight.
Check out your bar path. You want it as straight as possible but it is coming into you then coming out as you complete the lift.
Whats happening is your knees are completely locking out before you begin extending your hips. That will give your lats and your lower back lots of work to do to complete this lift (was your last failed deadlift after you broke the floor?).
Get a better balance between what your knees are doing and what your hips are doing and your old PRs will come down fairly quickly.
Basically your set-up is pretty good and in the right spot mostly, so don’t throw it out. After you grab the bar and are ready–right before lifting it off the ground–just think 2 things:
Show off your shirt logo as you lift off the ground
Squeeze your butt cheeks as hard as possible throughout the whole lift. Snap them into the bar.
If you can do both of those things starting as you lift off the ground, you’ll go a long way to correcting the legs locking out first. Remember this is a butt squeeze, not a lean back. This is not whipping your back over.
well today i trained deadlift again, i had a lot of trouble trying to squeeze my butt i think my knees kept locking before i extended my hips, maybe better than the previous video
i felt really tight in my upper butt cheek was causing some discomfort when y reached to grab the bar… don’t know if it is my dl or squat causing it , here’s a squat video from monday: - YouTube
i really look forward to your advice since where i train no one really squats or deadlifts so i only have you guys to guide me in my journey to become stronger. thanks a lot! @Aragorn@tsantos
