Help Fixing My "Big Three" Form

Hello, I’ve been doing 5/3/1 for a year now and made some progress although I feel my form is terrible :confused:
Today I failed deadlift like never before :confused:
If someone could give me some tips/cues on fixing my form, I would be grateful.

You are getting zero out of your legs off the floor, that is really going to limit the amount you pull and it is the reason you are getting the beginnings of a hitch.

Start by pushing the ground away fro you with your feet - keep your shoulders over the bar as long as possible

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@strongmangoals Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it.
Yeah pulling from the floor is really troublesome for me. I do think of a cue push through the floor but dunno. Maybe weak legs?

IMO your shoulders are too far in front if the bar. Maybe somebody else has a better graphic to show position.

I agree with the comment about pushing through the floor. You don’t want to be squatting, but you should be in a starting position that puts a slight bend in your knees while still maintaining that hamstring stretch. The first part of the movement is that push through the floor… Kind of like doing a leg press. When the bar gets above your knees then you can start your hip hinge all the way to lock out. A mental cue to use is to think of standing up with the weight… Not pulling it up.

You appear to be using your lower back predominately. There’s almost zero leg involvement and your hip hinge starts way too late. Actually there’s no hip hinge because your start position has your legs almost straight.

The other comment about being too far over the bar is not wrong, but I think that distance will be mostly dictated by your frame and preferred start position. You definitely don’t want your shoulders in line with or behind the bar. Now that I look at the video again, your shoulders are too far over the bar and that’s probably a result of your straight leg stance.

Once you bend your shins slightly, it’ll make your shoulders come back some.

Learn how to do kettle bell swings to make hip hinging like second nature.

Thanks for the reply.
I got some questions though.
Should I drop my hips lower?
Should my back angle be more incline instead of horizontal?

Yes. Hips lower. It’s a balance between getting your butt low enough to get that knee bend needed for the initial push, but not so low that the stretch in your hamstrings loses tension.

I used to deadlift with hips lower then got advice to put my hips higher …
This is one older video:

And here I started changing my “technique”:

Was my original form better?

Thanks for Your replies adrencg, I really appreciate it.

That looks much better. You don’t want to think of it as lowering your butt. Think of it as lowering your whole torso while maintaining that angle. But don’t get too low or your shoulders will creep behind the bar and you’ll also turn it into more of a squat. There’s leg involvement in deadlifting but there’s no squatting.

Want a tip to help your deadlift? Start doing snatch grip deads as your warm up until you reach your working weight.

Amazingly helpful video.

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I managed to fuck up my elbow during workout. It was giving me ‘signals’ for a while now and last week i just smashed trough press workout. Didn’t feel so bad until tomorrow. Since I got lower back issues and wrist injury (i know i am fucked) I decided to take a week off, do some tissue work.
So as I mentioned my squat is my worst lift and its rapidly decreasing… I dropped my training max by some good percentage and today didn’t even hit 10 reps with weight I used to do 15+…

80 - YouTube
Someone didn’t notice cam -.-

Random dude jumping in to spot me…

This was Fsl with maybe better angle:

Was hyped and lost control…

My spine is not that rigid I guess.
Could someone give me some advices?
Thanks, looking forward to apply above tips on my deadlift this week.

get your elbows under the bar…

I hear that a lot but when I do it my upper back can’t support bar :confused:

Do you have your scapula squeezed back? Are you a lighter weight guy? The reason I ask that in some cases some guys do not have enough quality thickness in the upper back to have a natural " shelf" for the bar to rest on.

I am at 90kg now. (around 200lbs?) I d say I have decent back muscles xD
Although I got bad posture (kyphotic) but still it feels odd to put my elbows under. I do squeeze scapula but still I feel like my wrist and elbows are in compromised position. Trying it with bar at home now and feels like I have to pull bar down into my back to keep it from dropping. Feels like if I put some heavier weight on it that I would just drop it behind me or strain my wrists.

bar positioning can be difficult to figure out. But try a few different things, watch videos. You’ll figure it out.

What’s with the exaggerated hip thing you do at the beginning of some of your squats? It looks like you’re doing it intentionally. It’s not good. Where’d you learn that from? If you think it’s a good idea (it seems you do), find 20 videos of people squatting over 600 lbs, and see if ANY of them are doing what you’re doing there.

If you’re going to squat with a high bar position, you really want to keep your torso more upright (less forward) lean than what you’re doing. This will involve breaking at the knees earlier in the movement, shooting your knees both laterally and forward a little earlier and more than you’re doing here. It’s too easy to get off balance, particularly with heavy weights, when you’re keeping the bar high on your shoulders AND leaning so far forward in your squat.

Also, stability. You look like you’re almost dancing or psyching yourself up with the bar on your back before you squat. Don’t do that. Take 2-3 steps backward to get your feet set when you unrack the bar, get your belly full of air, and initiate the squat. The time it takes from unracking the bar to beginning your first rep should be much shorter. You’re probably thinking too much.

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Thanks for reply @flipcollar
You mean tilting forward? To be honest I just noticed it now xD I got some extension based lower back pain and I am trying to squat with more natural lower back so I guess that’s why I did it. I used to squat with extended lower back months ago.

This was low bar. I lack some ankle mobility for high bar squats.

I ll definitely try to shorten time for first rep. I just somehow always end up a bit unsymmetrical with my feet so I try to move them slowly in better position :confused:

Bump

Feels a lot harder this way :confused:

@Chris_Colucci Any chance that You can move thread to powerlifting section?

Weekly bump

Your technique in the videos you posted today looks OK. My advice is to work on bracing (lats and abs) and maybe consider buying belt.