Recently got back into lifting after some injuries from football, decided i want to get into powerlifting. Am confident in my bench & squat form. but on deadlift, i set up fine, pull the bar up my shins, but around that point, the bar drifts out or at least loses contact, if i try and keep it close it will knock my knees & still miss my thighs.
I can do the technique fine when i put a pause just below knee level, it hurts a bit continually pulling the bar over my knees then dragging up the thigh. is there something i can do to make this smoother?
Buy some cheap knee sleeves and deadlift sock (or soccer socks or something like that). I scrape the shit out of my legs if I donāt put something on them, the only time I pull without knee sleeves is in a meet but you can still use (approved) knee sleeves in a meet. I have some shin guard things that I bought from Rocktape, Mark Bell sells something like that too. Mine are torn to shit and I wear them backwards now, but they lasted several years. Duct tape is another option.
Learn to engage the lats in the deadlift. Watch the Juggernaut ādeadlift pillarsā videos, there in one that covers this as well as starting position.
bar comes up my shins just fine, itās when we get to knee that is the problem. itās either knock my knees or bar drifts & leaves contact, doesnāt touch thigh till the very top.
so watched the pillar vids & understand the tightening of lats. this should keep the bar in a better path?
Hmā¦ that seems strangeā¦ My knees are as straight as they are going to get for the dead lift by the time the bar reaches them. Can you post a video?
HD quality of two or three reps at as high a percentage as you can afford to without fucking with your training mayb 2 singles @ 80% 1RM or whenever form starts to break down.
Directly from the side at a high angle (not at ground level) so the plates donāt obscure everything
Looks OK, just donāt spend so much time sitting there at the bottom. You hold the same position for 10 seconds before you pull the first rep. Doing it like that will make the lift harder.
thanks for the input. not usually down there so long, but was really trying to engage lats & get tight. it was pissing me off that i couldnāt feel lats engage.
When you set up, try to keep your shins perpendicular to the ground. It feels counterintuitive, but it sets your hips back father and uses your body almost as a counter-weight. It also removes the movement of your shins becoming perpendicular as the bar comes up, which may help the bar stay close to your body, instead of trying to miss your knees.
One of my favorite back accessories are Banded Deadlifts, except I anchor the bands to the bottom of a rack in front of me, and then around each end of the barbell. When I deadlift the bands try to pull the barbell away from me, so I am forced to engage my lats and back to keep it close to my body. Itās hard, it feels amazing. Maybe this will help? Good luck!
