Deadlift Improvements

Out of all three of my lifts my dead lift I believe has the most room for improvement especially technically. I can pull 40 pounds more conventionally but feel a lot more comfortable/safe in a sumo stance. In watching videos of myself I can really see my hips rising to fast, and in my set up just does not look or feel correct. Any advices or tips on getting my technique a little more refined would be greatly appreciated

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You need to stop worrying about the weights and start worrying about your back. Lower the weights, and keep your back straight the entire time. Drop the weights till you can do that.

Thanks for the reply, I havent maxed out in a very long time to do exactly like you are saying. Still every time I hit about 85%ish and end up with a slightly less ugly version of what is in the video. I

Dude you have absolutely no hip/glute involvement. Was that a max? You didn’t put your hips through until the damn thing was locked out. I would work on posterior chain like crazy if I were you.

your starting position is really rough. It looks to me like you have very weak hips, glutes, and hamstrings. You are starting your pull from a position where your hips are WAY too low, and your back is already rounded and in very bad position. As a result, you have zero tension in your hamstrings at the start of the pull. Basically, you are trying to squat the weight up using your quads, only your legs are too weak so your hips shoot all the way up until your back can take over completely. The weak hips are also the reason it’s so hard for you to lock the rep out - your butt simply isn’t strong enough to squeeze your hips through, and your super rounded back is putting you in a terrible position to lock out the rep.

In my opinion, your deadlift needs a total re-boot. First of all, you need to work on your mobility, so that you can get into a starting position with a flat back. Look up a thousand videos of people deadlifting with a flat back and videotape yourself until your setup looks textbook. Obviously every lifter needs to develop their own style, but at this point I think you need to start with textbook technique, and as you grow as a lifter you can change things if you need to. Second of all, you need to learn how to use your hips. you aren’t hinging at all, you are pretty much just standing the weight up using your back. Look up “good mornings” and work on learning how to do those with perfect form for a thousand reps. It will teach you how to set tension in your hamstrings, how to keep your back flat, and how to squeeze your butt to get your hips through. Once you learn how to hinge, again work on your setup, being sure to set tension in your hamstrings before the pull. And finally, keep the weight light. I’m talking REALLY light. Once you get the hang of pulling with a flat back, from a better start position, using your posterior chain, you need to do tons and tons of reps, with perfect technique, to cement that form in your head - and the only way to have perfect technique is to go nowhere even CLOSE to heavy for a little while. Idk what you are pulling in the video, but I would say take around 50% of that and start there, doing speed pulls. tons and tons of speed pulls with perfect form. Maybe change the weight from week to week : do 50%, 55%, 60%, then back to 50% for 9 weeks or so. you need to INGRAIN that movement pattern into your mind and your body. It’s goign to be a real hit to the ego, and not fun, but if you do those things I think you will come out on the other side with beautiful technique, and THEN you can start to build up some serious strength

Best of luck, and keep at it.

[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:
Dude you have absolutely no hip/glute involvement. Was that a max? You didn’t put your hips through until the damn thing was locked out. I would work on posterior chain like crazy if I were you.[/quote]
Yeah you pulled it kinda straight up. You want to get the weight off the ground with your legs, and then push your hips through. Activate your glutes and think about driving your hips forward instead of just picking the weight upwards. Pwnisher says that kettlebell swings helped him a lot with this issue I believe.

Thanks for all the replies, that was a max aatempt at 500 pounds my best in meet deadlift is 502 and looked just as ugly. Am going to be hammering away at it the next couple weeks and post some form checks.

[quote]csulli wrote:

[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:
Dude you have absolutely no hip/glute involvement. Was that a max? You didn’t put your hips through until the damn thing was locked out. I would work on posterior chain like crazy if I were you.[/quote]
Yeah you pulled it kinda straight up. You want to get the weight off the ground with your legs, and then push your hips through. Activate your glutes and think about driving your hips forward instead of just picking the weight upwards. Pwnisher says that kettlebell swings helped him a lot with this issue I believe.[/quote]

I agree with this and also throw in that sumo deadlifts pushed my deadlift from 650’ish to over 700 in a relatively short amount of time. The extra hip strength really makes a difference when breaking the weight off the ground.

Strengthen your gluteus and hamstrings. Brett Contreras is your man.

I’d say forget the nose tork and focus on your hips and glutes like everyone else is saying. Kettlebell swings, dimel deadlift, hit the GHR

Along the same lines as what NK said, here’s my take: you get into a decent starting position, then you raise your hips and start the pull with your back. To deadlift heavy you wanna do the opposite. Sink your hips to start the lift, and use your back to lock it out.

It’s hard to tell from one video but I’m not convinced that it is a lack of glute strength that is your problem… rather, you seem to WANT to only use your back to pull the weight.

Watch your video again and notice your first movement after you get set: your hips rise for no reason before you even attempt to pull the bar. I would suggest to use this hip raise as part of the pull, as in, instead of raising your hips and leaving the bar on the floor, use that hip raise to start the bar off the floor. From there, you clearly have the back strength to pull the weight up.

Thanks again for all the replies guys

I’ve taken all the advice to heart and have been really placing an emphasis on my glutes and have been playing around with lighter weights and trying out different sensations and setups

Fatstakkz- thanks for the well thought out post but I am having trouble trying to grasp the concept. Are you saying to start with my hips low and jerk the bar up with some hip drive?