Deadlift Issue with Shins?

I’ve been primarily deadlifting straight Leg for the past few years and I want to change things up by doing the standard deadlift.

I’m having an issue as the bar starts to rise, my bar doesnt just scrape my shins, it hits them, and pretty much destroys the lift.

My setup is:

-bar is over the middle of my feet
-slight bend in the hips/knees to the point where my shins touch the bar as I bend down
-Chest up
-pressure is on the middle to heels of my feet

I’ve read the deadlift is initiated with the legs. Does that mean as I drive my heels into the ground, and as the bar starts to rise my knees start to straighten?

PS I’d post a vid, but I don’t have a camera.

I used to focus on driving my heels, and yes, my shins took a hell of a beating. If I wore shorts the next day, everyone knew I had DLed the day before.

S

I’m fine with the scraping, but I feel like when the bar hits my shins, it slows the bar down. Like my shins are on an angle that makes me need to pull the bar farther from my body(which I know you’re supposed to pull in a straight line, closest to your body).

I’d say, suck it up. Better your shins than your lower back, right?
As far as it slowing the bar down I’ve never experienced that.
If your gym allows it, put baby powder on your shins and thighs, this will reduce resistance.

[quote]Dre the Hatchet wrote:
I’d say, suck it up. Better your shins than your lower back, right?
As far as it slowing the bar down I’ve never experienced that.
If your gym allows it, put baby powder on your shins and thighs, this will reduce resistance.[/quote]

I’ll try the powder, thanks.

Should I try moving the bar out slightly? Or should the bar be over the middle of my feet?

If you were doing speed pulls I could see this slowing you down. But regular dead’s the bar hitting my shins doesn’t slow me down. It just lets me know I’m following my path and an indicator of my form.

Maybe sit back a little more while doing your deads? W/o a video it’s kinda hard to offer any good advice.

[quote]patrickk wrote:
If you were doing speed pulls I could see this slowing you down. But regular dead’s the bar hitting my shins doesn’t slow me down. It just lets me know I’m following my path and an indicator of my form.

Maybe sit back a little more while doing your deads? W/o a video it’s kinda hard to offer any good advice.[/quote]

I understand…was just curious if there was something obvious about my setup that I wasn’t seeing. I’ll try and get my butt down a little more, see if that helps.

How tall are you? I’ve found that the taller you are the higher your hips need to be at the start to get good leverage. A lot of people take a much too low starting position with the hips which means that you pretty much try to pull the bar through your shins. Now, you should scrape up your shins during a deadlift session, if you’re not a little bruised the next day you didn’t push yourself, but you shouldn’t be hitting your shins on the way up.

That said, I’m far from strong in the deadlift, I top out at 130kg for 8 sets of 3.

when you deadlift your shins get fucked up, deal w/ it.

I agree with sucking it up, but if all else fails, wear long athletic pants and shin guards underneath.

[quote]LiveFromThe781 wrote:
when you deadlift your shins get fucked up, deal w/ it.[/quote]

it does hurt, A LOT!!

EDIT: i think picture didn’t upload

[quote]tuchavito wrote:
LiveFromThe781 wrote:
when you deadlift your shins get fucked up, deal w/ it.

it does hurt, A LOT!![/quote]

Tell that to Olmypic Weight-Lifters.

Man, I feel left out. I have never come close to scrapping my shins doing deadlifts - bar too far out? Maybe I should work on my form to start scrapping my shins.

[quote]hawaiilifterMike wrote:
Man, I feel left out. I have never come close to scrapping my shins doing deadlifts - bar too far out? Maybe I should work on my form to start scrapping my shins.
[/quote]

depends how your stance is.

if you use a wide stance your shins will come up against the roughage of the bar.

i have scars straight up my shins from this. if i pull in shorts i also get marks on my VM.

I mainly pull conventional with slightly less than shoulder width stance. Also I always wear long sweats when doing all leg workouts.

It’s hard to say without a video, but I’m guessing that you are starting too low. Maybe try straightening your legs a little and sticking your butt out and higher.

Shouldn’t really be a big problem with the bar clearing the knee without scraping up your shins. It only happens to me when I’m not concentrating on consecutive lifts and start with the bar too close to my shins.

[quote]hawaiilifterMike wrote:
I mainly pull conventional with slightly less than shoulder width stance. Also I always wear long sweats when doing all leg workouts.
[/quote]

pull sumo with shorts sometime. your shins will bleed.