6’3 with long legs and shorter top half, avg ish arms.
When I conventional DL I feel like I’m damn near doing a stiff leg. When I lower my ass down, my back will round much more and my knees and shins get in the way
Has anybody else come across this problem
Not nearly as tall as you, but also long limbed with a short torso. My pull also pretty much look like straight legged pulls.
Keep braced and you’ll probably be fine.
Some people just have shitty leverages for deadlifting, I’m in the same situation although I’m 6 inches shorter than you. Rounding is dangerous for the majority of people and putting your knees too far over the bar just doesn’t work, unless you can manage with a near SLDL you might be better off pulling sumo. Look up Andy Bolton’s deadlift instructional videos, the way he pulls is almost an SLDL.
@T3hPwnisher - at least you don’t have short arms, when I lock out the bar is right at my crotch.
It’s a tradeoff. Pressing sucks, but deadlifting has never been hard.
How close of a stance do you use? Some people have trouble getting their back flat with narrow stance. You may need to open you grip and your stance to pull conventional. Then with the wider stance open your knees up. these things have helped me be a flat back puller.
Maybe try pulling sumo. If you like your back positioning when pulling sumo, the advice above will probably work for you (meaning you need to open your hips to get a flat back).
Turn your toes out a bit.
When you sit back before pulling, your knees push out against your arms instead of pushing forward into the bar.
This is the way I deadlift with your body shape to be able to still use leg drive and not round upper back TOO much, and allows me to start closer to the bar.
One downside is you have to widen your grip, or risk a bicep tear because when your knees push into your arms it makes your arms bend. With mixed grip that’s bad for the bicep…
I’m not an expert but this is how a coach taught me to fix my round back deadlift.
My deadlift is still far from perfect, but if it helps - heres a recent video when I was trying hook grip, from the front you can see my knees going out: Daniel Watson on Instagram: "Hook grip Deadlift practice with singles before top set 207.5kg. Hurts not too bad. @jailhousestrong @tingalingading_fitness #gymlife #jailhousestrong #joshstrengthmethod #strength #gym #gains #muscle #bodybuilding #strongman #powerlifting #fitness #hookgrip #deadlift"
If you see my other deadlifts you can see from different perspective
I’m in the same boat and the precedent advices are good. On conventional now I’m only focusing on my back to keep it flat and I have widened my stance. I’m switching to sumo as it is waaaaay easier to keep it flat.
I have a large pelvis, longish retroverted femurs, a short spine, and short arms. I had trouble setting up conventional until I widened my stance and turned my toes out. My body can now sink between my thighs and my hips no longer jam up. Conventional is now comfortable enough, I have almost abandoned sumo.
My back in the starting position seems more horizontal, than most other lifters I notice and legs quite a bit straighter. My pull had plateaued for two years trying to get a straighter upper back, lower hips and more upright position. I just couldn’t get the core stabilization from that starting position. The game changer for me, was not worrying about upper back rounding so much and initiating the pull starting with the upper back and creating tension from the top down and when I’ve finally got tension in the hams, I’ll kind of fall back into it or sit down on my heels, until the bar sort of comes up on it’s own. Dan greens article “Big on the basics: Deadlift guide” explains it well.
Thanks guys, I’ve been having to tamper with my form to implement some of what has been suggested here. I think it’ll take time to try and get comfortable again with a new stance/grip/ etc.