Deadlifting Advice

According to my doctor I had a minor strain in my back after I did 405x5x5 (sumo), so I’m trying to clean up my form to avoid doing so again.

I warmed up with 225x5, 315x5 and proceeded to the following:

Set 1 (Conventional): 405x2 - YouTube
Set 2 (Conventional): 405x1 - YouTube
Set 3 (Sumo): 405x1 - YouTube

I was trying to really focus on leaning back into it, but you can see it still looks like I’m drifting forward over the bar. Any advice on my weaknesses (and how to fix them) would be appreciated.

your form looks good to me.

difference is that when youre pulling 1 or 2 times with a weight you can pull without much difficulty your form will be fine. but you start trying to do 5x5 of that weight and start forcing em out, then yeah your form is gonna slip n you might get injured.

more often than not injury comes out of ego and just wanting to go 10 pounds heavier or that extra rep you really arent sure about but want to try for anyway. like i said, it doesnt happen when you lift how you demonstrated in those vids.

I think you need to push your hips back more. It’s easy to see on your negative. It looks like you are just squatting the weight down, and letting the bar drift over your knees. You should push your hips back, that will move the knees out of the way, then when the bar is below your knees you can bend them to finish the lift.

Also notice your starting position. Your knees are in front of the bar. You start the lift and your hips move up first. That should be about your hip starting point. That gets the knees where they should be. It’s easiest to see in your second video.

and eat something.

Set 1: The first rep is perfect. But when you lower the bar, your first movement should be pushing the hips back, not bending at the knees. It should be an exact reversal of the concentric portion of the lift. Since you lowered the bar without pushing your hips back, you were in a poor position to begin rep 2.

Set 2: Your setup was poor. The hips aren’t pushed back enough and your torso is too vertical. This results in you trying to squat the weight up.

Set 3: Same as set 2. Your hips aren’t back far enough.

Try to duplicate the form for set 1, rep 1 on every rep of every set. I also think it would be a good idea to work up to your working sets a little more slowly. 135, 185, 225, 275, 315, 365. Treat the lighter weights like they’re heavy. Set up and pull every set like it’s a 1RM no matter what’s on the bar. You can only perfect your technique if you practice perfect technique.

[quote]dez6485 wrote:
and eat something.[/quote]

I eat 5k kcals per day, but thanks for trolling.

[quote]Steel Nation wrote:
Set 1: The first rep is perfect. But when you lower the bar, your first movement should be pushing the hips back, not bending at the knees. It should be an exact reversal of the concentric portion of the lift. Since you lowered the bar without pushing your hips back, you were in a poor position to begin rep 2.

Set 2: Your setup was poor. The hips aren’t pushed back enough and your torso is too vertical. This results in you trying to squat the weight up.

Set 3: Same as set 2. Your hips aren’t back far enough.

Try to duplicate the form for set 1, rep 1 on every rep of every set. I also think it would be a good idea to work up to your working sets a little more slowly. 135, 185, 225, 275, 315, 365. Treat the lighter weights like they’re heavy.

Set up and pull every set like it’s a 1RM no matter what’s on the bar. You can only perfect your technique if you practice perfect technique.[/quote]

Alright, thanks a lot.

It’s hard to tell from that angle, but it looks like you’re not quite locking out.

[quote]wfifer wrote:
It’s hard to tell from that angle, but it looks like you’re not quite locking out. [/quote]

I could have pulled it further to prove lockout, but I know for certain locking out is not a problem. Anything I can get off the ground I can lock out.

I guess you could say “push the hips back more”, but there are many lifters who do fine with this.

You do seem to lower the weight awkwardly. Not pushing the hips back here can put a lot of compression on the discs.

Are you tightening up your abs before moving the bar?

[quote]danjo228 wrote]

Are you tightening up your abs before moving the bar?[/quote]

Yes

Pushing your form will help you make some hard lifts. However- here is a cold, hard fact that remains- you WILL get hurt a little bit from time to time.

Me and just about every other hardcore lifter I know has done somethign at some point that resulted in intense discomfort lasting for weeks or months. I consider myself lucky in that I have never had a bad injury and the longest I have been really effected by an strain was about a month. I think you can mitigate this a good bit by listening to your body, staying hydrated, proper nutririon, rest- but injury is part of the game.

after reading a DL article on eliteFTS recently i was looking at videos of the best deadlifters in the world, something to take from them and try is they all seem to almost “roll” back on thieir heels just before the pull starts. it might help you get the proper set up and start the bar moving. try to find the vids. visuals of the greats always help…

Overall it seems like your moving that weight pretty effortlessly, good job. I do agree w/ Steel Nation tho, work on the setup and getting your hips/knees in the right pos.

[quote]wfifer wrote:
It’s hard to tell from that angle, but it looks like you’re not quite locking out. [/quote]

Ditto. And usually not quite locking out could signify weak glutes, or just not knowing how to use them. It’s really noticeable in the sumo DL. Don’t know if that would get a white light on that one.

Squeeze your ass.

TNT

ive been teaching my little brother how to deadlift lately. hes got a big butt for his body, and at the top, because of his butt, it didnt look like he was locked out completely, even though he technically was locked out.

i told him to focus on squeezing his butt cheeks together at the top, fixed the problem.

and ive been here for years, hardly trolling.

kind of raping the corpse but you need your hips higher (assuming your not training for olympic lifting), especially on the second lift. You are set up like you about to do a clean pull on the second rep. On the second rep you arch isnt as tight as the first one either - that will help with your strain problem.

I personally like to wear a belt on basically all heavy work sets, which helps keep the arch. Also looking up like you do can stress the back, i would try to keep a neutral head alignment (looking 5-10 feet in front of you on the ground) ala Rippetoe.

[quote]dez6485 wrote:

and ive been here for years, hardly trolling.[/quote]

Ah yeah, everybody that doesn’t know me always tells me that though… until they watch me eat. All I do all day is eat.

your form seems really good in that clip, you shouldnt get injured lifting like that

and whats with the eat comment, this is the strength section, not the trolling section like the rest of the site

some people have to stay at lighter weights for sports or many other reasons, lets not start the trolling here too