Having Trouble Deadlifting with a Neutral Spine

Ok so my max deadlift is about 190kg, but i can’t seem to get into a proper position, my back rounds, and everything goes to shit on heavier weights. Even in my warmups I have a hard time straightening my back.

Have any of you guys had previous experiences with this, or do you have any solutions to this issue?

Can you get video of the lift?

I don’t have a video of the specific lift, but here is one of what usually happens on my heavier sets.

I am glad you posted video, as all of my advice was going to be for conventional pulls. That said, your back looks fine there.

Really? I was under the impression that this was really poor technique, I have always struggled with the deadlift.

I have no idea on technique for sumo, but I don’t see anything alarming about your back during that pull. Are you experiencing pain?

Edit: I mean, falling forward and dropping the weight probably isn’t good, haha.

Nope, no pain. What would you consider alarming then?

Also, I think you might be onto something about the not falling forward thing ^^

I’m curious. What gave you this impression in the first place?

Deadlifting just feels really difficult compared to squatting for me, and you always see people cringing about the least bit of back rounding on the internet. Also looking at other people lifting sumo it just looks so smooth and pretty compared to me.

Well you should always strive to improve your pulls, but I agree with Th3Pwnisher. No cause for alarm. I’ve never pulled sumo but your back looked pretty flat to me. I certainly wouldn’t call it “going to shit”, unless we’re talking about dropping the bar and falling forward, which I don’t think we are.

If your pulls feel good I wouldn’t place too much weight on the opinions of cringing internet people.

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Alright, thanks a lot!

Keep in mind that about 90% of the people on the Internet have either failed to or are in the process of failing to get big and strong. Listening to their advice is a recipe for failure. Pick some established voices, focus on them, drown out the rest.

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Just to expand a little on that topic T3Pwnisher brings up, I strongly believe T-nation, especially this powerlifting forum, to have an outstanding quality advice to crap advice ratio while still getting a decent amount of traffic.

That’s not to say other sites don’t have quality posters and posts. But for example, I’ve visited bb.com and even registered as a member and there’s some really good posters there. But there’s a ton of garbage to sift through too.

Even when I google for ideas and advice, the ones from t-nation seem to often be some of the best.

Looks fine to me. That’s not bad rounding, that’s close to max effort rounding.

On a separate note, if you’re finding balance a bit off try gripping the floor with your toes (kind of like a baby clenches their toes) as you push the sides of your feet out. I find that helps.

I usually don’t have balance issues, but I will try this out, thanks

Almost impossible to tell what’s exactly going on from watching a video because I would need to see multiple angles to see whats really happening. It looks like your pulling off your toes instead of your heels which is why you fell forward on the second rep. This could be due to a weak posterior chain, wrong stance (width, turnout, etc.) or your method of setup.

Find the best local lifter you can and work with him/her. I had the good fortune of meeting Steve Scialpi at a meet and then ended up training at his gym for a year. He taught me to take in all my air at the top and arch my back then squat down to the bar without looking at it while feeling for the bar with the fingers. Once the grip is set pull. This needs to be done in one smooth quick motion. Once it is mastered, you can “dip grip and rip”.

You might want to try angling your feet in some. Use your lats to pull the bar in hard and squeeze your glutes like your trying to crack a walnut at lockout to make your hips meet the bar.

I’m guessing your trying to use your quads and low back too much so you get pitched forward. It’s hard to tell, so take this with a grain of salt.

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Alright, appreciate the feedback.