Please Help Me Stop Butchering the Deadlift

hello T-Nation… i got a serious problem here that i have recently been made aware of. i sat down and videoed myself from the side the other day just for curiosity and it was a utter disaster. the video included is after a little work trying to fix it. b4 the hips were shooting up like the space shuttle. they are still shooting up but not like they was… im still trying to figure out what im doing wrong that makes them shoot up like this. i have played around with distance from the bar. i have tried wider and narrow stances and sure as the sun rises so do my hips and all the weight ends up on the lower back?

i am also trying to get my back a little flatter but im thinking my hamstrings are tight on that one and will need some work… and i know that my pants are not the ideal lifting apparel, they are what i have unless i want to lift in my underwear. im not sure the neighbors want to see that…

It doesn’t look so bad that I’d choose to use the word butchering lel.

The issues probably in how you set up. Ur hips shoot up because that’s your body’s stronger position and because you are setting up sub optimally your body defaults to this position ASAP when you start and only then does the bar get driven off the floor.

Watch the videos at the bottom of my post and apply all the things and you’ll be alright.

Unlikely but might be that your quads are weak also but unless you never train quads this probably isn’t the case.

Have a watch of these:

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You’re starting with your hips too low, when they get to their proper position your shoulders end up waaaay infront of the bar giving you a terrible starting position.

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thank you khangles, this is the info i needed. i don’t think my quads are weak, as i squat religiously and am stronger with a shoulder width stance which uses more quad. but i was wondering about just starting with the hips higher as that seems to be where they wanted to be anyway…

i think that is going to be the problem right there, setting up with hips too low. i went over one of my videos where i was doing 350lbs for 8 reps in slow motion and frame by frame and every time the bar breaks the ground the upper leg is at about a 45* angle to the ground just about without exception… im going to just set up with the upper legs at a 45* to the floor and see what that does…

You are making the classic mistake - you start pulling his back first. First you have to work with your legs. The deadlift is right to start from the deep squat, you don’t forget it.

I’m not good with advice but I love your gym lol

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lol, Spock81… it is what i got… i would put the weights in the house, but i figure id go through the floor.

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Have you ever seen mitchelltom on YouTube? Reminds me a lot of your videos. Loving it man. Used to train outside myself until I moved and miss it everyday.

With your deadlift, it looks like you start really close to the bar to start, causing you to lose your natural arch when you go to grab the bar. Your hips rise too fast because they have no where else to go but up due to positioning. You don’t look weak anywhere, your setup just looks off. Start the bar about mid foot and see what happens from there. I’d be interested to see the set of 8 you spoke about earlier as well if you wouldn’t mind

ok… this is my deadlift form after i got the hips up a bit and got the bar over mid foot. as you can see the hips are no longer shooting up like they was and im staying a lot tighter and not trying to shift forward… posterior chain feels a heck of a lot tighter in this position than it did. - YouTube

still not perfect, but im getting there.

and training outside is great, until it is 20F outside, or until it is 95F with 80% humidity… but those are not as bad as your eye sockets filling up with water as nature waterboards you during the bench press… im hard headed and train no matter what… lol.

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i don’t have the 8 rep video anymore. here is a 5 rep set 2 days back with 340lbs that was mighty hideous. - YouTube

If it looks better and feels better than that’s some good technique gains.

Keeping working at it:

Practice bracing and getting tight in the new starting position

Keep the bar close to yourself and don’t let it get away in front of you almost keeping the bar in contact thru the entire lift. Lots of ways to cue this. Some people like to think about engaging their lats and other cues to keep the bar close while others are successful with starting the bar closer to the shins, falling/leaning back to shift their centre of gravity or pulling the bar up and back etc.

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Looks pretty damn solid.

Makes me think I look like a pussy in my gym. With shiny weights, chalk, and random wimmenfolk around. No dirt, vintage dodge pickups, fatigues.

Must change things.

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i lift in the yard because there is something about the concrete floor in gyms and garages that acts as a diamagnetic barrier to the gravitational pull of the planet and this makes the weights lighter. to get full weight there cannot be anything between the weights and the ground.

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That’s true.

Do you squat outside too?

i do everything outside… some people call it hardcore. i call it being to dang broke to afford a building to put my stuff in…

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I can relate to that! When I saw your deadlift vid I thought… Look! Somebody else has weights almost as mixed as mine! Still gets the job done! I lift in tin and plastic shed that I built originally to be a greenhouse. Built mine out recycled materials and has a dirt floor so the weights still have to diamagnetic connection with the earth… lol Pretty sure I couldn’t handle the waterboarding bench press though :smirk:

i got all my weights from local scrap dealer. bought everything at $0.22 per pound so i don’t got much in them. i got 800lbs worth of weights and 3 bars for about 200$. i don’t care if they match. all they got to be is heavy…

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Damn good price!

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