Rolling Your Deadlift

So I’ve been studying up on technique, reading articles and such, and decided to watch a few videos to see how the big guys do it.

After watching several, I started to notice something. Many, not all, would approach the bar and grip it while a little ways away from the shins. Then they would roll it towards them and as soon as it touched their shins, they would pull.

An example: - YouTube

Would doing this effectively lessen the “dead” aspect of the weight? By setting it in motion before the pull would not the momentum, however slow, make it eisier to break fom the floor?

Anybody try this or practice it? If so, does it actually make it easier? Or is this just a quirk these guys have developed?

The reason I roll the bar towards me is that it is easier to keep my feet planted and have the bar come to me rather than address the bar where it is. I think it does come down to personal preference, but I don’t believe it is actually making the lift easier by rolling the bar along the ground prior to the lift.

Also, after watching that video you linked, I’d like power lifters to admit that it isn’t just bodybuilding that has some weird quirks, but power lifters can be equally ridiculous in their own way.

[quote]slimjim wrote:
Also, after watching that video you linked, I’d like power lifters to admit that it isn’t just bodybuilding that has some weird quirks, but power lifters can be equally ridiculous in their own way.[/quote]

Exactamundo. The roll was the least of that cat’s prelift antics. It reminds me of the some of the pre-free throw rituals we’ve all seen.

[quote]simon-hecubus wrote:
slimjim wrote:
Also, after watching that video you linked, I’d like power lifters to admit that it isn’t just bodybuilding that has some weird quirks, but power lifters can be equally ridiculous in their own way.

Exactamundo. The roll was the least of that cat’s prelift antics. It reminds me of the some of the pre-free throw rituals we’ve all seen.[/quote]

Thanks for the replys, guys. I will agree he had a pretty hefty physc-up. And I’m not commenting one way or the other about his form. But it does seem this could be proven/disproven with an equation. However, i’m not THAT mathmatically inclined.

Any physics majors want to chime in?

Powerlifters have their quirks, I believe it’s partially just a technique thing and partially just habit.

Getting the bar close to the shins is important.

Off Topic: Those youtube comments kill me, There are people being completly full of shit (“I’m 14, I DL 500”), and people that seem to just blow off what the guy did in the video.

It might stretch or load the muscles prior to the lift giving a bit more of the elastic rebound effect. The rolling forward however does not make the weight any less heavy by means of physics.

It does actually make the weight easier to lift. Think baseball when batters swing their bats in circles before swinging at a pitch. Look up inertia.

[quote]EatSleepLift wrote:
It does actually make the weight easier to lift. Think baseball when batters swing their bats in circles before swinging at a pitch. Look up inertia. [/quote]

Yeah, this was kinda the notion I had. In motion tends to stay in motion. Pushing a heavy rolling bar up a hill would be much easier than starting from a stand still at the bottom.

Granted picking it up is a steep hill, but it is already moving.

It does NOT make the weight easier to lift. Perpendicular vectors (like horizontal rolling and vertical pulling) don’t have any effect on each other.

The thing baseball players do with the bat is a timing thing.

It’s just about getting the weight as close to your shins as possible. They go up as soon as it hits their shins, because the longer you sit in the down position, the more stretch energy you lose.

[quote]DTLV wrote:
It does NOT make the weight easier to lift. Perpendicular vectors (like horizontal rolling and vertical pulling) don’t have any effect on each other.[/quote]

Right. There is no advantage from a physics perspective.

If there is any advantage at all, it would have to be physiological like stretch reflex.

[quote]Ghost22 wrote:

Off Topic: Those youtube comments kill me, There are people being completly full of shit (“I’m 14, I DL 500”), and people that seem to just blow off what the guy did in the video. [/quote]

Exactly. Then they DON’T post any vids of them doing anything physical, because the 14 year old probably put an extra zero on the end to make themselves feel good lol.

i remember reading over a Dave Tate article where he talked about the whole keeping the bar close to your shins deal.

[quote]Dave Tate wrote:
Mistake #6: Keeping the shins too close to the bar

I’m not too sure where this started but I have a pretty good idea. Many times the taller, thinner lifters are the best pullers and they do start with the bar very close to their shins. But if you look at them from the sides they still have their shoulders behind the bar when they pull. This is just not possible to achieve with a thicker lifter.

If a thicker lifter with a large amount of body mass (be it muscle or fat) were to line the bar up with his shins, you’d see he would have an impossible time getting the shoulders behind the bar. Remember you need to pull the bar back toward you, not out and away from you. So what I believe happens is many lifters look to those who have great deadlifts to see how they pull, then try to do the same themselves. What they need to do is look to those who are built the same way they are and have great deadlifts and follow their lead.[/quote]

taken from this article:
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459744

I don’t know if anyone saw it, but there is a DieselWeasel video in that link as well. It’s the fourth or fifth video on the right side.

Could the roll have something to do with lat activation?

[quote]AgentOrange wrote:
DTLV wrote:
It does NOT make the weight easier to lift. Perpendicular vectors (like horizontal rolling and vertical pulling) don’t have any effect on each other.

Right. There is no advantage from a physics perspective.

If there is any advantage at all, it would have to be physiological like stretch reflex.[/quote]

Thanks, guys. I think this is the best perspective. I definitely agree there is a physiological aspect to it.

[quote]tmoney1 wrote:
I don’t know if anyone saw it, but there is a DieselWeasel video in that link as well. It’s the fourth or fifth video on the right side.

Dieselweasel 480x1: How not to deadlift (Part II) - YouTube [/quote]

Yeah, I watched that, too. Definitely an appropriate title for the video, too. His “hammer curls” were sweet as well.

I roll before I pull and I don’t know why. I really don’t care either just as long as a complete the lift.

Rolling the bar towards you gets you back on your heels to start the lift.