# Deadlift progression when forms breaks down

**URL:** <https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/deadlift-progression-when-forms-breaks-down/8188>\
**Category:** Training Q&A \[Moderated\]\
**Created:** [February 19, 2020, 8:53pm UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/deadlift-progression-when-forms-breaks-down/8188 "2020-02-19T20:53:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![thrawny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@thrawny](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/thrawny)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2020, 8:53pm UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/deadlift-progression-when-forms-breaks-down/8188/1 "2020-02-19T20:53:48Z")

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Currently when I deadlift heavy my form breaks down and I get lower back rounding as soon as the bar leaves the floor, no matter if I’m in a good starting position or not. Other then that the lift feels ok to me and moves fine in terms of bar speed. However, what tends to happen is I get some back pain in the following days. This has happened over and over for months so I have now concluded it’s not me adapting to an increased load or anything like that. If I didn’t have any pain I would probably just keep going. But now I’ve gotten a bit scared of hurting myself.

So the question is, how to progress from this point on? I know I can decrease weights to where the form is good and go from there. But then RPEs and all that go out the door. Not possible to do a 1@8 or something like that. I could pick a weight where I can do a single with good form, but it wont be a 1@8.

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**Author:** ![Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/forum.barbellmedicine.com/jordan_feigenbaum/32/1315_2.png) [@Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/Jordan_Feigenbaum)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2020, 4:13pm UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/deadlift-progression-when-forms-breaks-down/8188/2 "2020-02-20T16:13:29Z")

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Got a video of your deadlift so that I can see what you mean?

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**Author:** ![thrawny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@thrawny](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/thrawny)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2020, 8:45pm UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/deadlift-progression-when-forms-breaks-down/8188/3 "2020-02-20T20:45:44Z")

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Yepp, here is one.

[![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/uploads/barbellmedicine/original/2X/0/0263f9ab9d9ce53931080f5cbe1b05ce369df1cb.jpeg "deadlift") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W446jOmOUlI)

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**Author:** ![Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/forum.barbellmedicine.com/jordan_feigenbaum/32/1315_2.png) [@Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/Jordan_Feigenbaum)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 5:29pm UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/deadlift-progression-when-forms-breaks-down/8188/4 "2020-02-21T17:29:36Z")

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I was hoping to see a multi-rep set, however I can see that the bar is too far forward and your hips are too low- which forces your back to round in order to get your shoulders in front of the barbell.

That being said, I don’t think this is causing any back pain per se’ outside of load management- which would need to be evaluated over the previous month.

If it were me, I’d raise your hips by getting closer to the bar, hold your back a bit tighter and squeeze the bar off the floor vs yanking it. I don’t know that I’d be doing a bunch of singles while working on this, however, unless you had a meet coming up.