After a random personal trainer stopped what he was doing to inform me about the severe rounding occuring in my back I decided to stop deadlifting blind and begin to record my sets. This is what I discovered:
275 x 2, 350 x 5
The first 350 rep seems somewhat passable but it all falls apart after that.
The 275 set was done after I witnessed my 350 issues in an attempt put maximal effort into my setup but I still seem to be getting some low back roundedness rather than the appropriate hinging at the hips.
Angles are a little garbage, but I waited until I was pretty deep into my warm up before I remembered to start recording, will do a better job with the updates
The first thing I noticed with the 275 was that you are dropping your hips and it pushes the bar away from you. I can’t tell exactly since the plates cover your feet, but it looks like the bar starts midfoot and ends up almost over your toes before you pull. I think your back looks fine with 275 though.
Same thing with 350. I can see the bar moving away from you before you pull. You seem to drop your hips in an attempt to get your back straight, and I gander that’s putting the bar over your toes, making it tough to keep your back neutral. I’d recommend trying to follow the Starting Strength model for how to deadlift and see how that works out. You wanna lift your chest and set your back without dropping the hips. Alan Thrall’s got some good vids on it.
Alan’s videos on the deadlift are great. Everyone should watch those.
I would consider any rounding of the back (outside of a meet) as a failed attempt. You have to be able to get the reps technically correct before adding more weight on the bar. This is more important for the deadlift than any other lift due to the injury concerns. That is coming from someone that has had a couple herniated discs. Not fun.
The angle of this video makes it difficult to see everything. Bar may not be over midfoot for the first rep, and back looks a little bit flexed but hard to see exactly with plates in the way. Other than squeezing the chest up before the pull I’ve heard Austin mention trying to point the elbow towards your pockets. This helps me get my back a little tighter. Watch the way you return the bar to the floor. Looks like the bar is getting away from you as you go past your knees, which puts the bar forward of midfoot. You can follow the 5 steps for the deadlift perfectly, but the subsequent reps will be out of position if you’re not lowering the bar in a vertical path over midfoot. Andy Baker posted a deadlift mistake video on SS not that long ago and he covered this in his video.
Dropped the weight to 315 and went for a 2x5. (More volume == more opportunity to perfect form? Maybe? That’s my hypothosis anyways.)
Obsessed about keeping the bar over midfoot. Was pretty happy with how I reacted to this mindset.
I think I can possibly get my chest out a bit tighter and looking at the “elbows towards pockets” cue next session.
Dat upgraded production quality doe. I’ll try to find a different spot in the gym or grab one of those plyo boxes to use as a tripod next week in my search for a better angle.
I struggle with deadlifts too. I don’t know, it’s my weakest lift and lags way behind all others.
What have you guys done to boost it also in terms of programming?
I’ve honestly just been performing a 1x5 and adding 5 pounds every week, though that seems to have gotten me into some interesting territory in regards to form breakdown. Since my coach is youtube I decided a reasonable response is to start recording my lifts. I’ve only been doing it the last couple of weeks but I find it helps you see whats going and greatly assists in editing form issues in near real time by checking the recordings between sets, with the added benefit of being able to get some sick feedback from places like this.
It is a pain in the butt but I record all my work sets on each exercise and then watch them both before the next set as well as later for review. I have a coach who has been training for decades and she still videos all her press and Deadlift sets. If you do this it will help you see those subtle issues unique to you as well as give you am eye for helping others.
