DL form check / thoracic rounding?

Redoing wk 1 beginner Rx, friend told me to either “arch lower back more” or “arch neck more” to get rid of thoracic rounding but idk if I can do those things and complete this lift safely.

What does everyone think of my form? I forgot to wear my shoes (adidas sambas, need to look into more suitable shoes), and I forgot to count to 7 reps. Coming up off a Very long layover from barbell lifting lol and wasn’t that good to begin with, trying to do it right this time.

Your back looks pretty flat to me - not sure where you’re getting the idea that your thoracic spine is rounding any significant amount. I wouldn’t intentionally try to arch your back or neck more.

Your form looks fairly solid, but this doesn’t really seem like that challenging of a load for you. The only thing that really stood out to me is that you kind of stiff leg these - some reps more than others. You could stand to get your quads involved a little more. Get your chest up (think about puffing it out and showing it to the wall in front of you) and drop your hips back and your knees forward a tiny bit more than you currently are. Back when I was first learning the deadlift, I liked to think about lining up the front of my knees flush with the front of my arms while gripping the bar to ensure I didn’t have them too far forward nor back - your hip height and everything else usually just tends to fall into place after that. Then just brace hard and push the floor away.

I wouldn’t worry too much about shoes or lack thereof when you’re just training at home…Thor pulled 501 kg barefoot after all haha. The Sambas you say you usually wear are perfectly suitable deadlift shoes. I’m pretty sure Austin still pulls in Sambas.

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THanks very much for the advice Nate! Below is today’s video:

Let me know if that looks better. I tried moving the knees a bit forward, and also focused on breathing only at the end of the rep. This made me a bit winded at the end of the whole set, but I think I’ll get used to it. I tried to raise the chest up and “pull the weight out of the bar” one after the other during the setup, and it may thereby look like I’m yanking the weight off the ground, but that’s really just supposed to be the point where I squeeze everything.

Those look pretty good for the most part. You overcorrect in setting your knees forward/dropping your hips on some of the reps (evident by your hips rising before the weight leaves the ground) but I’m sure you’ll find a good balance the more you practice. Just keep chipping away.

It’s not really necessary to hold your breath for the entire eccentric and concentric if you find that uncomfortable. You’re perfectly fine to exhale at the top and take another bracing breath before the eccentric if you’re going to set the bar down slow and controlled like that.