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Barbell Deadlift form check please

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WhatWouldHulkDo

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DL has been hurting my lower back lately, so I'm hoping I'm doing something wrong that will explain it. I'm doing PTTP 5 days a week... but will stop if it continues to feel like it does now.



Sorry for the poor quality, I've got a pretty rudimentary video setup. And this is the first video I've ever posted anywhere.

Any advice is appreciated.
 
The angle of the video is not optimal for a proper analysis. We can't see your feet and one site of the barbell at the beginning of the pull.
Besides that I just tell you what I think.
- Lower back looks good from that angle
- Hips are way too low at the starting position
- Too much bending at the knee
Because of this the knees are too far out to the front and you have to pull around them a bit. That's even more prominent on the descent. Look how far the bar moves out to the front during the descent. This creates a huge lever arm at the lower back and if I had to guess I'd say that is the cause of your recent lower back problems.
The bar should move in a straight line - on the way up AND down!

Have a look at those two vids. They helped everyone I know (inlcuding myself) to fix their DL problems:

 
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The only thing I'd add to that video is (1) pushing into the ground with your toes and (2) Steve's advice to lean back prior to lift so that if you weren't holding onto the barbell you'd fall backwards. They made a big difference to me
 
More pressure in your belly is often the solution to less than ideal stiffness in lower back in the deadlift.

But your knees are pretty far forward - I would work on your hip and hamstring mobility. I would love to see you do a by-the-book PTTP deadlift - get tight while standing at the bar, and move under control as you lower, with an eye towards keeping your shins vertical. Do it, of course, with a lighter weight, but I'd like to see that video. While I don't think everyone should start their deadlift with vertical shins, I think everyone should be able to start a deadlift that way with a sub-maximal weight. And if you could arrange it, I'd love to see a shorter ROM deadlift, e.g., put the bar up on boxes so that you don't have to get as far bent over to reach the bar.

-S-
 
As gently as I can say this: you've got to completely re-learn how to deadlift. Kettlebelephant has given you two great resources. The 5-Step system is a "no-fail" approach to a safe, anatomically correct, repeatable, efficient pull from the floor.

To clarify what is happening in your deadlift: you're setting up with the bar way out over your toes. With any appreciable weight on it, the bar needs to be over the balance point which is the middle of your foot. Not the middle of the part of your foot that you can see - the instep - the middle of the full length of your foot. It's going to put the bar about over the knot in your shoelaces. In your setup, with the bar far forward of this point, you've created a very long, very inefficient moment arm between the bar and your hip. I'm not one to assign causes for pain, so I'll just say that a longer moment arm against your hip requires much more strength to keep that segment - your back - straight. So, with the bar far ahead of where it needs to be, your shins are traveling a very long way to the bar, which causes your hips to be very low. Then you spend the actual pull trying to get the bar around your knees. If you straightened your knees to get them out of the way, your hips would rise, your torso would go more horizontal taking the bar off your shins and you'd be in a mess. So your body solves this problem by making you move the bar around your knees.

Set up as described in the video linked by KB Pachyderm above. Follow each setup step individually - don't try to combine them. It'll feel like you're crowding the bar. Ignore that. Great work, keep it up with increased safety going forward.
 
I tried out @Kettlebelephant advice to start the hips higher and way less knee bend this morning, and watched those two videos, tried to use all the cues. It does seem to have helped, not feeling nearly as bad. I need to heal up the damage I've done to myself over the last week or whatever, though, so I'll spend some time with lighter weight working the technique.

@Steve Freides , hip/hamstring mobility is absolutely a problem for me, always has been... I'm sure that's made my form devolve. I'm trying to do Flexible Steel stuff a few times a week, and daily trifecta... just slow going. If you've got other mobility stuff you like better, I'd love to hear.

Thanks much to all, this has been really helpful already.
 
As gently as I can say this: you've got to completely re-learn how to deadlift.

Ha ha... full disclosure, I'm not re-learning, I'm just learning, period. I am a definite newbie at this lift, and this is the first time I've ever asked somebody to check my form (mistake #1).
 
The next evolution:



I think the upward path is better, but it seems like my knees are still getting in the way coming down... need to break at the hips probably, in order to keep the shins more vertical. Back is not killing me, so that's a good sign... but might just be the reduction in weight.

Will rewatch the cue videos again, I know I'm missing some stuff.

As before, any pointers are much appreciated.
 
I think the upward path is better, but it seems like my knees are still getting in the way coming down... need to break at the hips probably, in order to keep the shins more vertical.

Improved! I think you are correct, there -- the knees coming forward in the descent puts the bar too far forward of mid-foot on each subsequent rep, which puts you with your hips a bit too low at the start of each pull. The same as your first video, but not as bad. Just keep improving in that direction. So ideally, fix the descent issue so the bar comes down at mid-foot. But as a back-up plan, before each pull take a couple of seconds to reset your feet or the bar to where the bar is mid-foot each rep, shins to the bar, your hips will be a little higher than they are there, get tight and squeeze the chest up pulling the slack out of your arms, the bar, etc., then stand.

You might also want to experiment with foot position. I would suggest bringing the feet, or at least heels, an inch or so closer together.

Your lockout looks effortless and perfect!
 
Your grip is deeper into your hand with your right than with your left - I'd try to make them both the same.

-S-
 
"Your set up is your first rep." - Doc Hartle

A ton of great advice above but I would go back to the start and work from there. If you notice your first action is a "shallow" hip hinge then your reach for the bar and look down. This disengages your shoulders/lats and flexes your spine. Both of these actions put more strain on your lower back but also stop your from using your hips to your full potential which keeps weight off the bar. You do a great job of trying to reengage and get back to neutral/strong but if you look closely your LB doesn't quite get back to its strongest position before you start your lift.

I would go back to working your hinge with a dowel rod/stick on your back so you can pattern a good bottom position, adjust your stance to allow a little turn out like Brett recommended (this should let you get into your hips more) and focus on coming down to the bar with a neutral spine then adding your tension on top of that.

If you are finding that your have some mobility restrictions (who doesn't), you can also place the bar on top of the other set of bumpers you have from first video to elevate it to a safer position (as high as you need to in order to get to a point where you can reach the bar without flexing at spine) while you focus on increasing your ROM and patterning a more authentic hinge position with lighter loads. This will let you continue to DL in a safer position and allow you to keep your weight over your mid foot/heel since your not sacrificing your LB to reach the bar.

With that said, if your back continues to hurt you should take a break from the barbell and focus on patterning your hinge and I can guarantee you when you come back to the barbell moving better you will smash through your previous personal best.

Good luck and hope this helps!
 
@Brett Jones and @Ricardo Garcia , thank you much for the pointers. Haven't even really thought about my foot/hip angle, but I've certainly noticed a need to turn outward to get a deep squat - will have to evaluate here.

I'm at a point where I'm going to stay off the bar for a week to heal up. Will go back to square 1 when I come back.

Has been a humbling experience... but that's how we learn, I guess.
 
Thanks for sharing those videos @Kettlebelephant. I've just got myself a barbell recently and with one thing and another had decided today was when I was going to set my PB. It came out at 300lb which felt a lot easier (mechanically, but not effort wise) than some of my early training sessions. Those cues are great.
 
Checking back after a couple of months:



Making progress, I think - doesn't seem like my knees are in the way, and haven't been having back pain.

I have tried letting my feet open up a bit more, though I'm not sure that shows in the videos. It does feel more comfortable. I notice my rock back seems to get lazier at the end - the 4th and 5th reps here don't look right. Probably need to slow down and focus harder as I get tired.

As always, any comments much appreciated.
 
Looks pretty good to me. Your back could be tighter on the first rep. It would be interesting if you could pressurize more before you lift off. Overall, your back is a bit more round than I think is probably ideal for you.

-S-
 
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