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Barbell Deadlift form check

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damogari

damogari

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Hello, I have been working on deadlift for some time now, but only recently I started focusing on my technique. I use 5 step deadlift setup by Mark Rippetoe, but I am open for other setup suggestions. After watching video I can tell that I need to work on my head position - I am looking too high and my neck is too extended

Can you check my technique and tell me what else I can improve?

Thank you

 
@damogari, it's hard to say because of your clothing, but it looks like your lumbar is a little rounded at the start and then in extension at the finish. Neither of those things would be my first choice, and moving between them is also not desirable.

Consider trying the StrongFirst cue: Wedge yourself under the bar.

-S-
 
@damogari You and I are about the same bodytype. Have you ever tried the half-sumo DL (as I call it). It's wider than a conventional, but not super wide like a sumo.
As @Steve Freides noticed, your lumbar seems to round at the bottom, especially in the last two reps. Going wider stance completely eliminated that issue for me.

That's the kind of DL I'm referring to:
sfl-strongfirst-barbell-martial-arts-02.jpg
 
Kettlebelephant said:
Further explanation would be nice. I can imagine that for squats or bench press, where the body is placed under the bar, but not for deadlifts.
Click to expand...
The image is the same - imagine straightening your body by wedging yourself between the bar and the floor. You are trying to get your hips under the bar.

Perhaps others who've been at our barbell course or cert would like to expand on this.

-S-
 
Fix the neck to a more neutral position.

As far as setup, it looks like the bar starts too far away from you. The bar needs to stay over mid-foot from start to finish. Usually fixing the setup on the deadlift will cure a lot of issues for most people.

It looks like you need to bring your hips through quicker. Once you hit right around knee level, that's when you need to really squeeze your glutes and drive those hips to meet the bar. This will help keep the bar over your mid-foot as you approach lockout and it won't drift forward as much.

This is personal preference but I like to get everything tight and braced before I ever put my hands on the bar. That way I spend less time hunched over the bar and I don't leak any of my tightness and I'm not wasting any extra energy. For me it's brace, hands on bar, "wedge" and go.

I know there's a lot of debate about belt or no belt but to feel proper bracing, I would add a belt once you hit your main work sets. If you want to get stronger without a belt then that is totally fine but I've always noticed when my strength went up while wearing a belt so did my belt-less work.
 
Kettlebelephant said:
Yeah :) I specifically searched for "SFL deadlift" to make sure the form I'm using and suggesting is SF approved. The guy on the right is Tommy Blom, right?
Click to expand...

Yes, Tommy Blom, Master SFG, btw. one of the highest ranking Krav Maga instructors, and overall great guy.
 
You are getting in front of the bar and it is drifting away from you. Push the hips back more, try a lower hip start position, and stay over or slightly behind the bar. This will help use your leverearge, keep the bar very close to you or slightly in contact, and maintain balance. You are being pulled forward a bit.

In Olympic Lifts you want to stay over the bar (cover the bar) as long as possible and actively pull the weight back into you, but in a Deadlift you want to be inline or slightly behind the bar. I struggled with this a bit when I first started Deadlifting.

As @Steve Freides said focus driveing the hips through. @Anna C posted a cue that really worked for me, referring to the swing, "Generate from the hinge". It really helped my wedging action, and power off the floor and out of the back swing. Something about that cue worked for me and made my swings instantly more powerful.

The Windmill is a perfect example of this. Leading with the hips, as opposed to the chest or head, physically or mentally, makes a huge difference.

It's funny how the right cue, for you, an connect some sort of link in your mind and body.
 
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damogari said:
I use 5 step deadlift setup by Mark Rippetoe, but I am open for other setup suggestions.
Click to expand...
I recommend you review it because you don't seem to be doing it completely. If you're re setting your grip and moving the bar around while in the hole, you should stand up and re try the set up again. If you follow his set up to the letter, the bar should end right at the mid foot. And he recommends a packed neck so that will fix your neck.

I like his set up. If you follow it correctly, it works well I think.
 
@damogari I like @Kettlebelephant 's suggestion. If you can't create/maintain an anatomical (natural) arch in the bottom position, you are setting yourself up in a weak and unsafe position. So there are many ways to improve that but one alternative that can be an easy fix is simply deadlifting in a narrow sumo stance. I switched over to that stance due to a similar reason. My hip structure restricts my hip from going into deep flexion thus making it hard to maintain a good lumbar arch so by widening my stance, I can maintain that arch very easily. It was weaker initially but after really grooving the new stance, it feels pretty good. Just an option to consider. It can be a quick and effective change.
 
You could also work to fix your start position for your current stance, but some people really struggle with this for a variety of reasons and honestly a slightly wider stance works almost instantaneously to improve it. So just experiment a bit with a light weight and see what feels most natural and unrestricted.
 
The wedge that Steve mentioned is a really powerful feeling. You are in your deadlift position, gripping the bar, and you isometrically generate throughout your body and into the floor. Since you are pulling over 300lbs, you should be able to pop a 135lb bar off an inch off the floor just through the static tension: no actual extension of hips or anything. Brace the core as much as possible, pull your sternum up away from your belly button (thoracic extension), press through the heels, but not to the degree of actually starting the lift. Engage your lats. Basically take all the slack out of the bar and out of your body while still in the setup position. Once you get the feeling, the start of the lift feels a lot more powerful from this wedge. You also take any slack between the bar and the plates out if there is any to begin with.

Just went to the SFL course taught by Mike Sousa on Saturday and it was excellent. Highly recommended!
 
jca17 said:
The wedge that Steve mentioned is a really powerful feeling. You are in your deadlift position, gripping the bar, and you isometrically generate throughout your body and into the floor. Since you are pulling over 300lbs, you should be able to pop a 135lb bar off an inch off the floor just through the static tension: no actual extension of hips or anything. Brace the core as much as possible, pull your sternum up away from your belly button (thoracic extension), press through the heels, but not to the degree of actually starting the lift. Engage your lats. Basically take all the slack out of the bar and out of your body while still in the setup position. Once you get the feeling, the start of the lift feels a lot more powerful from this wedge. You also take any slack between the bar and the plates out if there is any to begin with.
Click to expand...
You superbly describe what I think of as just the basic setup before any DL.
This helps with making every lift, light or heavy, feeling the same. Still no special feeling of "wedging" for me there.
"Imagine you're going to lift 1000lbs" and "pull the slack out of the bar" works for me to get the setup you're describing. "Wedge yourself under the bar" would leave me just confused not knowing what to actually do.
I guess it's one of those cues that I won't ever understand and therefore doesn't work for me.
 
As Louie Simmons said of Pavel's material:
"You have reverse-engineered what my strongest guys do naturally.”

Congratulations, you wedge naturally :)
 
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