Deadlift form check

[SS2Trunks69]

Can't embed for some reason, so here's the link:

http://youtu.be/gcC133bgWs8

Best angle I could get since I lift in a cramped home gym.

Any tips/advice that would help me get more glute/ham involvement?

[VIsland]

Back is nice and flat. Hard to tell but I think you may want to start with the bar a few inches more away from your shins it looks as if it's touching them.

[bneale09]

really^^ I always experienced better form when i stood with shins touching the bar then squated down. it keeps the bar closer to your body which is key. Also, I disagree. sure your back looks kind of flat, but I think of deadlift more as a butt down and torso at a 45 degree angle from the floor if that makes sense. your back is kind of flat, but literally almost parallel to the floor. It's a LEG exercise imo. though it works the back TONS.

just an opinion

[PeterGibbons316]

Anyone can embed.

edit: I agree with bneale, your back is damn near parallel to the floor. Drop those hips and lift your chest and ass at the same time. Your knees are locking out long before your hips are. Are those standard height 45 lb. plates on your bar? If they are smaller than that then you should put something under them to raise them to that height. Also, the negative should be much faster than the pull, yours is slower. No need to fatigue yourself so much lowering the bar. Do it as fast as you can while maintaining a straight back, but without putting a barbell shaped hole in your floor.

[SS2Trunks69]

Anyone can embed.

edit: I agree with bneale, your back is damn near parallel to the floor. Drop those hips and lift your chest and ass at the same time. Your knees are locking out long before your hips are. Are those standard height 45 lb. plates on your bar? If they are smaller than that then you should put something under them to raise them to that height. Also, the negative should be much faster than the pull, yours is slower. No need to fatigue yourself so much lowering the bar. Do it as fast as you can while maintaining a straight back, but without putting a barbell shaped hole in your floor.

I dunno, I was going off that description by (I think?) Rippetoe. It was something like 'get bar above middle of foot, bend over, shoulder blades above bar, bend knees till shins touch bar, commence deadlifting.'

I can try to lower my ass a bit and see if that makes a difference.

And yeah, I'm using old school weights since I don't have an olympic set. I was also thinking that could be part of the problem. I don't know the diameter of a 45lb plate, but I'm almost positive that it's bigger than the plates I'm using. So the bar is probably closer to the floor than if I had a standard olympic set.

[PeterGibbons316]

I dunno, I was going off that description by (I think?) Rippetoe. It was something like 'get bar above middle of foot, bend over, shoulder blades above bar, bend knees till shins touch bar, commence deadlifting.'

I can try to lower my ass a bit and see if that makes a difference.

And yeah, I'm using old school weights since I don't have an olympic set. I was also thinking that could be part of the problem. I don't know the diameter of a 45lb plate, but I'm almost positive that it's bigger than the plates I'm using. So the bar is probably closer to the floor than if I had a standard olympic set.

That explains a lot of your problem. Should be I think 17.5" diameter. So if your bar isn't 8.75" off the ground put something under it so that it is.

Sounds like you are standing close enough to the bar.

[KingOfLimbs]

Also, the negative should be much faster than the pull, yours is slower. No need to fatigue yourself so much lowering the bar. Do it as fast as you can while maintaining a straight back, but without putting a barbell shaped hole in your floor.

My negative is probably slightly slower than my pull because I dont want to be "that guy" at the gym making noise that everyone can hear. Not only that but my gym has hexagon plates and if I drop them too fast the bar really gets out of line.

Is this that huge of an issue? I never had back problems and I have went from 135 DL to 305 in a little over half a year.

[RainingBlood]

Back is way too parallel. But, I'd like to point out that the bar is directly in line with his shoulder blades in this position, which signals that his hips are in the correct position. Some people have a more par. back when DLing, and some people have more of an upright position. Can someone come here and speculate on this?

[bneale09]

well, if it turns out his hips are indeed in the right position then you need to "straighten your back" your back has natural curve in it (lumbar, etc.) your back shouldn't literally look flat. Need to see some lumbar curve in there unless your posture is just bad and you have one of those spine issues in which case I will be no help here.

[SS2Trunks69]

Back is way too parallel. But, I'd like to point out that the bar is directly in line with his shoulder blades in this position, which signals that his hips are in the correct position. Some people have a more par. back when DLing, and some people have more of an upright position. Can someone come here and speculate on this?

I read that somewhere, too. Might have been in the Starting Strength book. Something about how everyone has different length arms/legs/torsos/etc, so there isn't one exact deadlift position that works for everyone.

That being said, I'm going to measure how far the bar is off the ground with these weights and try to get it up to around 9". Along with that, I'll lower my hips and try to raise my chest and hips at the same rate. Video tonight. And thanks for all the help so far, guys.

[SS2Trunks69]

Alright, I measured my weights, they're only 11" in diameter, so the bar was only 5" off the floor.

I guess I was doing deficit deads. -_-

So I put the weights on some ~3.5" spacer things from some stupid stair stepping thing. I figure it's close enough.

I also tried to get my ass down and have my back at more of an angle, but looking at the vid, it doesn't look like the angle really even changed.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-0T5Q4fjiU

So? Better? It definitely felt better.

EDIT: wtf, I thought I had embedding down but it's just a white box for me. You just use the [youtube] tags, right?

[TheKoiCarp]

Would try and make more of an effort to pull your shoulders back at the start of the lift. Fill your chest up with air and stick it out would accomplish this, Ofc the shoulders will fall back down during the lift due to the weight but if you start the lift with them pulled back you will have a tighter core altogether.

Unable to see if your lower back is arched at the start and cannot see whether your final position is correct but from the angles it all looks good. The lower hip position is just to encorporate more leg drive which is for a more conventional deadlift. You previous high hip position is fine as long as you know why you are doing it.