Yea my feet are dead straight and quite narrow, (which is quite different from me squat).
It’s how I pulled most of my lifting life, my max is higher, but not massively so (205kg) it would be interesting to see how going convo for so long works have impacted it, I suspect a cycle or two of sumo and I’d break new ground - I’ve often heard that training convo improves sumo (but not vice versa).
Not intentionally, I have pretty long arms.
That’s interesting and definitely worth playing round with.
Very possible, I think this:
Is right.
My current thinking is to ditch bands for the time being, not sure they benefit me if I’m just reinforcing bad patterns, wondering now whether adding dead stop in as part of the program instead might be beneficial?
I’d just do both if you find the bands help you (keyword: if they help). I don’t do them. I found they don’t do anything for me. I built my speed up without it but I know bands help alot of people build up that explosiveness.
anddd this one is really a toss up. I know I’m not the only one who has an opinion on this lol. I prefer dead stop reps. Touch and Go for hypertrophy and overload. It changes my mechanics too much and doesn’t replicate what my setup would be when doing singles. I did TNG Reps for years and all it did was ingrain bad technique.
I’m not sure what would be better for you, it sounds like you haven’t done much dead stop work? If so, i’d look into that.
I would highly suggest this video when it comes to deadlift mechanics. Like… this is an extremely detailed overview of every imaginable setup and I feel like I should’ve paid for this.
Alexander Bromley is much more accomplished and more qualified than me lol
Now going on a walk. I found my why for cardio/conditioning/general work - it might be illness related but it’s still concerning, my heart rate is still averaging 85+ at rest, which is diabolical, I’m rapidly closing 40, I want to enter the 4th decade better than ever, not getting puffed walking up stairs. Now that good diet is an ingrained part of life, time to make cardio & moving more a part of it too.
That deadlifting video is fantastic. I have always understood I was disadvantaged in the lift, but until I did not understand exactly why and what I should think about. Of course, now I am probably too old to do much about it, but it gives me stuff to think about.
Video upload took a while (was a bit longer than yesterday!) - video is about 20% action 80% me heavy breathing, you may or may not enjoy depending on whether that’s your thing.
Good on you brother. Walking is just fantastic. If nothing else, I really like Stan Efferding’s idea about the 10 minute walks post meal. Great way to accumulate 30 minutes of walking a day.
Thanks Pwn, any increase in movement is just a good thing, we weren’t designed to be this sedentary, it takes a toll. Walking shouldn’t even be a thing, for millennia it’s just been transport haha.
14/01/25 - 45M W2 B5 D22
Strength
Swiss bar press: 30, 40kg x 5, 50, 60, 70kg x 2, 75kg x 1 + F (bar path issues on first rep then died on the mid point of the second - such an awkward bar to press).
S/s
Russian twists: 10kg x 8 e/s x 5 sets
Volume
Swiss bar press: 60kg x 2 x 10 EMOM
Assistance finisher
DB inc: 30kg x 12, 12, 5
S/s
Chest supported DB row: 30kg x 12, 12, 10 + RP 5.5
Watching a few videos, it looks like you’re Ramping the bar. When you get the bar past your knees, instead of hinging your hips forward, you just lean way back and pull the bar up your thighs.
Here’s a couple slowed down, exaggerated examples.
Here’s you a couple weeks ago. You can see as soon as the bar passes your knees you jam them forward, under the bar. Then lean way back to pull the bar up your thighs and lock out with knee extension.
side view, hitch. Just the other day. From the side you can see how much the bar travels backwards as you jam your knees under and ramp it up your thighs. I know there are bands on the bar, but disregard them.
Deficit, early November. You still kinda stick your knees under and lean back, but the bar is much higher. Or further past your knees before your technique breaks down. I would technique call this “better” than from the floor.
Other day, pretty heavy vs bands. As you lean back and try to pull the bar backward, the bands resist. You have to readjust your position to get more stable and stop doing that so much. Like the bands Punish your bad habit of leaning back.
Based on these videos, I would try deficit deadlifts vs bands. The deficits to reinforce the “good” feeling/technique that you feel doing them. And the bands to eliminate the temporary advantage you get from “cheating” or using “bad form,” until you stop doing it.
Just about to run out the door, but massive thanks for highlighting that, this forum is absolutely legendary because of the people - thanks Flats and everyone else who’s helping. I’ll give full reply when I get a decent space to do!
Funny I felt like it wasn’t going down, good job for record keeping, going down faster than I realised (sorry @Frank_C - another unintended humble brag!). Good though because we’re half way through the month, want to have actually achieved something by the end of the month.
Didn’t end up getting out for a walk yesterday, but did this morning, did a mixture of road, trail, farm, mud, etc. somewhere around 3.2 miles in about an hour, didn’t push the pace but I can feel my legs, which means I’m pretty deconditioned to walking, that’ll change.
I’ll start with a massive thanks again to everyone but in particular for his issue -@FlatsFarmer and @KonsuTheTraveller..
I’ve still not got all the way through the Bromley video but I’ve watched over half and repeated, I will definitely make some time for watching the thing in full and figuring out how to use it to help me.
Thanks for the video analysis, nice to have a term for my crappy form - ramping. The analysis was very helpful. I have done deficit against bands not too long ago, felt awful, but that might be going to heavy too soon, I’ll revisit and keep them in rotation until I and getting where I need to. Assuming it’s wise to work using a slightly lower weight whilst focusing on technique.
In longer terms how do you envisage this transferring to deadlift from the floor, would you gradient the deficit backwards to eventually pull from the floor, then eventually lose the bands? Or something else?
Yes, slightly lower weights, not maximal weights for training. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 75%, just like your regular deadlifting. Only divided between bar weight and band tension. With the weight lightened at the bottom, so you can pull from an Ideal starting position. Gradually getting heavier as you go, so you get enough resistance at the top to make the rep heavy enough to be worthwhile.
Something like
week 1: bar weight 50% of max/band weight 25% of max
week 2: bar weight 50% of max/band weight 25% of max
week 3: bar weight 50% of max/band weight 25% of max
As far as getting back to the floor, yeah, what you’re saying makes sense. Get back to regular deads without bands at the end. Maybe like
week 1-3: deficit deads
week 5-7: deficit + bands
week 9-11: floor level deads
Another option would be to use the bands and deficits as “assistance” or “secondary” work, in addition to deadlifts from the floor. If you do it that way, the banded deficits Could Possibly go at the end. To bring the strongest stimulus neat the finish.
What ever seems like the best way to you will probably be the best way.
Here’s a short video showing the issue (leaning back, pulling the bar up the legs) and how to avoid the issue (pushing hips to bar instead of leaning back).
Another short one showing some bad ones vs good ones, emphasizing the hip to bar cue.
Honestly, I don’t think anyone else has mentioned this yet- I went back to about September to cross reference and I’ve noticed a distinct lack of any type of accessory work structured around your deadlift.
I see some GHR, some Rows (occasionally), and you hit your pullups a little more frequently. I did notice you did some more accessory work early in the year, did you find that helped?
Outside of your Squatting, There seems to be little time allocated towards strengthening the supporting muscles being used on the pull, especially your Posterior Chain.
I’m going to quote this, this was Feburary 26 and a pretty interesting comment you made. Why didn’t you like it? Where did you set the rack? This might be revealing a glaring weakness.
I’m going to leave this here, I got it from a post off reddit and it’s proved valuable as a reference sheet for when I’m setting up my new training blocks.
I saw the ramping straight away, also I see hips shooting up early also. This can lead to low back pain due to what is basically an overloading event. Ideally, just being tired and ‘done’ should be the only thing that could end a prescribed workout early, not low back fatigue/pain.
You only want the knees moving back One time. Yours are coming forward and scooping under the bar, the ramping we mention. This can be from a glute weakness, or, being that youre a decent squatter, rather you’re just not using that bad boys enough.
Things to consider:
Bar position relative to the center of your mass at the floor. Too close to the shin, and it can get kicked out, creating a weird backwards forwards thing that could be contributing to the reason you like to scoop that sucker like a Strongman deadlifter, too far away, and it will swing back into you and basically cause the same issue as your body centres that weight itself. These things can be subtle.
bring the glutes into the conversation before deadlifting. I don’t like to use words like “wake them up”, or “activate them” because overall I think those terms are BS. But Using them for something else prior to deadlifting can be of great help. Hanging movements, like Kettlebell swings for example, or marching on the spot like I use, one leg at a time while balancing on the other leg (don’t think marching is the right word here ). Basically I’m raising my knee to above parallel, for 20 reps each side. I place my hand on my glute and just think about the glutes doing the work the whole time. This makes a Big difference to my squatting for some reason, might work for you for your deadlifting.
Aside from those things above, plus what’s already been discussed, I’d also put some Cerebral effort into thinking about Not Scooping, during each rep. Sometimes that can be all someone needs. This works for me on the bench funnily enough, “don’t lift my butt”…and then I don’t lift it. Lol.
I’m probably rambling. You have a few good things in these posts to consider, and try etc.
I was looking at this too, its very hard to tell from that camera angle but it looks like Alex sets up with his shoulders infront of the bar, with the hips coming up a little at the start they look like they move even further forward. This leaves the bar way out front and then he has to scoop the knees to get back position. Wasn’t sure if the bands were contributing to this but the more I look at it, I think its the set up.
). Basically I’m raising my knee to above parallel, for 20 reps each side. I place my hand on my glute and just think about the glutes doing the work the whole time. This makes a Big difference to my squatting for some reason, might work for you for your deadlifting.