Sorry if I’m being a little obsessive, I just really want to nail my DL form so I don’t hurt myself when I climb into the mid 500’s and beyond.
It felt okay as far as nothing was hurting nor was there even a threat of a twinge of any sort. But I think I’m having the hardest time in the world setting my lats. Lemme know if you even think that’s the issue and any cues or exercises that would help.
What I’m going to try is wrapping the bar around my shins, barbell rows of different types, and DLs to the knee where I pause for a second or two.
I notice two things: as you mentioned, you’re not setting your lats/retracting your scapula. I’ve found bent-over rows in a position approximating the start of a deadlift to help that, but also timed, heavy holds at the top of a front squat. Also, it’s hard to tell from this angle, but I think you could work a bit more on bringing your hips to the bar/using your glutes to lock out. Otherwise it looks like you’ve got some nice weight on there and good bar speed!
Oh, I also noticed one more thing: inspirational deadlift music at your gym! 
I wanna post this here instead of making another thread. I feel like my form and fletchs form are similar. Ive been working on alot of things. Doing complete reset reps. I modified my 531 a bit just on deadlifts. On week 1 i do 75%x3-80%x3-85%x3+ instead of 5s. My form is already shitty and it gets terrible if i do 5s so im going to 3s for now. The rest of wendler i left the same.
Here is a video of me pulling 545 my meet best in the gym. In my meet i pulled 545 but it looked like i was gonna snap in half i rounded so bad.
In this video i know technique is probably off but i notice my lower back isnt rounding at all and to be honest this felt fairly easy. So what do you guys think? Im just like fletch i wanna get my form down without injuring myself. Thanks. And sorry for hijacking the thread fletch
Fast forward to :50 i fucked around alot…
[quote]kgildner wrote:
I notice two things: as you mentioned, you’re not setting your lats/retracting your scapula. I’ve found bent-over rows in a position approximating the start of a deadlift to help that, but also timed, heavy holds at the top of a front squat. Also, it’s hard to tell from this angle, but I think you could work a bit more on bringing your hips to the bar/using your glutes to lock out. Otherwise it looks like you’ve got some nice weight on there and good bar speed!
Oh, I also noticed one more thing: inspirational deadlift music at your gym! ;-)[/quote]
My form actually is a good bit better than it was. I think I’ve gotten a lot better at driving with my hips since I’ve actively been working on hip hinging and the lift doesn’t just look purely like knee and back extension. What this has done is allow me to see other weaknesses since the most glaring and obvious one is mostly okay now. Granted, there’s still some room for work with hip driving and hinging.
I totally agree with the hips extending at lock out. But I think it’s more a result of poor start. Because of my poor start with my back being a little rounded, my back has to straighten out at some point and that happens at lockout. So I think just working on my start will iron that out.
The lat setting deal seems to get worse as the set progresses, so in addition to being a slight form thing, I’m thinking it’s an even bigger muscle weakness thing. I’ve hated barbell rows because I always used to think of them as bench accessory and they took a ton away from recovery with minimal carry over to bench compared to chins and cable rows… but they may be perfect for my deadlift. I’ve gotta think of them as DL and squat accessory and see how they pan out in that regard.
[quote]Fletch1986 wrote:
[quote]kgildner wrote:
I notice two things: as you mentioned, you’re not setting your lats/retracting your scapula. I’ve found bent-over rows in a position approximating the start of a deadlift to help that, but also timed, heavy holds at the top of a front squat. Also, it’s hard to tell from this angle, but I think you could work a bit more on bringing your hips to the bar/using your glutes to lock out. Otherwise it looks like you’ve got some nice weight on there and good bar speed!
Oh, I also noticed one more thing: inspirational deadlift music at your gym! ;-)[/quote]
My form actually is a good bit better than it was. I think I’ve gotten a lot better at driving with my hips since I’ve actively been working on hip hinging and the lift doesn’t just look purely like knee and back extension. What this has done is allow me to see other weaknesses since the most glaring and obvious one is mostly okay now. Granted, there’s still some room for work with hip driving and hinging.
I totally agree with the hips extending at lock out. But I think it’s more a result of poor start. Because of my poor start with my back being a little rounded, my back has to straighten out at some point and that happens at lockout. So I think just working on my start will iron that out.
The lat setting deal seems to get worse as the set progresses, so in addition to being a slight form thing, I’m thinking it’s an even bigger muscle weakness thing. I’ve hated barbell rows because I always used to think of them as bench accessory and they took a ton away from recovery with minimal carry over to bench compared to chins and cable rows… but they may be perfect for my deadlift. I’ve gotta think of them as DL and squat accessory and see how they pan out in that regard. [/quote]
A thought of mine is that maybe it’s not a lat weakness and it’s really a shoulder/upper back weakness and just degraded setup technique.
Heavy rows always work for improving back tightness and lat strength IMO, especially with a solid pause at the top.
If you’re getting plenty of heavy lat work then I would try to focus on that setup a bit more, try to fix that rounding issue.
If it’s a mobility thing, check this out:
http://articles.elitefts.com/training-articles/band-pull-apart-super-series-for-healthy-shoulders/
Yeah, I agree with both of you and like to think that lat weakness goes hand-in-hand with t-spine control. I’ve had problems with both and have found higher-rep barbell rows to be better than heavier Pendlay-like rows for addressing that. Also good are chest-supported dumbbell shrugs/rows on an incline bench with a pause at the top of the movement. The latest article on double-paused deadlifts also looks interesting, I myself am going to try that out.
