Hi friends,
I am attempting to deadlift once again after a long layoff. I have a history of lower back issues.
Please critique my deadlift.
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you seem antsy, impatient?, gotta pee? Dancing to the gym music?
I would work on retracting your shoulders. Your upper back doesn’t seem active at all.
Besides that and the air humping before every rep, looks good
I know you may be worried about going heavier due to the history of lower back issues, but in all honesty showing a video of you lifting a weight that you obviously find incredibly easy and then asking for form critique is almost completely pointless. For starters you don’t tend to see breakdown in form until you’re getting towards the higher end of your capabilities, and secondly I for one find that my form actually changes between lifting light weights and lifting weights that are more of a struggle, so having ‘perfect’ (acceptable) form on a light weight doesn’t really mean jack in terms of your heavy lifting technique.
But as far as your form in the video yeah I’d go with what Jarvan said. Although I would also add that on the way back down you do a weird thing where you like curve the bar around your knees, I believe you should be trying to go back down the same as the way back up, so the bar going pretty much straight up and straight down.
Thanks for the advice my good friends.
[quote]Jarvan wrote:
you seem antsy, impatient?, gotta pee? Dancing to the gym music? [/quote]
I think I was a little anxious about deadlifting again. Or maybe it was the pre-workout espresso?
[quote]Jarvan wrote:
I would work on retracting your shoulders. Your upper back doesn’t seem active at all.
Besides that and the air humping before every rep, looks good[/quote]
I will work on activating my upper back. Any activation drills and cues that you would suggest??
And what do you mean by air-humping between reps?
[quote]rusty92 wrote:
I know you may be worried about going heavier due to the history of lower back issues, but in all honesty showing a video of you lifting a weight that you obviously find incredibly easy and then asking for form critique is almost completely pointless. [/quote]
Im planning of adding 10 kg every week using the 5 x 5 scheme, and tinkering with my form until I get things right. Once things get heavy I plan to switch over to the 531 scheme as I am doing for my other lifts. I will post another video once I get up to about 90-100 kg where I believe more form issues will arise.
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Not much you can critique on a light-weight. Your form looks good for the most part, work on keeping your chest up. Might help to bring the bar a bit closer to you. Other than that you look fine. Just keep working at it and be careful and you shouldn’t get injured. Train smart and you’ll be fine.
Shoulders back and down. Chest up should do the trick.
Today I went 10 kg’s heavier. Not a big increase but maybe it will give more ideas on improving my technique?
Today I tried to keep my shoulder “back and down”, but as you can see there was no improvement in my upper back positioning. Im thinking that my inability to keep my shoulders back is a mobility issue? T-spine mobility or is just because of my poor hamstring mobility? Remembering that I am just over 6’2 and when bending over to the bar I do feel like I am “crunching up”.
Also, are my hips higher enough?
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If you focus on chest out, shoulders retracted it might also help you keep the bar tighter to you all the way up and all the way down. It will help engage your lats, which are supposed to be doing the job of not letting the bar ‘float’ away from your shins. A way Mike Tuchscherer describes it is like trying to put your scapulae in your back pockets.
If the weight is heavier (for you), it’s easier to see this problem.
The ‘air humping’ seems to have settled down.
Bring the bar in closer to your shins at the beginning. Looks about 2" off in the first vid.
The bouncing up-and-down before each rep (the “air humping”?) doesn’t help either. You’ll just lose tension by doing that. Pull yourself down to the bar, then start the lift immediately.
To get an idea of how the lats work during deadlifting, attach one end of a rubber band to the bar, and another to something sturdy in front of you. that way you have to resist forward motion of the bar, by pushing it towards you with your lats. Hope that makes sense.
Also I think spreading the floor apart, or screwing your foot in the floor are good cues, that I have been experimenting with lately. it helps active the glutes more.
Dont rush it. Take a big breath before every rep and brace your abs.