Hi guys I’m new to this forum so excuse me if I get some things wrong. Here is me deadlifting 160kg for a triple. The bar doesn’t seem to leave the ground until my back rounds. I follow the same setup that Mark rippertoe teaches in starting strength.
Body weight : 81.5kg
Height : 174cm
That hurts to watch. You need learn how to brace. Look up “how to deadlift with Ed Coan” on Mark Bell’s youtube channel, that should help.
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Watch the 'Deadlift pillars" series on JTS too.
Hey thanks for the quick reply. Are there any specific things I can change for my setup? Like am I hip hinging right? Or am I too close or far from the bar?
Everything looks OK the moment before you start to pull. You just need to produce more tension in the right places. Ed Coan and Chad Wesley Smith explain it better than I can, just follow what they say.
Could be a couple of things or a combination of them. If you implement a specific fix and it addresses the issue then we can work backwards and identify the problem.
As chris was getting at breathing/bracing may be a bit off. Upper back tightness actually doesn’t look too bad. Learn to breath into your belly, create lots of tension an pressure to keep your torso rigid. Practice bracing with and without a belt. Pretty straightforward solution.
Somewhat tying in with the above there’s no point getting into a tight, efficient position at the start via “lats”, breathing/bracing and pulling the slack out of the bar if we rush and lose that position right away. Loss of position could also be due to straight up laziness or lack of awareness of body position in space.
A rounded back gives the posterior chain better leverage off the floor. If we are trying to be explosive and fast off the floor at the cost of technique you can get back rounding where the tradeoff is it increases injury risk and contributes to lockout difficulties if excessive.
Solution: Once you’ve locked in your technique and starting position you must focus on actively maintaining it and being patient off the floor even if that means the bar feels a bit sticky or slow off the floor.
Lastly perhaps your glutes, hams and quads may simply need to get bigger and stronger. Back rounding is a compensatory mechanism that allows you to break the floor easier so if you’re not strong enough in the prime movers off the floor you’re body will have a tendency to assume it’s stronger/better leveraged position.
Thanks for the advice guys I’ll read up more and have another attempt at it again tomorrow with the bracing and trying my best to keep tight.
Forgot to mention dis.
If you’re having issues with maintaining positioning/patience off the floor pause deadlifts. With a pause an inch off the floor you can be aware of your back position once the weight breaks the floor. Errors in position e.g. bar not being close to you or back rounding feel doubly bad so you can more easily identify subtle form break down and fix it.
Cuing and set up wise I vaguely recall that the Ripptoe 5 step skips some important stuff e.g. deliberate purposeful breathing/bracing and pulling slack/creating tension so if you’ve been going off the Starting Strength set up I can see how you’d be missing out. It’s a good opportunity to come up with your own set up routine that’ll work best for you. Some guys like it real simple e.g. a few single word cues some have quite a complex process. Try out all the things, keep what works, discard what doesn’t and come up with something that works best for you.
I really learnt alot today really appreciate the help man! Will implement some paused Deadlifts and share the results here soon!
Alright thanks man I’ll look that up and try to apply it in my next Deadlift session! Do u have any other specific tips that I can apply? Like is the bar too far from me or anything?
It’s impossible to see from that angle because the plates get in the way. Either way, watch this and do as he says:
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Ok so i went back and did some paused deadlifts. I did 1x3 160kg conventional standard deadlifts followed by 7x3 120kg paused deadlifts.
160kg deadlift
Paused 120kg set 1
Paused 120kg set 2
Paused 120kg set 3
Paused 120kg set 4
Paused 120kg set 5
Paused 120kg set 6
Paused 120kg set 7
It seems that my back starts rounding in the last rep of the last few sets of paused deadlifts. For the 160kg deadlift i did the exact same form but the bar didn’t leave the ground till my back rounds. I don’t know how to explain this because i can squat 160kg for a handful of reps. Could it be weak hamstrings?
You are rounding your back in the first video too. I don’t know if you have any particular muscular weakness, it just looks like you have learned a bad movement pattern and now it’s hard to correct it. You have some spinal hinging going on, you need to learn to keep your back in the same position and only move at the hips and knees. Getting tighter before you pull is going part of it, but it looks like you are initiating the pull with your lower back.
I don’t have an easy solution for you, doing RDLs (with a neutral spine) might help to teach you the proper movement pattern. Other than that, working with lighter weights and really focusing on technique more than anything (record all sets, even warmups, so you are aware of what you are doing) might help you sort out this issue. The way you are going, you are headed for a back injury.
You could try arching your back when you pull, you are arching in the wrong direction so focusing on counteracting that might be the solution.
You mean like trying to push my lower back in the opposite direction that gravity pulls it? Or do you mean pushing my ass out and keeping my chest up? I’ve never really tried the former only the latter because that’s what i learned from the tutorials.
This is what I’m talking about but you are doing the opposite with your ass and lower back. If you can’t maintain a neutral spine then slight extension (arching) is the next best thing.
What kind of gym are you training in? Are there any powerlifters that train there? It would be better to get someone to help you in person, either an experienced coach or lifter or personal trainer who knows how to deadlift. You need to learn the correct movement pattern before you start loading up the weights.
Yeah they are a couple of powerlifters here I usually get advice from the more experienced ones but its not an extremely well known gym here. So far none of them, who can lift a considerable amount of weight for their weight class, knows the reason behind why my back rounds like this. It seems to only happen on the heavier weights but that is no excuse.
i just watched this video and i think this is the answer. Form fails when weaknesses creep it. I suspect it’s my glutes and hamstrings that are weak. I realize that I can do heavy leg extensions but when it comes to leg curls, I struggle.
Some thoughts:
On the set with 160kg the first rep showed some improvement (being the best looking of the bunch with the rest looking progressively worse lel). Little bit of rounding still but I can see the improved torso bracing and attempt at maintaining a good position. Good job so far.
We know lel.
Keep hitting the issue from all angles and remember to be patient. Sometimes these kind of things take a while even to just unlearn the way you previously pulled. So for that purpose perhaps 160kg is too heavy for your top end working sets. A good weight for technique development will challenge your technique without being so heavy that you can’t think/focus/concentrate on technique and/or force your form to breakdown. If that’s what your program calls for then by all means but understand for technical gains maybe a 4 sets of 2 reps with 140-150kg will be more beneficial.
With all that work muscles are gonna start getting tired and that can increase the likelihood of form breakdown or even make it inevitable. Usually I’d recommend not being in this situation in the first place lel in the interest of safety and longevity. Every shitty rep is a step backwards pre much so we don’t want to do high reps or super high volume work outs in the interest of technical gains.
Maybe you’re a strong squatter who happens to be a shitty deadlifter lel. Not typical by any means but there are plenty around.
I wouldn’t focus on any one specific muscle group. At worst they might be a ittle bit disproportionately weak but the solution is the same: Get bigger and stronger everywhere i.e. in quads, hams and glutes. Tho if say have a history of neglecting hamstring/glute dominant stuff e.g. romanians, stiff legs etc. might be worth a go. All the rounded back deadlifting over time actually works your glutes and hams less vs a neutral back so might be something there.
Pauses probably are best done low rep as per the above with it being harder to focus on technique on 12 rep sets and fatigue forcing form break down.Total volume is up to you but IMO the majority of your volume goes into hitting the comp lift cleanly instead of pauses.
When chris was on about romanian to learn hip hinging
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Can you pull lighter weights (like 135) with a flat back? It looks to me like technique is a limiting factor more than anything, but not properly using your glutes can be a factor. Your glutes are weak because you aren’t using them and you aren’t using the because they are weak, try doing glute bridges before squatting and deadlifting to warm up your glutes (I do this too) and when you do RDLs, focus on squeezing your glutes. Stop worrying about weight for now and focus on getting your technique in order.