This is me deadlifting (trying to) 462lbs (210kg). Please tell me what i’m doing wrong. Friend told me to try to use more leg strength, but i’m just used to lift more with my back, and do not really know how to utilize legs.
BTW, ignore the part of the video after the deadlift. I’m not good with video editing programs, so i didn’t edit it.
(I hope the video loads properly.)
Your friend is right. You definetely need to use more legs. Starting position looks good, but then you just straighten your legs and start the lifting using your lower back.
I thinks it would be wise for you to go back to basics and master the technique with easy weights. I added up to 30+ kgs to my 4rep sets fast, when figured out how to use legs properly in the deadlift.
yea, your issue is you are using all back. you start with good leg position, but right when you start your legs straighten out. use your legs more, and it looks like you need to get those glutes firing. We have had a million articles on glutes. try some of that stuff out. drive your heals through the ground and really activate the glutes.
hope that helps.
Honest_lifter is right, you need to fire them glutes.
Back down on the weight, and use progressively heavier weights, where you keep the arch in the lumbar spine and have hipextention all the way from the bottom of the lift.
Try starting with the bar over the top of your foot. You had it right against your legs pretty much. This will allow you to get your shoulders back and above the bar to get the weight moving up. Your shoulders seem to be in front of the bar. Get your ass down. way down. Your quads should nearly be parallel with the floor. Yours weren’t even 1/2 way down. Initiate the pull with your legs. Think of driving your feet down into the floor like your a huge nail or something. Your back will take care of itself. While pulling think " get my hips under the bar". Keeping your shoulders back. Practice this with light weight till you get it down then work you way back up.
Your starting position doesn’t look bad, you just need to get the whole body working together. Try to stop thinking about it as pulling the bar up, think about pushing with your feet instead. Changing the way you think about it might not seem like much (and might possibly even sound funny), but I know it helps some people.
Try to not allow your hips to rise any quicker than the bar, then as soon as the bar is above the knees, drive your hips forward. Oh and by the way, it looks like you’re bending your arm a little, avoid that. Flex your triceps to make sure your arms are straight.
Other than that, good advice has already been given in previous posts. Drop some weight and keep practicing until your form is where you want it to be.
[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:
Try starting with the bar over the top of your foot. You had it right against your legs pretty much. This will allow you to get your shoulders back and above the bar to get the weight moving up. Your shoulders seem to be in front of the bar.[/quote]
It’s not really wrong to start with the shoulders in front of the bar, that’s how Rippetoe instructs deadlift. He could always try with the shoulders behind the bar and see how he likes it, but personally I think it feels better to have them slightly in front so that the shoulderblades are directly above the bar. To be honest I’m not entirely sure what’s better here and I guess it’s individual. I do know that some very good lifters like to start with the bar a bit further ahead.
[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:
Get your ass down. way down. Your quads should nearly be parallel with the floor. Yours weren’t even 1/2 way down.[/quote]
I really have to disagree with this. For a lot of people, starting with your hips that low will give exactly the same result as in the OP’s video. You want to start in a position where your legs are strong, if you bend them too much they’ll be in a weak position. What happens next is often that the lifter straightens his legs without really moving the bar much and ends up standing there with straight legs and bent back which is exactly what we wanted to avoid in the first place.
I’d also like to say that when it comes to deadlift, it’s a very bad idea to try to apply the same starting position to everyone. Things like the height of your hips can vary a whole lot between different lifters. Compare a guy with long legs to a guy with short legs and you might see what I mean.
[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:
Initiate the pull with your legs. Think of driving your feet down into the floor like your a huge nail or something.[/quote]
Here I agree with you though. “Huge nail”, I like that. 
Can’t really judge form on a failed lift but there appears to be bad lower back curvature from the start. Don’t know why the other posters are not pointing this out. You need to force a good arch hard which will keep your chest up and allow better hip drive.
You won’t be able to improve technique without dropping a lot of weight and not going for new PRs. I found working at my 10 rep max improved form.
I also find some of the cues (butt down, drive with legs) in the above posts can be counter productive. You can’t turn the DL into a squat. I found I was doing this and actually had to tweak to a more shouders over the bar posture to engage hip drive and not quad drive.
My deadlift used to look like this, only a bit worse.
You need to be “bracing” with your abdominals in order to stabilize your spine. If you’re not currently doing this, you should learn how to do it. It will make you safer and add pounds on your lifts.
From the way you pulled, it looks like you should fix your starting position such that your lower back is neutral (flat) and only your upper back is rounded. You should also be bracing with your core as I described above.
People who deadlift like you tend to have weak glutes, hamstrings, and abdominals. They often also have tight hip flexors and a lower back that’s strong as fuck.
I’d say the lack of core stabilization is the biggest reason that you can’t help but round your back so much. When I had this problem, I trained my abs with movements that required me to stabilize my spine, such as weighted planks, rollouts, and pallof press isometric holds. Also, “posterior pelvic tilting” exercises like Dead Bugs were very helpful in fixing the issue.
Your next biggest issue is probably weak glutes and hamstrings. Try doing a lot of hip extension movements like RDLs, Good Mornings, Hip Thrusts (read Brett Conteras’s “Dispelling the Myth about Glute Training”), and if you have access to things like a GHR or Reverse Hyper, then all the better.
If you have tight hips, then stretch the fuck out of your flexors. That will help your glute activation.
And, if you want to understand more about your rounding issues and how to fix them, read Mike Robertson and Eric Cressey’s articles, they’re really great.
[quote]Matsa wrote:
Your starting position doesn’t look bad, you just need to get the whole body working together. Try to stop thinking about it as pulling the bar up, think about pushing with your feet instead. Changing the way you think about it might not seem like much (and might possibly even sound funny), but I know it helps some people.[/quote]
No way,did you watch the video?? dudes ass is WAY in the air and his lower back is rounded.
He only dropped his hips about 3". He looks like he’s tryiong to still leg deadlift 400+ lbs
StrengthDawg wrote:
Try starting with the bar over the top of your foot. You had it right against your legs pretty much. This will allow you to get your shoulders back and above the bar to get the weight moving up. Your shoulders seem to be in front of the bar.
having the bar out a little bit will allow him to sit down more and begin trying to drive his hips under the bar to get thew weights moving upwards. I never said his shoulder need to be behind the bar I said they need to directly atop the bar. His seemed to be in front which will pull him forward and compound his rounded back situation. His leverages are all messed up. He needs to get down and pull up / back a little bit.
StrengthDawg wrote:
Get your ass down. way down. Your quads should nearly be parallel with the floor. Yours weren’t even 1/2 way down.
we’ll have to agree to disagree. Starting lower will allow him to keep his back straight and get more leverage on the bar.The way he’s doing this with wis ass in the air from the start has taken the legs almost completely out of the motion and dumped it onto his rounded back.
I agree with you everyone is different. My advice was not for everyone I’m giving it to this guy based on the video I watched.
StrengthDawg wrote:
Initiate the pull with your legs. Think of driving your feet down into the floor like your a huge nail or something.
glad you liked something I said…
Your main problem is that you need to learn to put your back in extension, that was the main problem at the beginning-you started with a round back. Other than that the starting position isn’t too bad. Try this method, it will put you in the correct starting position everytime:
Middle of the foot under the bar (actual middle of the foot, NOT what looks like the middle of the foot as you look down. This will usually be with your shin 1/2-1 inch from the bar).
Reach down and grab the bar without moving the bar and with out bending your knees (they will remain straight for now).
Bend your knees until your shins touch the bar.
Extend your back by raising your chest (DO NOT lower your butt from here, you are ready to go).
After you do this, you’re ready to lift the weight. I’d lower the weight until you get used to this method. It will probably feel like a shorter pull than you are used to.
You really, really need to learn to hold your back in extension, its the most important thing for you because that is what will usually cause a lower back injury in the deadlift. One way you can learn to flex your back is by laying face down on the ground and lifting your chest and your knees off the ground.
This will flex your back and probably will be painful for you at first if you don’t know how to do it (I don’t know besides what I saw on the video)but you have to learn to do it if you want to deadlift and squat properly. I would bet if this is your problem you probably have a difficult time holding your back in extension when you squat as well.
Give these things a try, a lot of guys are surprised at how much easier this makes it and you will eventually get a lot stronger with less risk of injury.
[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:
Matsa wrote:
Your starting position doesn’t look bad, you just need to get the whole body working together. Try to stop thinking about it as pulling the bar up, think about pushing with your feet instead. Changing the way you think about it might not seem like much (and might possibly even sound funny), but I know it helps some people.
No way,did you watch the video?? dudes ass is WAY in the air and his lower back is rounded.
[/quote]
Yes I did watch the video. Look at the picture I attached, if he straighten his arms and arch his lower back more then I think it would be a decent starting position. It’s what happens immediately after that’s a problem.
He could start with his hips a little lower maybe, but not much. Just a note, he does have his back a bit too rounded for my liking even in this position, I’m not sure why I missed mentioning that earlier.
Still disagree? Just checking so we’re not misunderstanding eachother.
[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:
I never said his shoulder need to be behind the bar I said they need to directly atop the bar.
[/quote]
Ok, I might have got you wrong there then. I’m still of the opinion that it’s the shoulder blades and not the shoulders that should be atop the bar but it’s not a major detail so I won’t argue it further.
[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:
Matsa wrote:
Here I agree with you though. “Huge nail”, I like that.
glad you liked something I said…
[/quote]
Lol not looking to give you a hard time, just trying to discuss from my point of view.
[quote]Benway wrote:
My deadlift used to look like this, only a bit worse.
You need to be “bracing” with your abdominals in order to stabilize your spine. If you’re not currently doing this, you should learn how to do it. It will make you safer and add pounds on your lifts.
From the way you pulled, it looks like you should fix your starting position such that your lower back is neutral (flat) and only your upper back is rounded. You should also be bracing with your core as I described above.
People who deadlift like you tend to have weak glutes, hamstrings, and abdominals. They often also have tight hip flexors and a lower back that’s strong as fuck.
I’d say the lack of core stabilization is the biggest reason that you can’t help but round your back so much. When I had this problem, I trained my abs with movements that required me to stabilize my spine, such as weighted planks, rollouts, and pallof press isometric holds. Also, “posterior pelvic tilting” exercises like Dead Bugs were very helpful in fixing the issue.
Your next biggest issue is probably weak glutes and hamstrings. Try doing a lot of hip extension movements like RDLs, Good Mornings, Hip Thrusts (read Brett Conteras’s “Dispelling the Myth about Glute Training”), and if you have access to things like a GHR or Reverse Hyper, then all the better.
If you have tight hips, then stretch the fuck out of your flexors. That will help your glute activation.
And, if you want to understand more about your rounding issues and how to fix them, read Mike Robertson and Eric Cressey’s articles, they’re really great.[/quote]
Good advice.
[quote]Matsa wrote:Yes I did watch the video. Look at the picture I attached, if he straighten his arms and arch his lower back more then I think it would be a decent starting position. It’s what happens immediately after that’s a problem.
He could start with his hips a little lower maybe, but not much. Just a note, he does have his back a bit too rounded for my liking even in this position, I’m not sure why I missed mentioning that earlier.
Still disagree? Just checking so we’re not misunderstanding eachother.[/quote]
Yeah I agree with you.His butt a bit lower and straighten the back a bit more like you said and I think he’ll get that weight and maybe more. That pic is good, by the way how’d you capture it right there?
Lastly two things. Where in Sweden are you and are all the women there as hot as the pics I’ve seen?
[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:
Matsa wrote:Yes I did watch the video. Look at the picture I attached, if he straighten his arms and arch his lower back more then I think it would be a decent starting position. It’s what happens immediately after that’s a problem.
He could start with his hips a little lower maybe, but not much. Just a note, he does have his back a bit too rounded for my liking even in this position, I’m not sure why I missed mentioning that earlier.
Still disagree? Just checking so we’re not misunderstanding eachother.
Yeah I agree with you.His butt a bit lower and straighten the back a bit more like you said and I think he’ll get that weight and maybe more. That pic is good, by the way how’d you capture it right there?
Lastly two things. Where in Sweden are you and are all the women there as hot as the pics I’ve seen?
[/quote]
Just hit print screen and paste it into paintshop or something. I’m in a city called Linkoping quite far down south in Sweden. As for our women, they all look like Pauline Nordin… nah just kidding, Pauline is one of a kind! If you ask me there’s a decent bit of good looking women in Sweden but tourists often seem to exaggerate it as well. Then again I don’t have much to compare with, haven’t exactly been around a lot. 
[quote]Matsa wrote:
StrengthDawg wrote:
Matsa wrote:Yes I did watch the video. Look at the picture I attached, if he straighten his arms and arch his lower back more then I think it would be a decent starting position. It’s what happens immediately after that’s a problem.
He could start with his hips a little lower maybe, but not much. Just a note, he does have his back a bit too rounded for my liking even in this position, I’m not sure why I missed mentioning that earlier.
Still disagree? Just checking so we’re not misunderstanding eachother.
Yeah I agree with you.His butt a bit lower and straighten the back a bit more like you said and I think he’ll get that weight and maybe more. That pic is good, by the way how’d you capture it right there?
Lastly two things. Where in Sweden are you and are all the women there as hot as the pics I’ve seen?
Just hit print screen and paste it into paintshop or something. I’m in a city called Linkoping quite far down south in Sweden. As for our women, they all look like Pauline Nordin… nah just kidding, Pauline is one of a kind! If you ask me there’s a decent bit of good looking women in Sweden but tourists often seem to exaggerate it as well. Then again I don’t have much to compare with, haven’t exactly been around a lot. ;)[/quote]
cool…see ya around the boards.
Ok, I’m going to bump this thread because I found something interesting on youtube. I was saying earlier in this thread that I think the shoulders should be slightly in front of the bar at the start, and I still insist that’s what feels right for me.
However, in this video I found Dave Tate is stressing the point that the shoulders should be behind the bar. This is also in direct conflict with what Rippetoe has written.
Normally I would listen to Tate here, but like I said it does feel better for me to have the shoulders in front. I guess my short torso and strong lower back could be the reasons, anyway it just feels natural. I will have to do some more experimenting with this to see if I can gain anything from Tate’s advice.
Here’s the youtube vid with Tate:
Edit: Seems I wasn’t allowed to link to that article, sorry about that. Here’s a youtube clip instead:
So here we have two good coaches giving conflicting advice. Any opinions?