Thanks Nadia, I am almost all better now. It’s been a helluva week with some new job responsibilities and that weird fluey thing.
Quick check in to say I got military press and squat day complete, cycle 3, 3 rep week and didn’t miss any reps. The third rep of the squat was f’n hard, but I mentally bulldozed through it without any lurching (or knee cave as I think kimba is calling the same thing).
I’ll try to finish up the benchpress day tomorrow so I can start the third week of this cycle Monday. I also need MORE CARDIO!
Physical status is excellent. Elbow inflammation all gone. Mental status pretty good too. Aside from stalling on the bench last week, I haven’t hit any walls yet.
Deadlift day 5/3/1 cycle 3, week 3
I have video. I seem to need a haircut and look like some sort of demented wizened sprite, but I guess I’m not here for the figure athlete contest.
190 came up slow but I got it, which bodes well for more consistency in my deadlifting. I see my hips shooting up, yesyes. I also see my shoulders are not back behind the bar. I’ll work more on improving my form during deload week.
Nice work. Your hips definitely rise faster on the 190 than the other two. But that’s par for the course with pulling, I think. So challenging to overcome that.
i think the hips rising is par for the course on max attempts, too.
Greg Everett has an article on the first pull (getting the bar from the floor to just past your knees) and he compares it to the deadlift. For the first pull your hips have to be (and stay) well down with your torso as upright as possible - otherwise you will mess up the second pull). He says that this is possible for the first pull because the weights moved always will be much much lighter than a heavy (for you) deadlift.
He says that in a max effort deadlift the hips will always rise early in order to deload the legs because the knees are in a disadvantaged position with the hips low. There might well be a value to training the hips to stay low in submaximal attempts (training the legs to get stronger) - but they inevitably will rise early on max attempts.
That is what he says, anyway. It is the only thing on it that I’d seen so I found it kind of interesting…
Hi Arachne! First off, congrats on your deadlift increases. After looking at your vids, I thought I’d offer you a few form suggestions. The way you’re lifting puts a lot of strain on your lower back. Changing a few of your lifting patterns can prevent injury as well as prevent your hips from flying up. Here are a few things to think about. I realize that this is unsolicited advice so feel free to ignore me.
-Push your hips back instead of “bending over”, creating a neutral spine. This may be a mobility issue to work on!
-Your knees are caving in on the lift. You want to prevent this by using your glutes to drive your knees out (this is important for squating too). This will help activate your glutes on the lift and prevent injury.
-Keep your chest up and your lats really tight. As you can see you are lifting with a round back. This will allow the bar get in front of you, making for bad lifting mechanics.
I hope this helps increase your deadlift and prevent injury!
Thanks for checking in Snap and Nadia!
Alexus, thanks. I’ve heard that too, and I know that at lower weights my hips do not come up.
sbmart2, unsolicited advice is welcome. I kind of knew the flat back chest up rules, but my form obviously goes all to hell on what is (for me) a heavy lift. However, I didn’t know at ALL that I was knee caving. This is something I struggle with during squats. I will take a look at that during my deload week. Thank you!
5/24/11
1 mile treadmill 11:14 min. Military press later.
5/24/11 5/3/1 Military Press Day. Training max 71 actual max 75 = 65% bw
warmup steel bar, steel bar, steel bar, bar
working 5x52.5 3x60, 2x67.5 < yay! exceeding the required reps is always good and I haven’t done that in a few weeks.
Accessories
front raises 5x10 10s
wrist curl rehab work 5s
farmers walks with 35s 2x
dumbbell military 10x20s
messed around with deadlift form at light weights. Looks like my form goes all to hell between 135 and 170 or so, but I’ll do some more vid next week. Driven by sbsmart’s knee cave observation, I am thinking of widening my stance a little.
I’d turn your feet out a little too. Not too much, just subtly. Also have you done much glute activation work? I think that might be at the root of your knee cave issue. I really think that if you fixed some of this stuff up, your deadlift would skyrocket!
I will try turning my feet out for sure. I’ve read about glute activation but I haven’t taken it seriously. It’s funny, I’ve played around with foot position and arch quite a bit more to fix my substandard squat… I guess it’s time to attack my deadlift.
Thank you so much for your advice. What name did you used to post under?
I posted under the same name. Some of those videos aren’t great. My form has changed dramatically in the year I wasn’t posting on PW. If you’re looking for some good form info, Mike robertson’s website is where it’s at!
