My form is very terrible and it doesn’t really matter whether there is 505, 525 (I pulled that today) or 365 on the bar (Anything below is exception, because I can just squat the weight with back straight from lower position), my back gets into this terribely looking position - I just deadlift lighter weights faster with the same form. Funny thing is I get no pain nor pump in my back, never ever had a single problem with deadlifting, maybe with front squats a little bit. I think I have kinda learnt where to put the bar, my feet, hips etc, so I just brace my core extremely hard which creates that rounded back and pull. If I don’t, my back rounds anyway, but I just pull less because I am not braced.
Thing is, is this dangerous? Is this ineffective? I know some pros deadlift with rounded back, but I am nowhere near their numbers.
If yes, how do I fix it? I can’t keep my back straight with the most effective position and if I drop the hips down, they shoot up, of course. Stretching my hamstrings? I cannot even put my palms on the ground with stiff legs, so my flexibility is nothing impressive, I guess not that bad either tho. I honestly can’t tell if it is upper back rounding or lower back too - I heard only lower back matters. If I hip hinge (So much that I feel the stretch), I get in quite a good position, but It feels so weak, but might be a flexibility issue too. Any suggestions?
It looks like your back is severely weaker than the other muscle groups you utilize while deadlifting. Romanian deadlifts could help you with this as they demand you to keep your back straight and solid. Mark Rippetoe has a relatively good video of his version of the lift.. I prefer to do these from the floor and I’d suggest you do the same since your back goes spaghetti immediately after the liftoff.
That is very possible, I will look into it (My core is weak, front squatting beltless is a nightmare). However, I keep my back rounded the same way from the start, because my starting position is rounded too lol. I drop the hips just to get tight, I don’t lift from there, so my back position remains the same, so it would be weird to get it straight in the middle of the lift lol.
I can’t tell you anything you probably haven’t already heard, but I can share with you that I personally know more than a few guys who pull looking much like you in that video. Same story: never have back soreness or injuries, never “feel” the weight in the lumbar area, and they just grind out 600-700 lb pulls. It’s the same guys who have no problem deadlifting heavy twice a week.
Does this make it right or safe? Probably not, and by no means am I advocating that technique. I just think some guys are freaks (the good kind), and I’m jealous they can pull it off.
jma19 has a point. There is a group of people called round back pullers but they very rarely go that far. You can check out Konstantin Konstantninovs for one example. Generally speaking, rounding your back is not a humongous problem as long as you can ‘keep the package tight’. However I personally wouldn’t advocate rounding your back that much.
I also mentioned RDL’s but if you lack general core strength, you can also do direct core work. Back extensions with a rubber band are awesome as are hyper deads which basically are deadlifts done on a back extension bench. If front squats beltless give you trouble, do a lot of short sets instead of long sets. Do 6 sets of 2 reps or something like that. Good mornings are also a great way to train holding your back straighter while being bent over.
Just watching guys like konstantinovs and not really, they only the upper back, while my back looks rounded entirely I can try to force the shoulders forward like they advice in a video about deadlifting with rounded back and try it that way. I am going to look like a fool tho
Here’s a good video for cues you can use while deadlifting. There’s really no point in revamping your technique entirely because that would take a lot of time. You could just deload to a point where you can perform a single or a double with solid form and use that as your training max.
