deadlift back flexion

[knkavo]

Coach Staley, hello from Greece.

With both you and Coach Rippetoe on this board I think things could only get better if Naim Suleymanoglu started offering free home coaching and tips to members on this board ;-) I remember your name from back when I was a skinny 18 year old and Muscle Media was a half-decent magazine...

My question is this: I know in my set in the video below my lower back is rounding. However, I feel no back pain, either during or after, and I feel that my back is "tight" (unlike in squats where no matter what I do I can't keep my lower back tight at all). At what point is flexion too much flexion?

(I know that in the last rep the flexion is without a doubt excessive).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ffUabT9Zog

The weight is quite low (67 kgs/148 lbs, just a little over my bodyweight). I am 5ft7 and 30 years old (still skinny).

Thanks for your time.

[David_S]

Hey,

I'm myself a novice (and I've recently posted a deadlift form check to Coach Rippetoe myself) and this may not exactly answer your question. But I do see something I'm fairly sure you can work on.

It seems that you're trying to lower the bar (at the top of the movement) with your knees coming forward. This gets them in the way of the bar, and then you have to move the bar forward, around them, to continue to lower it. To keep yourself balanced, you're bending your low-back. Notice that after you put the bar down each rep you have to move your shoulders forward to get back into the proper starting position. You want to be in that starting position when you FINISH each rep, too.

Try just barely unlocking your knees at the top, then using your hips (with a straight back, as always) to lower the bar until it will clear your knees, at which point you can use your knees to get the bar the rest of the way to the ground. You want the way down to look like the way up, and I think the fact that it's different right now might be messing around with your starting position, making the rounding of the back worse.

Hope it helps! Until someone comes around who really knows thier stuff anyways =p

David

[Charles Staley]

Hmm. Not terrible, but it'll only get worse as the weight increases- I'd like to see a better arch with light weights. Question: CAN you arch your back on a very light squat or dead?

If yes, it'll just be a matter of being disciplined about it with all weights.

If no, we have to find out why not. Either you lack the necessary mobility, or you lack the motor skill required.

[knkavo]

I can arch my back really well on my deadlifts at lighter weights, no problems on my warm up sets. I had some trouble arching without looking up with my head rather than keeping my chest "up" however, but I think that I may solve that now because of the following:

I couldn't get a good arch in my squats. My squats generally sucked ass. After lots of cruel but constructive comments from Mr. Rippetoe and a lot of reading I think in my last workout I finally solved that. I feel I can now keep my knees out, chest up, head down, sit back, lean forward, push from the heels/centre of the foot, and for the 1st time I felt the drive coming from the hips, as Rippetoe wants for his trainees. My back stays arched too. I think this will carry over into my deads (I think that my problems were just as much a mental block as lack of strength). Saying that, I will also drop the weight a little for now though on deads.

Thanks for your time Coach. I will post another video for you to have a look at if you have time.

(Btw David thanks for your helpful comments).