Deadlift Form Check

[Sabin]

Mark,

Could you please take a look at my DL technique? It is relatively weak compared to my squat, and I'm wondering if it could be a technique issue.

This is 345x5 from last night, missed 5th rep because of bad breathing but then tried again and got it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpuDy9ET-Ig

Bodyweight: 200
Deadlift 345x5
Squat: 335x5x3
Press 165x3
Bench 235x3
PC 220


Thanks,

Sabin

[Mark Rippetoe]

Yeah, looks like shit. Here is a reprint of the current deadlift teaching progression from a post earlier this year:

The problem is your start position. The bar is in front of where it needs to be in order for you to efficient off the floor. On the second rep the bar clearly moves forward at the start of the pull, from a position that was already forward of the mid-foot. Here is our method that we teach every weekend:

1. Take your stance, feet a little closer than you think it needs to be and with your toes out more than you like. Your shins should be about one inch from the bar, no more. This places the bar over the mid-foot (not the mid-instep).

2. Take your grip on the bar, leaving your hips up. DO NOT MOVE THE BAR.

3. Drop your knees forward and out until your shins touch the bar. DO NOT MOVE THE BAR.

4. Hard part: squeeze your chest up as hard as you can. DO NOT MOVE THE BAR. This establishes a "wave" of extension that goes all the way down to the lumbar, and sets the back angle from the top down. DO NOT LOWER YOUR HIPS - LIFT THE CHEST TO SET THE BACK ANGLE.

5. Squeeze the bar off the floor and drag it up your legs in contact with your skin/sweats until lit locks out at the top. If you have done the above sequence precisely as described, the bar will come off the ground in a perfectly vertical path. All the slack will have come out of the arms and hamstrings in step 4, the bar will not jerk off the ground, and your back will be in good extension. You will perceive that your hips are too high, but if you have completed step 4 correctly, the scapulas, bar, and mid-foot will be in vertical alignment and the pull will be perfect. The pull will seem "shorter" this way.

[jgrube]

and a great teaching method it is. i taught my friend how to deadlift today. he had already learned how to keep his back in extension from when i taught him squats.

his very first rep was damn near perfect. i was very happy. the hardest part is teaching people to remember to keep their back in extension and learning how to actually put it there and keep it there the whole rep. most people just arent used to using their back like that.

[Ian Kovtunovich]

I found that the best way to hammer home the importance of keeping my back locked in extension was when my deads started to get heavy (for me), which was a few months in. After one session in particular, I noticed that I was rounding significantly on the descent, and form was getting sloppy. My back muscles were hurting for about a week after that. Next time on the deads, I made absofuckinglutely sure my back was locked down like Fort Knox, lift and lower, and presto - problem solved.