Deadlift form - body awareness

cheshirecatastrophe

I am very new to lifting, and having a lot of trouble with my deadlift form. According to (very knowledgeable) people I've asked at the gym, I get it right some of the time and dangerously wrong the other 50%--usually starting the lift with my back before engaging legs, the usual.

The real problem is, I can't tell the difference between the good lifts and the bad ones. Did any of you struggle with that at the beginning? How long did it take you to develop the body awareness to know when your back was rounding, when you weren't lifting with your legs (I tried the mental cue of "Push the earth away" and...no effect)? Did you do anything that sped up the neural connection process?

I won't progress my deadlift until I get the form down cold, but as a runner I kinda need to be working my hamstrings to balance out the quads (squat). I've got hip thrusts to keep pushing my glutes, but there doesn't seem to be a great replacement for hammies since I'm not even strong enough to *initiate* the glute-ham raise.

Willbenchforcupcakes

I've been pulling for almost three and half years now. It took close to two before my form was pretty close to perfect every rep even max and near max singles.

What I did and still do a lot is record every set and watch it right after. If I notice something is off, I correct it and try again. Eventually, you learn what great form feels like - if I'm off any given day I can usually tell exactly what the footage is going to look like before watching it.

As for replacements while you nail down form, stiff legged or Romanian deads starting off of blocks will help.

professionalHobbyist

Have you tried doing stiff leg deadlifts with just light Dumbbells for your glutes and hams?

Kettle bell swings work great too plus they hit your hip flexors like a thruster type exercise.

I do KB swings last on leg day as the exercise to bring the smoke to my legs.

jessef593

This is going to be very vague, but I've found it is much easier for me to keep a neutral back if I focus on keeping my *kitten* stuck out so that the movement comes from my hips. It takes tremendous amounts of pressure off of my back and really allows me to lift from my hips and legs. I'm daily new to deadlifts in the last 6 months but have been lifting on and off for acouple years. So iron_miss_canada will probably be more knowledgable. But for sure film yourself while doing them and improve upon wherever you see flaws in your for, and have a spotter who is well versed in compound lifts to tell you exactly what you did right and what you need to improve upon

DopeItUp

I just video my sessions. Then I can review the video and see how my session looked compared to how it felt. Helps keep my technique as good as it possibly can, especially when dealing with very near-maximal loads.