Deadlifts with a rounded back

MrM27

Last night I got to the gym and a good friend of mine started to tell me about an article he read on deadlifts. He went on to explain how it stated having a rounded back was ok to have.
I laughed it off and asked him to send me the link.

Here it is:

http://breakingmuscle.com/strength-conditioning/deadlifting-with-a-rounded-back-if-the-best-do-it-why-cant-you

Your thoughts please. Maybe its just me but doing this or teaching people to do it is just asking for trouble. Maybe I'm wrong?

hananah89

I'm not expert but unless I have proper posture it starts to hurt....I certainly don't think a rounded back would work what deadlifts are meant to work

ryry_

I don't have the answer but some appear to be challenging long held beliefs about back position when performing certain excercises. Exrx has this essay on dangerous excercises I found interesting that talks about rounded back deadlifts.

http://www.exrx.net/Questions/DangerousExercises.html#anchor416052

missveeoh

I see a lot of women having their butt stick out, head up, and have their back arched. I've been trying it this way and it seems comfortable. Having a rounded back can damage the back instead of helping it in
the long run. Then again I'm no expert!

howardheilweil

My understanding was you could rupture a disc that way.

InForBacon

The last time I broke form and did a dead lift with a rounded back, I pulled a muscle in my back and had to stop lifting for 3 weeks until it was fully healed.

lithezebra

I visualize a flat back with my neck in line, not looking up. This can look like my back is arched because I have a big butt, but I don't feel any strain in my low back. The main thing I'm thinking about in the deadlift is to hinge at the hips and squeeze my glutes as hard as I can. There is a difference between rounding the upper back slightly, and rounding the whole spine though.

Edit: I just watched the link - that's just some guy's opinion, a guy who doesn't like other people's input on his form, and a guy who doesn't lift regularly, by his own admission. So I wouldn't say, just based on one video, or one person's idiosyncracy, that a rounded back is ok.

ironanimal

His form is fine. His back isn't rounded, there's some flexion but nothing that risks the alignment of vertebrae. A strong anterior pelvic tilt will reduce your strength and places additional strain on the mid back. Ideally, spine should be neutral from hip to head, with the neck packed rather than head back.

A rounded back is when you start to resemble a camel.

I visualize a flat back with my neck in line, not looking up. This can look like my back is arched because I have a big butt, but I don't feel any strain in my low back. The main thing I'm thinking about in the deadlift is to hinge at the hips and squeeze my glutes as hard as I can. There is a difference between rounding the upper back slightly, and rounding the whole spine though.

You're doing it right

MercenaryNoetic26

Without looking at the link... wouldn't rounding your back force you to lift with the 'white hole' (area with no muscle) versus your posterior chain muscles? Off to view link now, lol.

ETA: Argh can't watch vid on Kindle. I do believe we're all built differently resulting in so many form variations. Eventually, we figure out our own 'perfect' form.

clairedrose

The last time I broke form and did a dead lift with a rounded back, I pulled a muscle in my back and had to stop lifting for 3 weeks until it was fully healed.

This....just did it, unfortunately. Wah!

mikejholmes

KatrinaWilke

Exactly how I do them!

JoRocka

so when I'm watching them and I watch their discs going flying across the gym and wack someone poor unsuspecting soul in the face- now I know who to blame.


I saw a guy doing dead lifts on an upside down bosu ball- with a round back... I was like... HOLY. CHIT.

Seriously.

Hips low... back flat- chest up. drive through the floor and lift.

fivethreeone

so when I'm watching them and I watch their discs going flying across the gym and wack someone poor unsuspecting soul in the face- now I know who to blame.


I saw a guy doing dead lifts on an upside down bosu ball- with a round back... I was like... HOLY. CHIT.

Seriously.

Hips low... back flat- chest up. drive through the floor and lift.

WHAT. THE.


I CANT EVEN.

JoRocka

yeah- I really wanted to take a picture of the uber tool- I just couldn't. round part down... dead lifting away.

just ... face palm.

he was coaching his "gf" wife or whatever- ever other set or so while she was squatting on the smith machine.

She was one of those "I'm having a baby- or I'm orgasiming" types. I couldn't' tell. It's hard to not watch the train wrecks though.

So hard.

RivenV

In for this.

Cherimoose

Your thoughts please. Maybe its just me but doing this or teaching people to do it is just asking for trouble. Maybe I'm wrong?

Some people can get away with it, but i don't see the point of aiming for that. When your spine is rounded, the Erector spinae muscles (which run down your spine and give it strength) are stretched, and stretched muscles have less ability to contract. That can be a bad thing, if the curvature increases too far and your Erector spinae can't correct it. You could potentially slip a disc.

By the way, he's doing more of a Romanian deadlift, since his knees are barely bending. For a true deadlift, his torso angle should be higher and hips lower, when initiating the lift. He probably has really tight hamstrings.

HelloDan

I personally don't believe this is as black and white as everyone wants to make it.

There are degrees of extension and flexion of the back, if you're in an extreme of flexion or extension, you're at a greater risk of disc herniation, than just a mild flexion or extension from neutral.

It's like when people get obsessed with 'butt wink' in squats. It's actually pretty natural for a small amount of pelvic tuck under, and the associated loss of extension in the lumbar spine. However this is not the same as going completely into flexion, although many people seem to treat the two as the same.

For bonus points, perhaps we should consider the stiff legged deadlift, and the back position in that?

JoRocka

For bonus points, perhaps we should consider the stiff legged deadlift, and the back position in that?

I've never seen anyone stiff leg with a round back... always flat.

Edit- I've never seen it- I don't do it- and I've never seen any one endorse it. it may not be concave but it's at the very least flat.

CipherZero

Rounding the lower back is a great way to get to Snap City quickly. Upper back, less so, but try for a solid spine.

HelloDan

I've never seen anyone stiff leg with a round back... always flat.

Edit- I've never seen it- I don't do it- and I've never seen any one endorse it. it may not be concave but it's at the very least flat.

Romanian Deadlift or Stiff-legged?

Stiff-legged you normally expect a bit of back rounding, it's commonly used in strongman training, to build up strength to deadlift with a round back, or for picking up things like atlas stones, which is almost impossible with a flat\extended back.

It's extreme positions that are dangerous, slight flexion isn't really a big deal.

I think it's to do with the way people are taught, but because of the fear of flexion, people then assume extreme extension, instead of neutral, which for most things is where you really want to be.

HelloDan

I didn't want to edit the above post, but I did want to add one more thing. The reason it's done in big deadlifts is to get favourable leverage, by reducing the distance between your hips and the bar.

It also depends how you round your back. If you round your back gradually, so that the rounding is caused by a lot of vertebrae, each vertebrae is not in an extreme position, and you maintain this position throughout the whole lift, you're not really taking a big risk.

if like the average Joe, you're spine is really stiff, and you only have movement across a limited number of vertebrae, to get a similar amount of flexion, you'll have to be at a great extreme position in the vertebrae that are flexible - like a kink, rather than a gentle curve and\or If you also can't hold this position during a lift, you're a lot more at risk, and don't want to be doing this. You also want to be working on your mobility.

HelloDan

Do you know where that comes from?

If you ask me, that looks someone demonstrating a "stripper pull" which is how not to do a first pull for a clean\snatch.