Deadlifts with a rounded back

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

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!

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.

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

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!

Exactly how I do them!

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.

In for this.

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?

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

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.