Critique my deadlift, version two.

I agree with everything rainbowbow said

My observations are
1) You're pulling mainly with your back (notice how it curves even on the first rep)
2) You're rolling your shoulders
3) You're overall very unstable.

Rainbowbow already addressed the back issue, so I won't repeat. But as for your shoulders, make sure your arms don't go limp. Notice how you're bending your arms every time you begin to pull? Your arms should be straight and elbows tucked in before you even try to get the weight off the floor.

Also why are you wearing socks? This is probably contributing to your instability. Either ditch the socks and deadlift barefoot or switch to flat soled shoes.

I think the best way to think of the deadlift is think of it as a pushing motion rather than a pulling motion. Right now you're trying to 'pull' the bar up with your arms and back. Instead you should be thinking of pushing through your heels into the floor (which you can't do well in socks!). You want your power to come from mostly your legs rather than your back and shoulders.

*Disclaimer, I'm not actually certified in anything nor a serious powerlifter, so my advice is just from personal knowledge and experience.

MichelleLei1 wrote: »

I agree with everything rainbowbow said

My observations are
1) You're pulling mainly with your back (notice how it curves even on the first rep)
2) You're rolling your shoulders
3) You're overall very unstable.

Rainbowbow already addressed the back issue, so I won't repeat. But as for your shoulders, make sure your arms don't go limp. Notice how you're bending your arms every time you begin to pull? Your arms should be straight and elbows tucked in before you even try to get the weight off the floor.

Also why are you wearing socks? This is probably contributing to your instability. Either ditch the socks and deadlift barefoot or switch to flat soled shoes.

I think the best way to think of the deadlift is think of it as a pushing motion rather than a pulling motion. Right now you're trying to 'pull' the bar up with your arms and back. Instead you should be thinking of pushing through your heels into the floor (which you can't do well in socks!). You want your power to come from mostly your legs rather than your back and shoulders.

*Disclaimer, I'm not actually certified in anything nor a serious powerlifter, so my advice is just from personal knowledge and experience.

Tony Gentilecore has a real nice IMO cue, pretend you are squeezing an orange in your armpit the entire lift.
http://vitals.lifehacker.com/pretend-you-re-squeezing-juice-with-your-armpits-to-imp-1759294871

Think tight lats, tight upper back.

I am a powerlifter. I like the pushing your feet into the floor cue mentioned above. I also agree that your upper back needs to be tighter. You probably also want to look up valsalva maneuver so you know how to breathe. Using it will also help properly stabilize your core. For beginners, a full reset is usually best instead of touch and go so you can get all muscles engaged every time and not get sloppy. That will also prevent you from taking advantage of any bounce. Your position is actually not too bad, so these fixes should be pretty simple.

I would like to see the following changes take place first.

a) Stand slightly closer to the barbell before you bend down to grab the bar. It appears to me that you are not quite over the mid-foot at the start and this gets worse as the set goes on.

Which leads me to

b) Stand up in between reps and reset your starting position. Primarily because this will force you to go through the set up multiple times per set which will reinforce learning the proper set up. It will also prevent you from rebounding off the floor as someone previously mentioned.

c) I would like you to cue "chest up" and squeeze oranges with your armpits before you pull. This will both extend your spine and tighten your lats.

Finally

d) Before you pull you should take a deep breath and hold it in as you drive the earth away with your feet.


This is a lot to do at once and if I were coaching you I wouldn't do it in this fashion. I would start with one of the items (in your case it's a toss up between a and c) and I would review a new video to see what that looks like before further modifying it. Primarily because it's not generally a good thing to be thinking about several different cues at once and secondarily because changing 1 positional or technical aspect of a lift can change other things so it's best to reassess them 1 at a time.

a deadlift on a smith machine is not a deadlift. Unless you have some injury or disability, or are rehabbing, stay away from it.

Some great advice above (which I agree with).

Something that I think may help you is that, once you have the bar in your hands and your down ready to lift, rock back a little. As posted it looks like you too far away from the bar, by focusing more on your weight being further back over your heels you will naturally keep the bar closer on the first part of the lift.

distinctlybeautiful wrote: »

When I told the hubby about y'all's tips, he said, "don't worry, mine's probably bad too," but I don't feel bad about it! I just really wanna get it right, so thanks again!

That's a good attitude to have. You don't want to do deadlifts with poor form. The more weight you put on, the more critical form becomes to avoid injury and to work the correct muscles.