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deadlifting and flexibility

J

jeff

Guest
just wanted some thoughts on how i could improve the real technical part of my deadlifting. i tend to loose some form when lifting and my training buddy seems to think it could be a flexibility problem, most likely in my hamstrings. the weight is not an issue here as this is happening at even a very light weight.

id just like to hear some recounts of people who may have had a similar problem with loss of form with each repetition and found that it was indeed due to inflexibility
 
Heaps of people have tight hamstrings, glutes and hip flexors. It hinders squat and to a lesser extent deadlift technique by causing the hips to fold under you and not allow you to maintain an arched lower back.

The answer?

Stretch.
 
I respecfully disagree NPR.
The safest way to Improve his issue is to increase the hip mobility with squatting.
Something Dan John said to me "it is not the weight that you are squatting that's so important it's the movement."
one legged squatting is a very useful method for increasing hip mobility, something to think about.
 
I detest stretching and Nick knows this, I NEVER encourage stretching, I believe in mobility, the ability to move a weight over a full range of motion in good form.

Nick, you know Max cant touch his toes, he cant get his hands closer than 12" behind his back, yet you commented to Armando the Max has near perfect technique in the C&J, and Armando agreed.Max is VERY inflexible.

I know stretching has done wonders for you, but there are better ways, thats why I gave James my Magnificent Mobility DVD to watch.

Back to the OP, post a video of your form for correct analysis
 
I totally agree with the hip mobility point and the what a properly performed squat can assist in accomplishing.

But for squats to be of assistance they need to be performed correctly.

And I have found (in a lot of my clients at least) that a lack of flexibilty is usally to blame for not being able to squat (and deadlift for that matter) correctly and safely. I've had good success with myself and many clients by stretching the glutes/hames/hip flexors.
 
yeah thats what i was thinking. i have always heard that you should never stretch before a workout.

in fact i have been doing some one legged squats lately. im not sure how much they are helping. the last two weeks i have had a particular focus on squatting and today i will deadlift. i will let you know how it goes. if my technique does improve i would attribute it to an increase in squatting and one legged squatting.
 
I've seen Nicks squat action improve with his stretching, and while everyone understands there are no absolutes in the world of lifting, except you must count the bar, improving your mobility should be done first if you are having issues with performing an exercise correctly.

My theory on stretching is this. The ammount of flexibility you require in your hams/glutes/hips is the ability to squat to well below parallel with your torso fairly upright and your heels on the ground.

Stretching a muscle group anywhere beyond this range is futile and pointless, and can weaken joints in my opinion.

This affects the shoulders more than lower body, but thats my take on exaggerated stretching actions, which is anything beyond the range of motion required to perform that activity.

A liitle fact, Kevin Bartlett played 402 games of AFL football without ever pulling a hamstring. To this day he cant touch his toes, he never has. Nathan Buckley is a machine, watching him stretch on the sidelines was amazing. What a sad end to a carreer, he pulled more hamstrings than anyone in recent memory.

Flexibility will not prevent injuries, there is far more to it than that. I'm not saying that you should never stretch, I just want people to understand that mobility is far more important than stretching in my opinion.
 
We lose the ability to squat as we age.
If you are unsure, watch an infant pick something up off the ground and they will show you a perfect squat.

Stetching. The only time I stretch is at the end of a workout, as a means to relax.
I think one has to be careful, excessive stetching without significant load does not improve strength and could possibly only be stressing the muscle burser.
 
Stretching a relaxed muscle will improve its length but do very little for its strength over that extended range.

by doing dynamic stretches it will help more.

By doing a controled movement over an exended range while the muscles are under a load, or are moving through the full range of motion, ie doing the squat, and focusing on were it should be stretching will help heaps..

When doing martial arts, I found it is all well and good to be flexable but i also did stretches like standing in very wide stance, or as far as i could go lunges to improve contol and strength in those stretches / range of motion

Both methods have their place.
 
yeah that's right. i'm not interested in lengthening the muscle (but i can still see the benefit of stretching). it is more strength and muscle mobility i have to work on. i need to target specific core muscles i think to really ensure my deadlifts are performed 100% correctly.
 
i think you do need to do flexibility training, particularly hamstrings, glutes and hip flexors. also i think planking and supermans to activate and strengthen the spinal erectors. planks for 2 mins and 2x10 supermans everyday.
 
PTC said:
A liitle fact, Kevin Bartlett played 402 games of AFL football without ever pulling a hamstring.
Click to expand...
You can't compare cream of the crop current players to past legends, it's a completely different game now, fact of the matter is, The Premiership team of 1975 would get run into the ground and ass raped in skills/fitness by the 2009 U18's premiers, it's apples and oranges.
 
I agree, I'm simply refering to the fact that KB was able to play for 1,000,000 seasons without doing a hammy, while others were.

Listening to him talk about flexibility and stretching is interesting.

And I wasnt talking about cream of the crop, I said Buckley lol.......the guy that left Brisbane so he could win flags lol
 
I'm no AFL fan, last time I went to a game was a Waverley Park and I had my back to the game watching the inner workings of the mechanical scoreboard lol.
 
interesting read with a couple of differing outcomes. i suffer similar problems when squatting, after maby 1 set i would start to cramp up in my ham strings and glutes while resting (which was a walk around the gym a bit, never standing still), after speaking with fadi i tried potassium and magnesium tablets about half hour prior to training and i found it helped me alot... i still do get very tight hammies and glutes, especially the next day.... but the tablets seemed to have helped. i fear that my technique is not 100% on squats and dl and sldl so i dont push too high with the weight... i really wish fadi would open a gym :p or i should move to melbourne lol
 
My biggest problem with stretches is it seems to kill my 'spring' in the bottom position of the squat and deadlift.

However, I want to squat with flat soles for a while and am going to try and improve my hamstring flexibility.
 
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