My Deadlift Needs Help. Criticise me?

[0ni]

All the issues noted above is down to breathing / thoracic tightness
Immobility comes from core strength, if your core is not properly activated then the body will make you immobile as a way of protecting itself. Most people try and stretch past this or force themselves into the right position (poorly) but this is not the right thing to do. You need to tackle the root cause

First loop the lightest band you can find around a rack and do overhead squats with it. Really force the scapulae together all the time. A set of 20 should be fine and you need to keep trying until you get to full depth on these.
Roll ribcage out on rumble roller
Set of 20 on glute bridges with your upper back on a bench
Set of 10 bulgarian split squat /leg
Set of 10 one legged kettlebell RDL

When you approach the bar, breathe downwards and push out, with the same pressure as you'd get by filling a shaker with water and then forcing another shaker inside of it
Breathe out completely, every last bit- you'll have to contract your abdominals maximally to do this. Find that same pressure when you breathe in

Film again, instant improvement

 

[Jungnaut]

Good points [MENTION=8399]0ni[/MENTION]; Tried doing all these for warm up today. Overhead squats were easy, keeping the scapular retracted for the entire ROM was not.
Lucky I have a rumble roller so I roll my lats out already, even though I hate it as much as rolling out my groin abductors..
Bulgarian split squats and One legged RDL are both surprisingly unco difficult exercises and I will practise these at home first in future lol.

That breathing analogy is top stuff, once my core is activated the mind muscle connection was like magic.

A few random questions/comments:

- Is strength a priority for you?
- Why so many high rep sets? I had a quick look through your log and saw lots of sets over 5.
- Are you one of the stronger guys in your gym?
- Can you get to a gym that has people lifting big weights? Exposure to serious lifters could help change the way you attack the lift.
- There doesn't seem to be a lot of urgency/intent to the lifts.

- Yes, functional strength is what I am training for
- I do high rep back off sets at the end for cardio and to toughen up generally
- Since the roid guys have left in Jan, its left me to hold that dubious title at the moment (natty of course), meh..
- Would absolutely love to if I can find a gym like that closeby, PTC is too far away. I know it will make a huge difference if I can train alongside a couple of goliaths.
- It seems like you got to be in a certain mood to hit heavy big lifts. None of the I wonder if I can make this kind of shit. I think I have been too dainty due to everyone around me meekly curling 12kg dumb bells. Which comes back to the point above lol

 

[wingman]

PTC is too far away? What about MP? What area are you in?

 

[White_Lie]

Yeah, where you at kunce? NOR aren't you?

 

[Jungnaut]

What the heck is MP?

I am north of Joondalup man, PTC is like 40 minutes... on a nice sunday morning. As opposed to my gym which is 2 minutes tops.

 

[wingman]

What the heck is MP?

I am north of Joondalup man, PTC is like 40 minutes... on a nice sunday morning. As opposed to my gym which is 2 minutes tops.

MP as in muscle pit, figured if PTC was too far thought they might have been an option.

And it sounds like you're a pussy. When i was first at PTC I was living in Kardinya. And now I live in Forrestfield and have returned there. Stop being a whinging pom

 

[Jeff]

Don't know your circumstances but if it's a better place to train, with serious lifters, is 40 minutes really that long?

Too far to go once a week for a couple of months? Meet up with some guys training there, get your deadlift up. Seeing and experiencing the way they train could make a big difference.

I had a quick look through your log and thought I saw 140 x9 in there somewhere. You're good for more than 170! Just gotta bring it out.

 

[White_Lie]

Could be an idea to go once a week or fortnight maybe to get some tips/motivation on specific lifts (like you're asking for here)... Or wingers can bitchslap you and send you on your way?

 

[jzpowahz]

I like that breathing cue Oni. I've been able to create a lot more tightness (now I don't use a belt at all for deadlifts) by using what Chris Duffin said. Think of the rib cage as a piston and you want to drive the piston down towards the hips. (this means lat and CORE tightness)

And as was said, SPEED, SPEED, SPEED! (once you have the aforementioned core tightness sorted, otherwise, your hips will shoot up well before the bar leaves the ground)

The progressive force method works a lot better with sumo deads and much heavier weights with deadlift bars.

 

[Jungnaut]

Can someone explain how they go about 'loading their hamstrings' when setting up the deadlift?

Going by Ripptoe's method, right:

The Deadlift: Perfect Every Time



1. Take your stance, feet a little closer than you think it needs to be and with your toes out more than you like. Your shins should be about one inch from the bar, no more. This places the bar over the mid-foot – the whole foot, not the mid-instep.

2. Take your grip on the bar, leaving your hips up. DO NOT MOVE THE BAR.

3. Drop your knees forward and out until your shins touch the bar. DO NOT MOVE THE BAR.

4. Hard part: squeeze your chest up as hard as you can. DO NOT MOVE THE BAR. This establishes a "wave" of extension that goes all the way down to the lumbar, and sets the back angle from the top down. DO NOT LOWER YOUR HIPS – LIFT THE CHEST TO SET THE BACK ANGLE.

5. Squeeze the bar off the floor and drag it up your legs in contact with your skin/sweats until it locks out at the top. If you have done the above sequence precisely as described, the bar will come off the ground in a perfectly vertical path. All the slack will have come out of the arms and hamstrings in step 4, the bar will not jerk off the ground, and your back will be in good extension. You will perceive that your hips are too high, but if you have completed step 4 correctly, the scapulas, bar, and mid-foot will be in vertical alignment and the pull will be perfect. The pull will seem "shorter" this way.

If Step 2 stretches the hammies (its similar to the pre stretch of the SLDL described in this step), then Step 3 effectively loosens them once the knees bend.
So in order to load the hammies my view would be to maintain a neutral back position from Step 1 all the way through to Step 3 (hard part) by pushing the hips out hard with an anterior tilt so that it stays in line with the back.
And then rocking back to get that stretch in the hammies like you would in a RDL or SLDL.
Because if you arch your back to get down to the bar, you have an uphill battle on two fronts.. a) you have to set your back into a neutral position again and brace your core while bent over, and b) your playing tug a war with the hammies to accomplish step 4 with that 'chest up cue' which is an unneccesary war imo!

Well, that's what I have gathered so far playing around with different set ups lately. I like further enlightenment please

 

[canned tuna]

I prefer to keep tension on them with high ish hips rather than trying to move it with quads first

But different levers. Long femur crew

 

[Jungnaut]

You me both then lol

 

[RyanF]

Simply dropping your knees forward will take the slack out of your hamstrings. Pulling your knees forward, or rather pulling yourself into the bar, will load them up. Pull yourself into the bar, then pull back and lock out.

 

[Jungnaut]

Simply dropping your knees forward will take the slack out of your hamstrings. Pulling your knees forward, or rather pulling yourself into the bar, will load them up. Pull yourself into the bar, then pull back and lock out.

Yeah that must be it! The knees can't travel forward at any stage, and the hips have to be pushed back. Like the twerk cue that someone mentioned at some point or other.