Deadlift starting Position Critique

[kako]

Hey Mark,

I believe I have disproportionately long femurs with respect to my torso, arm and shin length. When I stand it looks like I am pulling my pants up too high even though it is sitting right on my hip bone. In the picture below I positioned myself such that my mid foot, scaps and bar are all aligned. The bar is touching my shin. I am holding in a deep breath, forcefully putting my back into extension, contracting my abs, pulling my butt down and ready to squeeze the bar off the floor. As you also notice that I literally have to look straight at the ground to keep my spine in neutral alignment.

http://yfrog.com/naphotomej

If I position myself with the bar even a little more forward toward the toes and angle my shins more (to reduce my back angle), I would be automatically forced into the positioned I mentioned above before I can generate any considerable force. This makes me believe that the above positioning is correct and just have to deal with it. My guess is that your response would be that my anthropometry makes me a shitty dead lifter. Event though, I would love to hear that my form is totally wrong. Thanks Mark.

[Mark Rippetoe]

The position in the picture is not correct. Your weight is on your toes and your shoulders are too far forward. Given these corrections, it doesn't look as though your anthropometry is all that extreme.

[Steve Hill]

The position in the picture is not correct. Your weight is on your toes and your shoulders are too far forward. Given these corrections, it doesn't look as though your anthropometry is all that extreme.

I would add that it doesn't look like he's driving his knees out very much, since it doesn't look like they are near the insides of his elbows.

[Ello]

The position in the picture is not correct. Your weight is on your toes and your shoulders are too far forward. Given these corrections, it doesn't look as though your anthropometry is all that extreme.

Question: How can you tell his weight is on his toes? The shoulders too far forward is obvious, but considering I can't see his feet from this picture, and that I can't see any muscle tension in his calves, I'm wondering how you know his weight is on his toes.

[Mark Rippetoe]

See the position of his arms? The elbows should be further back along his knees than that. So he's a little forward, and when he rocks back off his toes a little and finishes tightening up his chest he will be in position.

[Ello]

See the position of his arms? The elbows should be further back along his knees than that. So he's a little forward, and when he rocks back off his toes a little and finishes tightening up his chest he will be in position.

Touché. Again, thank you for the speedy response.

[kako]

I can confidently say that my weight was on my heels in that picture but my shoulders are too forward. Basically I think I have been doing a straight legged dead lift the whole time. I pulled my shoulders back and that automatically made my butt come down. I will post a video of my dead lift tomorrow. Thanks.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I doubt that seriously. But you weight doesn't go on your heels. You balance in the mid-foot.

[kako]

I reviewed the section in the book about bar to foot positioning. I mentions that typically 2-3 inches away from your shin when standing and has to be over the mid foot. For example if my foot is 10 inches long does that mean that right above the 5 inch mark of the foot?

Up to now and in that picture I have placed the bar slightly behind the mid foot and closer to the heel ( about 1 inch away from a vertical shin). It seems to give me much better sense of balance, which I have to correct now.

Typically if someone tells you that the bar is placed behind their mid foot is it possible to still be in balance and generate force without falling from behind? I am asking this just to help assess my form issue.

Also when I get into the proper position and sit my butt down I get a strange feeling in the hip flexors, almost like they are being pulled. Can this happen if I lack enough mobility in hip flexors ?

[Mark Rippetoe]

The earlier printings of the book had a typo. The middle of the foot means the middle of the ENTIRE foot, not the instep. One inch from the shin is directly over the mid-foot. And once you're in the proper position, you don't drop your butt -- you lift your chest. Don't lower the hips after you touch the bar with your shins.

Here is the copy from the poster we have up here in the gym:


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.