Optimum pulling mechanics is certainly a factor, but anthropometry is too. Do you have a long back/short legs?
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Bad deadlift form
I just realized, after taping my deadlift for the first time, that I've been pulling with the bar forward of my mid-foot. I think this is why my max DL is a little less than my max squat. I'm going to correct my form (and keep taping deads).
My question is, absent their being some other reason why I'm in the minority who pulls less than they squat, should my DL progress ahead of my squat once I fix the form fault?
Put another way have I just been wasting the strength I've built on a mechnically inefficient pull, or have I not been building as much strength because of a mechnically inefficient pull - and if it's the second scenario would that require something more than fixing my bar path to get my DLs to pass my squats?
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Optimum pulling mechanics is certainly a factor, but anthropometry is too. Do you have a long back/short legs?
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I do. 5'10" and 30" inseam. But there are guys built like me that get their DL above 370 - how do they do it, aside from pulling the bar up in a straight line?Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe
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They just get their long backs strong by deadlifting with good technique.
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Then I know what to do. Thanks.
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Niclane - let me know how the process of correcting your form goes, please. I won't be able to film myself for quite some time and am wondering just how bad my form is. I could ask one of the fine individual,s opinion I occasionally see, who walk around with dangling wrist straps and call each other "bro", but somehow I think this may make things worse.
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From your location, I can understand that you might have limited access to stuff that you didn’t initially bring with you – but do you have access to a cell phone with a camera or a laptop with a webcam? Those might be ways to get some video of your lifts.
I haven't yet tried a heavy pull since the exchange with Mark, but I reread the DL chapter in the book, reestablished my visual cue for a correct mid-foot bar position, paid careful attention to really keeping the bar in contact with my leg on the way up (I had apparently let those two points of form lapse badly) and filmed a set of 5 at about 225. The bar went up in a nice straight line. It was sweet, and the lift felt easier to boot.
I could tell my sets with bad form did not have a straight bar path by eyeballing the video (it was pretty obvious), but it was really shocking to trace the bar path with some free software called Kinovea. It's really cool and fun to play with. I could watch a blue line trace my lift in slow-mo, making a nice arc back toward my shins and then see how I set the bar down in a perfectly straight line. Very telling.
I had also been doing some DL assistance work that was lower weight, higher reps. I've dropped that because getting tired toward the end of those sets got me sloppy and reinforced bad habits. And I'm going to do my DL work sets very deliberately even, if they lean more toward being five singles rather than a set of five, at least until I really nail the form and it's second nature.
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