Hey Rip, Really Enjoyed Your New T-Nation Deadlift Article

[gamedog]

Rip-

The whole thing was well-written as is typical and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This part though in particular is a highlight that stuck out for me:

Now comes the most important part of the procedure. Squeeze your chest up to set your back. Don't drop your hips like everybody else does, and like you've been doing, too. Just leave your ass where it is after your shins touch the bar and set your back from the top down by squeezing your chest up into thoracic extension and letting that wave of extension carry itself down to your low back.

I've been dropping my hips and it has been fucking me up. Doing so basically caused me to end up in a situation where when I pull, my hips would go up first and my back would do the rest -God-awful form and technique- at heavier weights. Last Tuesday this occurred and I ended up pulling the bar up using mostly my lower-back. This was stupid. Got a little hurt in the process... Oh well, lesson learned and I'm recovering fine, thankfully.

I'm going to work on this, and do the movement the way you describe it tonight at the gym. My lower-back feels fine. I'll be pulling much, MUCH lighter tonight and I'll do it the way you teach it here.

Good article and THANK YOU!

[Cameron]

And thanks for SS. After a decade of being in and out of the gym using bodybuilding programs with minimal gains I am finally seeing good results.

[gamedog]

Went to the gym, hit the platform after warming-up and the first thing I did, after walking up to the barbell was make sure it was over the middle of my feet. Check. Leaned over and grabbed the bar without bending my knees. Never did it that way before. Leaned over, gripped the bar, then bent my kneed just enough to get my shins to touch the bar. Remembered to set my chest, and then I pulled. Felt great. Good, smooth pull, none of this "hips go up first and then my spinal erectors take over" bullshit. Felt great. Got 250 for 11 reps and any residual tightness I had in my lower back from last week's "incident" is gone now.

[gape]

Did they only allow you to choose one Crossfit picture for the article?

[forgeforth]

For those who haven't read the artcile, it's here: http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_...e_deadlift&cr=

A lot of people seem to forget that the deadlift is predominantly a back exercise. The magnificent thing about the deadlift is that it can transform your entire body, but it requires that one develop their back strength. I think a lot of the alternative methods taught try to circumnavigate this point--they try to work around the fact that the trainee does not have a strong back (whether this means dropping your hips really low or bouncing the weights off the floor).

Bouncing the weights at the bottom is about the stupidest thing you can do. When this happens, the exercise fails to live up to its name. If you're programming RDLs--fine, but don't tell yourself that you are doing a set of five deadlifts.

For anyone still bouncing their weights: here's an experiment. Try deadlifting 90% of your bounced 5RM from a dead stop each time for a set of five. If you've been programming the bounce regularly, chances are excellent that you will need to reset below 90%.

While on SS I bounced my way from 315 to about 370. When I decided to stop lying to myself and to let go of previously acquired bad habits, I had to reset the weight all the way back to 315--a set in which I barely hit five from the proper start position.

[Fred40]

I'm pretty much BRAND NEW to all of these lifts but I feel like I have the best handle on the deadlift. I'll have to get some video and really find out.

Last time I had my daughter track the bars vertical path while I did the complete lift from floor to floor. It was almost perfectly straight.....according to her. The best tip I read in SS was not to bend the knees on the way down until the bar has cleared then. Sounds perfectly natural but when you are actually performing the lift you want to bend your knees first when you go to lower the bar.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Did they only allow you to choose one Crossfit picture for the article?

I sent in several CF pictures for examples of the very best deadlift technique, but they always just use the T&A.

[Steve Hill]

I sent in several CF pictures for examples of the very best deadlift technique, but they always just use the T&A.

Nothing wrong with eye candy.

[squat_gnome]

I switched to sumo today, but after reading this I want to try pulling conventional one more time. because I am skeptical now if my previous back injury years ago is causing problems, or not doing "chest up".

Also I must admit that i have done stupid things when deadlifting, things like lifting the fifth rep without enough breath (not having enough breath because couldn't wait more between the reps for my breath to return to normal, because my quads were getting bombarded with acid lactic, and also didn't want to stand and take some breaths because believed if i let go off the bar, it wouldn't be a "set" then).

Now if i understand correctly, my quads were feeling uncomfortably sore because my hips were low (in the name of protecting the back).
So this time i will not set my hips intentionally low, will setup the lift as said in the article and leave my hips where it gets naturally, and will lift my chest up like a boxer dog. the result will be my quads will not get sore, i will be able to breath as much as i want between reps without letting go of the bar, and my back won't hurt anymore.

[williamlexcrawford]

T-Nation has managed to get some great writers to do articles like Rip, Dan John, Mike Robertson, Jim Wendler, and Dave Tate....then they put in pictures that either are pointless to the article or are perfect examples of "You're doing it wrong." Someone needs to fire the art department over there.

The black and white picture was cool though.

Good job on the article.