Originally Posted by
Erik Y
First of all, a big thanks to the coaches on this forum. It’s unbelievable how much quality advice has been provided in this space free of charge.
Male, 30 years old, 5’11”, 200 pounds, doing LP, on a reset from 315, set today was 305 for 5. At the beginning of the deadlift, I try to get as tight as possible by lifting my chest up and waiting for the two clicking sounds before I break off the floor. This works great, but my lower back hates it, so sometimes when it gets really uncomfortable during my work set I find my hips firing early involuntarily, which I always immediately regret. This inevitably results in a massive grinder trying to clear the knees. When it happens on the fifth rep, as it did today, I can tough it out and finish the rep. But if it happens earlier in the set, the exhaustion from the bad rep screws up the following ones, which usually means a missed fifth rep. And if I do manage to make the last rep, it is not a fun time.
I know (I think) that the coaches here are not psychologists, but I was wondering whether someone has seen this before and has some advice on how to keep the body honest. I’m consciously aware that the whole system has to get tight before the bar moves, but it only takes one moment of unconscious wussing out for the bar to break off the floor early, and once it’s in motion there’s no way to reset the lower back mid-lift. Due to my location (China), I can’t get a good coach to kick my ass about it in person (although there’s plenty of personal trainers around to explain why I should be deadlifting in the smith machine). I really want to nip this thing in the bud before it becomes a bad habit.