deadlift form check-why does this make my knees sore?

[Shawngupta]

Hello,

For some reason, my right knee got really sore after doing some deadlifts, and I couldn't figure out why this was happening. Especially since squats do not bother them at all.

I looked around the internet and found one possible explanation: the weight was being dropped too fast and thus shocking my knees. Are there other possible causes for this?

Anyway, here is a linked video for the form check:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=D34wPKCEjIg

I apologize for the angle because my feet are blocked. Though, I usually try to put my heels close together.

I lose my balance at the end because I am trying to sit backwards as much as possible. This is probably something I need to fix.

Thank you!

[Milo's Ghost]

Oh FFS.

Have you read the book? Specifically the chapter on deadlifts?

This is a rhetorical question. Read it. $9.99 on Kindle. The paperback is gorgeous but I understand the thrill of instant gratification.

Once you have done this, try to deadlift according to the model in the book. THEN post another video and I will be happy (nay, thrilled) to critique it. Promise.

[Shawngupta]

Hi Milo,

I understand it is incredibly frustrating when people come here and post and don't look like they know what they are doing. And you are right. I should go re-read the chapter on deadlifting. Unfortunately, the only thing I can recall is "Don't drop the bar on the kneecaps." And when I skimmed through the book last night, I didn't find anything else related to knee injuries in that chapter.

I really want to fix my form, especially the cause of the knee sore. Would you know which particular issue could be causing that?

[Milo's Ghost]

It could be any number of things, but that is far from the point.

If you say you've read the book, I'm not going to call you a liar.

Read it again. Carefully. Your deadlift is *nothing* like the SS model. At all. Really.

Start from a blank slate. Read the book and go into your next deadlift workout trying to replicate what you read as closely as you can. Post a video of that and we'll go from there.

[Shawngupta]

To be honest, I am incredibly curious what those number of things are.

Because usually finding fitness related answer is easy on the Internet, but for some reason, I couldn't find much of anything relating deadlifts and sore knees. Well, aside from some generic answer on livestrong or eHow. But I was hoping to find something more technical, much like how Ripptoe writes in his book.

I know you are correct that restarting my deadlift and following the SS model to a T will bypass my problem. I will do this, but I really can't recall the book pointing out any specific errors that led to strained knees.

So for the sake of learning, why don't you teach me what some of the possible issues are?

[BareSteel]

I can't tell from this angle, and this can occur for a few different reasons. One guess is that the bar starts out of line from the mid foot, and then bashes into the knee when it returns to the correct line of pulling. Alternatively, even if the pull itself is fine, you can bang the knee on the way down if you put the bar down incorrectly. I can't see which of these applies to you.

So although the above posters didn't answer your question directly, following their advice will lead you closer to a mechanically efficient deadlift (a straight line), and if you pull correctly, there won't be any banging of the bar against the knee.

If you deadlifted yesterday, that leaves you until next week to read up.

[medwards]

http://startingstrength.com/resource...468#post182468

"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."

[Milo's Ghost]

I agree with Steel, my GUESS would be that you're banging your knee, probably on the way down, possibly on the way up. The bar is all over the place like a drunk after last call.

There. Now you have your answer. You can read the damned book and learn how to fucking deadlift properly without that weighing on your mind. Go in peace.

[moving2]

I registered and am thread resurrecting as my first post just to say this:

Read it again. Carefully. Your deadlift is *nothing* like the SS model. At all. Really.

IMHO, what you see above is what makes many forums unhelpful places. Milo Ghost puts forth much effort in emphasizing his point about the OP's form being nothing like the SS model. At all. He really. Does. In *annoying* ways.

...but he fails to actually help the OP by describing, in detail, exactly how his form deviates from SS ("bar all over the place", in a later post, is not very helpful, as I only see a very slight arc toward the body as the OP pulls). I see he asks the OP to post another video after rereading SS, but the OP has clearly stated he has already read SS. So why not just get to the point and tell him what is wrong with his form and how it deviates from SS? This is the valuable information the OP was in need of, and which Milo Ghost went out of his way to not provide. It wouldn't have taken Milo much more time than it did for him to include the *dramatic* asterisks and. Unnecessary. And annoying. Punctuation. Would it?

As a new member who has also read SS (carefully) and cannot see the OP's form deficiencies that may be obvious to others, I really hope this message resonates with some members on here.

[mrflibble]

I registered and am thread resurrecting as my first post just to say this:



IMHO, what you see above is what makes many forums unhelpful places. Milo Ghost puts forth much effort in emphasizing his point about the OP's form being nothing like the SS model. At all. He really. Does. In *annoying* ways.

...but he fails to actually help the OP by describing, in detail, exactly how his form deviates from SS. I see he asks the OP to post another video after rereading SS, but the OP has clearly stated he has already read SS. So why not just get to the point and tell him what is wrong with his form and how it deviates from SS? This is the valuable information the OP was in need of, and which Milo Ghost went out of his way to not provide. It wouldn't have taken Milo much more time than it did for him to include the *dramatic* asterisks and. Unnecessary. And annoying. Punctuation. Would it?

As a new reader of SS and new member of this forum, I really hope this message resonates with some members on here.

In my case, you're out of luck.

I've bolded the crux of your complaint. The book already does precisely this. I suppose Milo should have typed out the deadlift section of the book?

People posting form checks are getting free help, often from actual starting strength coaches. There is a reasonable expectation that they have already put some effort into their own training. That they have at least read the book carefully enough to understand it.

When someone posts a form check so horribly off what the book describes, the only fair response is to direct them to the book. 100% of the time they either haven't read the book at all, or skimmed it and failed to achieve any understanding of the material.