Deadlift Form Check

[Thunderwood]

Hey all, I experience pain in my lower back the next day after I do deadlifts and sometimes the pain can last for a few days. It’s not enough pain to stop me from doing any of my daily tasks.

I’m trying to set up correctly when doing the 5-step set up but I feel like I may be doing something incorrectly. Right before I lift the weight up I take a deep breath and brace my core.

Apologies for the black shirt. I can try to get another video with a different color. Thank you all in advance!

VIDEO:
YouTube

[Eric Schexnayder]

Video angle is not great. But I see at least two things:

1) Lower your gaze, stop looking in the mirror. This puts a lot of strain on your neck.

2) Your hips are probably too low, and they seem to get lower throughout the set.

[Thunderwood]

Thank you Eric, i’ll keep that in mind

[spacediver]

Don't let the air out at the top of your rep. Wait until the weight is set down to reset your breath.

[Satch12879]

Hips are low because bar is likely forward of mid-foot. Read the sticky and get us a better video from the from quarter so we can see your feet.

[Thunderwood]

I have taken two new videos with the camera angled a bit in front so you can all see my feet and wore a lighter shirt.

Thanks for replying Space and Satch, I tried to keep that in mind as I performed these new reps.

The barbell is placed over the lines on the ground so you can kind of see where my feet line up. I apologize if the camera angle is still poor

Video 1 (Angled to side):
YouTube

Video 2 (Angled to feet):
YouTube

[Nikki Burman]

Hi Thunderwood!

Eric and satch nailed the bar placement. First video- set up for rep 1 looked great, but you need to keep your hips high during the squeeze. Then your hips drop during your set up in the subsequent reps. You can try keeping your hips higher during the descent to help prevent the bar from landing in front of your mid foot. "Butthole to the back wall" during the squeeze.

[Thunderwood]

Nikki, thank you for the reply, I really tried to keep my hips high today and thought of “butthole to the wall” like you said. Hopefully this shows some improvement over my last lifts.

Thank you all for replying.

Form Check 3 (Front Angled):
YouTube

Form Check 3 (Side):
YouTube

[Eric Schexnayder]

Pull the slack out of the barbell before starting the pull. See how you sort of jerk the bar off the platform on a few reps? That's because there is still some slack left in your arms and chest. Try to bend the barbell upwards as much as possible using just your upper back (i.e., by lifting your chest upwards) before you pull, but don't drop your hips.

Avoid dropping your hips by thinking about touching your tailbone to your neck while you try to pull the bend out of the bar. You may even think about lifting the bar off the platform slightly just by lifting your chest.

[Thunderwood]

Yes I see what you’re saying. I’ll really start trying to squeeze my chest up and keep my hips up at the same time. I can see in the first video I was dropping my hips when I raised my chest up.

Thank you for the reply Eric. I will give this a shot.