The more advanced I become, the more of a beginner a realise I am. Before I completed my Diploma of Fitness, I was big on trying to perfect my form and technique on everything (which is good), but defined good technique as: "What my teachers say is good technique." I now define good technique and good form as being the method that gets the job done effectively and with relative safety. As such, I acknowledge that there is more than one way to deadlift (or to do any other lift) correctly. There is no single right way to do this, although there are plenty of wrong ways to do this. In light of that, here are some pointers on deadlifting, based on how I deadlift (or at least how I try to deadlift).
Setting Up...
Undoubtedly, there are far too many technique points to be thinking about all of them at the same time. Fortunately, your setup comes before actually lifting, so there's some room for mental seperation here. This is especially true in the deadlift, because you aren't under much load when setting up for the deadlift (from what I hear, this may not be so true when using a deadlift suit, but I've never used powerlifting suits, and am finally acquiring enough wisdom to consider that maybe I shouldn't be preaching about things I have no experience with). I use a conventional deadlift with a belt and a hook grip, normally.
- Set bar to ~20cm off the ground, using standard plates or blocks to bolster the bar up.
- Feet point forwards, set close enough to get hands shoulder-width apart with straight arms when you grip the bar.
- Feet under the bar, bar about 1 inch in front of the shins.
- Pivot at hips to bend down until fingers (not full palms) can be wrapped around the bar.
- I use a hook grip -- wrap the first two fingers over your thumb on the bar. Your thumbs may feel a bit explodey if you mimic this.
- Take a deep breath and hold it, squeezing your abs out (against a belt, if wearing one).
- Pull on the bar (not enough to break it off the floor) and set your back by lifting your chest.
- At the same time, bring knees forward until shins touch bar.
- Heels drive down into the floor.
- Chest drives up.
- Hips drive forwards.
- Hands pull bar back into body.
- Abs tight tight tight.
- Lockout hips and knees at the top.
I typed "heels" into google. This isn't what I meant.
Lowering the Bar...
I don't use a controlled eccentric so much as a controlled drop. If you're trying to get a hard eccentric contraction, I'd recommend just doing the pull in reverse and lowering it steadily. My lowering of the bar is a bit less strict.
- Hips back.
- Bar close to body.
- Bend knees once bar passes them.
- Enjoy making an obnoxious sound with the weight.
- Get kicked out of most commercial gyms.
I don't know. If you can't put it down properly, don't pick it up!
ReplyDeleteSeriously in competition putting it down gently is wasted effort. Personally I found it hard to keep this in mind when doing it being so used to keeping control, but I got used to it in time.
I think deadlift slippers or socks might be better than driving those heels into the floor.
I left my last gym largely because they kept complaining about the way I lower the bar while deadlifting. In my defence, my fingers are still in contact when the bar makes contact with the floor, so *technically* it isn't dropping. Right?
DeleteThus far I've been too cheap to buy quality competition shoes, so I can't comment on whether different equipment would be better or worse, but I've always found that pushing down with my heels gets a lot more lower body activation than not pushing down with my heels.
Your technique is fine, would be 3 white lights and that's all that matters. You are engaging everything at the same time giving optimum lift so you will do well.
DeleteI am back strong on deadlifts so don't use a belt to allow this benefit to improve my lifting weight, not altogether wise but it works for me.
One gym I trained at that had power-lifters and strongmen as a large part of their membership had a section of reinforced floor, there were members deadlifting around 4 to 500kg and not every lift was a smooth success, no complaints.
I use gymnastics shoes, which consist of a thin sheet of plastic between me and the ground with no cushioning and good grip. Cost me about £3 or 4 for a set, deadlift slippers which are functionally the same cost around £50 no contest.
That's quite the mark-up in price. Not surprising in the least.
DeleteThere's different strokes for different folks when it comes to using a belt. I never used to have a need for a belt, and found them awkward without getting any benefit out of them for a while. Then I took about 6 months off from deadlifting, and when I returned to it, I found that my back rounded something fierce without a belt, but with the belt on my form went back to its pretty old self. I know one lifter whose deadlifts are actually stronger without the belt than with it, so these days he doesn't use a belt at all while deadlifting. His deadlift is in the 300's, last I checked.
The shoes are different, but work the same.
DeleteI lift more without belt, though will confess to arching on some heavier lifts. My core is forgiving on this, but not the smart option, fortunately not often an issue.