Deadlift set-up pics



Alright, this is the best I can do with the bar in the proper height. I clearly have problems both with thoracic and lumbar extension, with lumbar being worse.





Here I'm in a slightly higher position, and thoracic extension is better. Lumbar extension is still ****.

I've seriously tried to squeeze chest up and put lower back in extension for all its worth here - I'm just not able to do better.

I had a minor back injury in my lower back 5-6 years ago, dunno if this could be the cause. Two of the vertebrae in my lower back got pushed together, squeezing some nerves in between them. Had this for nearly a year before a manual therapist fixed it.

I've always had pretty ****ty posture.


So what's my play, just do exercises to try to get more flexible?

Form check brother's squat.

Press form looked pretty good except for the 2nd rep, which you had in front of you a bit. Your brother never got close to parallel on his squat set.

no idea about the DL.

brother's squats are a good few inches above parallel, and he's not looking down. Other than that, looks like good hip drive.

your brothers knees appear to be going forward at the bottom, plus his depth is questionable at best.

You might want to have your back checked out by a decent doc. You need to rule out the possibility that you have a deformation. If your spine looks decent to a professional eye or even on an xray, you can stretch your back. Maybe your muscle tone is too high. I have this and it pulls on my spine so I need to do stuff to relax the muscles. But if that is seriously all the extension you can get, I'd rule out a structural problem first and then do the homebrew stuff, esp. with your history.

Your brother might be looking up on the way up which eliminates his hip drive. He needs to visualize rips advice that the knees stay locked in position after a third of the rep. The rest is all hips. They move "around" the knees and the shins stay upright without moving. The feeling is hard to describe. Do it without a bar and concentrate on the knees moving in the correct position and then staying there while the whole movement is done by the hips. That should bring the hamstring stretch mire into play. I realized this when I tried to implent the advice I got and it helped me a ton. Do hamstring stretches to get a feeling for how to stick your hips out. Dero posted the pic in the ***-thread.

Thanks guys, Genz especially. I'll be sure to tell my bro that he still sucks, only a bit less than before.

I can get more than good enough extension when I stand up - but when the hip angle closes, I'm simply unable to keep it.

I'll try stretching and doing foam rolling first, if that doesn't help at all I'll go to a doc.

In the meanwhile, should I just stay away from the deadlifts or do them at lower weights? Last workout where I did 110 kg led to a pretty sore back, safety first.

Edit: Just remembered I could probably schedule a visit with the manual therapist I used, to be honest I'd trust him more than most docs (apart from taking an x-ray ldo).

i think he's looking up the whole time. I actually started doing this neat little trick where I look down out of the hole, but then look up (straight ahead, really) like all the PL guys tell you to. It helps me with the chest up position.

You can just imagine you are looking down in the hole imo.

I can see how that helps with chest up, but wouldn't it increase chance of forward tilt and killing hip drive?

Also I've searched a lot for lack of lumbar extension on the DL - it's apparently a pretty common problem. Mostly caused by hamstring tightness, which I'm pretty sure is not the case for me - I can easily touch my toes with straight legs.

One of Rip's suggestions is to make sure knees are shoved properly out into the elbows, this will make it easier to go lower with the hips and thus ease lumbar extension. Tried this looking at my back in the mirror at home, and think I noticed a difference in extension. Excited to check it out at the gym come Tuesday.

This whole thing has made me realize my kinestethic sense is pretty bad, especially with the lower back. I do think I'm somewhat stiffer than most people, probably from previous injuries - but it really should be fixable. I haven't focused enough on back extension in any of the lifts, and should probably consider myself sort of lucky not to have gotten injured.

Putting up pics and details tomorrow, but just wanted to say that fixing form (grip/arch/legs, grip especially) on bench made me able to move up 10 lbs from last workout quite easily, lol.


The advice, I it

Edit:
Oct 29th:



Nov 3rd:


Still not perfect, but way better for that short time span. Some of the stretching/foam rolling exercises really worked wonders. Today was the first time I could actually feel my lower back set when in the set-up position for the DL - before I was simply unable to do this.

Much better.

Is that a gym or an anorexia rehab facility?

It's Europe. So both.

Haha. That guy in the red t-shirt was actually doing decline bench presses with ....10 lbs dumbbells. I had to concentrate not to laugh.

It looks like he has wood for your beastly 60kg deadlift.

fffffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu bish, that's my warm-up

2009-11-03
Mixed bag this one. Great success and great fail.


Squat
Such fails. Last time I actually did squats, I screwed up the last set bad and allowed my knees to trail forward waaaay too much. And as always, this wrecked havoc on my anterior hip flexors. Even with just the bar the pain was pretty bad so just did some light sets. In hindsight I don't think the standard "high rep, low weight" injury thing works for this - flexors are even more sore today.

Pretty frustrating, I'm rearing to go on the squats but I'm just not able to. Dunno how much my ripe old age of 34 matters with small setbacks like this.

So lessons learned:

• Be a total form nazi on the squat.
• Don't do squats at all if flexors are hurt, they only get aggravated.
• Don't get lazy with foam rolling, every day or bust

Bench Press
Work set: 3x5x65 (143 lbs)

Great success!! Fixing the form helped tons, especially the grip and getting a proper arch. Bar probably traveled 2-3 inches shorter now. Man it felt good to fix this. It's funny, always thought bench was the one exercise my form was decent in. lolz, no.


Deadlift
Since last time I've done a bunch of mobility exercises for thoracic and lumbar mobility. It's been a combination of things, like Magnificent Mobility, stuff I found on youtube and the links Derosnec gave me. I was pretty amazed with one of those - exercise #3 on this page. After doing it just one time, I could actually feel my upper back loosening up. Awesome.

So did a bunch of posing for my brother to take pics, then two light warm-up sets and the 3 rep set in the vid below. By now my back was officially shot from stretching and posing so much there was no way I was going heavier today. Also wanted to make sure the extension was ok before actually doing a heavy work set again.


Light deadlift work set
I notice the bar is moving inwards at the start of the set, probably meaning it's too far out. Like I said I was pretty shot at this point and mostly focused on my back.

Anyway, there shouldn't be a problem performing deadlifts now - right?

I'm not sure, but I think your 2nd rep is best, your 3rd rep is ok, and your first rep is not so good.

And what do you guys eat over there? I'm pretty sure you look 10 years younger than you actually are.

Agree.


Must be the bear meat, which we of course get from wrestling polar bears bare-handed. And thanks.

lulz You know I'm just joking right? It looks beastly to a guy that lifts 10pounders as his max effort.
BTW with bench press you need to grip the **** out of the bar and try to stretch it apart to really activate the lats in the hole. Squeeze shoulder blades together too if you aren't already doing that.

ldo, re: joking.

thanks for the bench tips, hadn't really thought of that.

"You should be pretty damn uncomfortable when you grip the bar." -Dave Tate

2009-11-03


Squat
Nope, still not ready to go. Sigh. Tuesday or Thursday.


Bench
4x67.5 (149 lbs), 4x67.5, 5x65

Video of 2nd work set. Appreciate any feedback, especially on weaknesses from last vid (grip width, leg drive, arch).

1st set felt a twinge in shoulder and skipped last rep. 2nd set, the one I videoed, the last rep wasn't even close to going up. Will repeat next time. Fractional weights arrived yesterday, hallelujah. Microloading on bench and press from now on.

Btw, the 'squeeze shoulder blades' tip is awesome for getting a proper arch. Both brother and gf had good arches for the first time using this tip. Gripping the bar hard kinda got lost in the shuffle though I think :/


Deadlift
Decided to reset a bit lower and increase more quickly to make sure form is passable.

5x90 (200 lbs) - noticed shoulders were too forward when setting up, causing bar to travel inwards when doing the rep.

2x90. Looking in "mirror" to make sure set-up is ok - my hips are lower than the std position so using the mirror at first as a learning aid to unlearn (unlearning stuff is hard). Still need to work on lower back extension obv, but is this good enough to not injure myself while working on it? Other comments?


Rack pull-ups
3x10


I need to get me some sweats, way too cold in the gym during winter months.