r/formcheck 22h ago

Deadlift Dropped weight to work on form

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Got really good feedback last time, would love for the community to give me some pointers. I dropped weights to work on form- currently doing 3 sets 10 reps at 80kg from a previous 5-6-8rep progressive overloading (120kg-110kg-90kg)

20 Upvotes

42 comments sorted by

u/AutoModerator 22h ago

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8

u/bones2divine 22h ago

Think more lower body push as opposed to lower back pull. Roll those shoulders back, get that weight close and under your center of gravity as if you are able to yank a heavy ass root out the ground

1

u/DrewDronesFPV 22h ago edited 22h ago

Edit: wait I think I misunderstood, your first sentence.

Oh whattt, I was told the total opposite regarding the lower body push. Wouldn’t lower body push be more of a squat type deadlift? Isn’t that what everyone is trying to get rid of?

As for the center of gravity, i feel like that’s what I’m doing at the moment but you are right I can try roll those shoulders back more!

3

u/Jaykuky 22h ago

Jumping in. The safest way to start the movement is to (after setting feet properly, bracing, engaging lats, pulling slack etc etc) "push the ground away" with your quads, as the bar starts moving you can shift focus to engaging glutes with hip drive and pulling with the lower back. It's a big compound move, you don't want to "get rid of using legs" per se, it's just the balance between doing the move safely and hitting the whole posterior chain. The back is working by just holding all the weight on the way up, and really kicks in once it's past the knees. At least that's how it feels for me!

2

u/PaulBunyanandBabe 1h ago

The lower body push is for the way up and will still “concentrically” work your glutes well. On the way down your back works to stabilize “isometrically”.

I say “the spine holds the line” as you “stick your butt back to close the car door”. The correct descent with those cues is was keeps it from becoming squatty.

But most definitely push to stand or you will turn the deadlift into a standing back extension and not a glutes/hamstring dominant exercise.

3

u/bones2divine 22h ago

It really depends on your goal. So what you are performing in the video is essentially a hyper extension where the focus is strengthening the lower back muscles with the help of your legs. As you can see, your upper body to hip range is exercising a wide range while your knees are simply stabilizing. If strengthening the lower back is the goal, this is great but I’d advise to keep the confidence in yourself higher than the weight on the bar because disk heriations are very common. As opposed to the lower body push mentality, you do get lower body strengthening, but it puts the mental image of you driving with your legs through a strong core (abs and low back all around) in efforts to put up more weight. This translates to big weight, low reps, muscle growth, but won’t say much for muscular endurance.

3

u/DrewDronesFPV 22h ago

Man this is why I love this sub so much, absolutely understand the logic, let’s see if I can put it to work! Mind if I come back to you next week and post another video to show what I think you mean?

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u/bones2divine 22h ago

Absolutely! I’m in this field because I enjoy helping people and seeing people improve

5

u/slaveshipoffailure 22h ago

It looks as if you have no leg drive. Try pushing your chest out more when you take the slack out of the bar, imagine your arms as hooks and then drive through your heels to lift the weight.

1

u/DrewDronesFPV 22h ago edited 22h ago

You are right, I feel like I have no leg drive here at all with this weight. But I went to the gym with a buddy (experienced physio for national sport team) which is why I changed to this, but it feels a bit different to what I was use to doing. I posted a video of my old form: https://www.reddit.com/u/DrewDronesFPV/s/xSUyp7Xr7z if you can have a look it would be greatly appreciated

3

u/slaveshipoffailure 21h ago

I think you'd benefit from practicing how to hinge your hips. When you've hinged properly, your hamstrings and glutes will feel like loaded springs, almost begging you to use them.

In the older video, you're using your legs more but you're not driving forward with your hips. So try to hinge and then lift through your legs as if you're going to do a trust fall. It's a bit of weird cue, but it might help you drive up and forward in unison.

2

u/DrewDronesFPV 21h ago

Really appreciate you taking the time! Let me work on all those things and most importantly like I’ve been reminded, to have fun and find joy in this!

2

u/slaveshipoffailure 21h ago

No problem, I used to lift with my back as well so I know exactly how it feels haha. At least your lower back feels bulletproof, I bet!

2

u/DrewDronesFPV 21h ago

Haha it’s getting there but almost too much compared to how I felt before 😂

3

u/Mission-Aerie3077 22h ago

For me doing deadlifts close to the legs without touching the knees seems Impossible. How do people do that?

1

u/DrewDronesFPV 22h ago

I am no expert as you can tell, but i practiced a lot without weights and just the bar to get the timing of when to extend the knees and reverse when coming down. It’s really a coordination thing I think.

3

u/simplespark 21h ago

Continue working on translating your ass directly backward. The way you are moving right now is like a hip hinge. When I initiate this movement I move my ass first and by that process the bar heads down. It appears you are hinging first and then translate backwards at the end. Your proportions will probably make this movement more difficult to master.

1

u/DrewDronesFPV 21h ago

Thanks man, I posted a link to how I use to deadlift. I’ll post one more time would you mind telling me if that’s any better https://www.reddit.com/u/DrewDronesFPV/s/xSUyp7Xr7z (It feels more natural to me)

3

u/simplespark 21h ago

You previous form looks better to me. It seems you get the bar going straight down a little better with more firing of the glutes. I think having the rack as a cue for you seems to help your confidence probably as well and overall cycling of the movement. I am tall and lanky so the RDL feells complicated as a movement pattern for me. I saw a Jeff Nippard video which helped check it out on youtube.

1

u/DrewDronesFPV 21h ago

Thanks man! Let me get back to doing my old form with the tips I’ve gotten in this chat & ill revert back when I feel like I’ve progressed a little! Really appreciate everyone taking the time.

3

u/AirCheap4056 20h ago

I watched both the new form and old form. I think both forms are fine in general, but they look like they are quite obviously targeting different muscles.

The new form looks like someone doing a Romanian deadlift targeting hamstrings glutes and back, but with weights that are too heavy, so the knee bends at the bottom half of the lift to compensate; or someone targeting back muscles with back extension motion while using a deadlift set up.

The old form looks like a traditional deadlift, where all muscles are used trying to move a heavy weight.

It ultimately depends on what you are doing the deadlift for. If your goal is to lift as heavy as possible, then it'll be the old form. If you are targeting specific muscles, then there are forms for different targets.

But for both forms, it looks like you are not hinging at the hips/pelvis enough, and that seems to make the bottom half of both forms of the life less stable/controlled. For practice, with lighter weights, you can try to focus on hinging the hips as far back as possible and letting the hamstrings take the weight as you lower it down. Doing some stretches that trainings your mind-muscle connection with your hip joint, glutes, and hamstrings will also help.

With better feel of the hamstrings, your lower body should have more stability and control, which should allow you to engage all leg muscles, quads and etc, for the beginning of the lift. I feel like right now you are kind of rushing pass the lower half of the lift to let the back take over ASAP.

3

u/BoxFullofPepe 14h ago

I’d try and use bumper plates or circular plates if they have them so you don’t risk a weird angle hitting the ground and throwing you off.

2

u/Excuse_Odd 11h ago

Shoulders back, press the bar into your legs to engage your lats

2

u/thisisnatty 9h ago

Decide if you want to do deadlifts (from a dead-stop at the bottom, resetting form each time, getting tight before pushing the floor away) or RDLs (start at the top, focus on glutes and hammies pushing back, keeping tension throughout, minimal knee bend)- your current move is somewhere inbetween.

If deadlifts, use at least x1 45cm round plate each side (bumpers). For RDLs any plates are fine.

1

u/Accountabilityta2024 19h ago

It seems like your feet are fully flat on the floor. You could work on strengthening your feet, ankles and calves because if they’re that slammed to the floor it will make your lift less stable.

1

u/DrewDronesFPV 13h ago

Can you expand on this please?

2

u/Accountabilityta2024 8h ago

It seems like your right arch and ankle fall inside during the descent of your lift. As your feet are the foundation of your entire lift the imbalance can make other parts of your body to compensate and make the lifting suboptimal

1

u/amansname 18h ago

Sometimes before I start doing deadlifts for reals I will have a friend watch me do one where my goal is to get my ass to touch a wall. When they think I’m hinging enough I try to do a few reps with light weight to get my body to remember how to back it up before I do it with weight. Something about that sensory feedback of a wall touching my butt helps my brain remember the goal is less about moving the bar up and down and more about shifting weigh to my butt and using my butt muscles to shift the weight up.

1

u/OkLettuce338 18h ago

The second half of that is almost all erector spinae. You need to thrust from the legs

1

u/Sawcyy 13h ago

Chest out, squeeze oranges in your arm pits and close the door with your butt

1

u/Excuse_Odd 11h ago

CHEST UP!

1

u/Excuse_Odd 11h ago

Weight should not feel like it’s in front of you, feet need to be a little closer together

1

u/manofsteel32 6h ago

Try switching to sumo deads and see if that feels better for you

0

u/kingskows 22h ago

I would slow down even more. Try to feel every movement and reset each time. And always do the same steps one after the other so it becomes a routine.

1

u/DrewDronesFPV 22h ago

Thanks man I was trying to count to 3-4 seconds everytime, I’ll keep that into consideration.

-1

u/Hellomate53 14h ago

Take the mask off clown it’s been 5 years

3

u/LemonyTech864 13h ago

Those are headphones you moron. And even if he had a mask, who gives a fuck?

1

u/DrewDronesFPV 7h ago

This sub is so supportive, thanks bro!

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u/DrewDronesFPV 13h ago

No one is wearing a mask you moron

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u/[deleted] 22h ago

[deleted]

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u/DrewDronesFPV 22h ago edited 22h ago

Not trying to be rude but genuinely curious what does being a « professional » have anything to do with wearing shoes or not. I’m literally wearing grippy socks made for this. [ dudes comment was wear shoes you are not professional enough not to wear them ]

3

u/KeyesM3 22h ago

He’s talking out of his ass, please ignore.

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u/DrewDronesFPV 22h ago

Thanks for confirming, I was worried that this sub changed all of a sudden.