12 Feb Deadlift Inspection and Correction

By Danny Bellmore

We all have that one lift that seems to progress slower than the others. For me, the deadlift has been a thorn in my side since day one. I pulled conventional during my very first training cycle and hated every minute of it. After talking to Carrie Boudreau at a local meet – she convinced me to switch to the sumo stance.  I started to show some promise immediately after switching, but I struggled to hit 600. My efforts were coming up short every time.

[wa-wps]

At this point, I felt I needed to make some changes to progress and get to 600. Since nobody I trained with pulled sumo, I started doing tons of research. I read multiple articles and watched videos of some of the top sumo deadlifters.  So, it was abundantly clear – I was doing many things wrong. I started slowly breaking down the lift, watching my own videos, and analyzing the movement path inch by inch from the floor to lockout. The breakdown looks like this:

1. Foot position – I had noticed my feet were way too wide and too much outward flare. I brought my feet in and pointed my toes more forward facing. This new set up was giving me better hip activation through the posterior chain and better drive off the floor.

2. Hip Position – I always tried to get my hips as low as possible. The lower I went – the more out of line I became with the bar working against my leverages. I worked on keeping my hips high and opened up to be better aligned my shoulders with the bar during my set up. The new positioning felt odd to me – almost as if I was doing a stiff leg DL. A quick review of the video proved the image in my head was different than what I saw on the screen. My hips were in decent position.

3. Tightness – Once I was in position to pull, I was not even close to being tight. The lack of muscle activation and stability would lead to either a rounded back or a weight shift to my toes, as I began to pull form the floor. The lack of tightness forced me to start pulling with my back at first, then drive through my feet. As a result, I ended up with a slightly rounded back and my head and neck were out of position most of the time. I recognized I had this all wrong after watching several other elite deadlifts. One key piece of info I picked up was when the whip came out of the deadlift bar, the elite lifter’s legs would tense/stiffen as the slack was removed, then the lifter would drive their heels downward almost like pushing the floor away from them.

With the weights much lighter than typical training intensity, I would work on getting into position and wedging harder than I ever had (think 10/20/Life’s form pulls). This added focus on set-up and tightness accomplished two distinct things: (1) my body could achieve a more upright position and (2) aided in pulling the whip out of the bar, both result in a gain in leverage.

4. Conventional Pulls – After meeting Brian and in discussing my approach, he explained in detail why I should move my stance in for the off season, and we did just that. I noticed that as much as conventional pulls sucked, the change revealed some weaknesses. Nevertheless, as my raw conventional deadlift went up – so did my raw sumo.

I had been stuck at a 573 deadlift for many years. A test of patience and willingness to seek some advice, break it down and start all over has led me to achieving a 661 deadlift. I won’t bullshit you – resetting my deadlift wasn’t easy – and it took a lot of time and perseverance. If you are doing the same things, same training, same weak point training, repeatedly and without any type of progression – it’s time to make some changes. Don’t be afraid to start from scratch and rebuild a lift from the ground up – the effort and knowledge will pay off. You would be surprised with the amount of people who are willing to help you. All you have to do is ask AND comply. I personally hired Brian as my coach and that decision has paid tremendous dividends.

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