Alrighty, this is an easy fix. As soon as the bar breaks the floor, you lose back positioning. When this happens, you cannot effectively use your glutes and the last 3-4″ or so of your deadlift is you extending your spine (not optimal). This will make your lockout a lot slower. This also causes you to rock back and forth on your feet, not staying on your heels (as Will mentioned above).
The reason for this? You never get tension before you pull. Your set-up consists of you sitting in the bottom and then trying to fire up as fast as you can to yank the bar off the ground. When you do this your body searches for tension. Your hips shoot up to find tension in the hamstrings and your back rounds because your erectors aren’t strong enough to support the load. If you want to see what I mean, pause the video at the point where the bar just breaks the floor. You’re essentially in a stiff leg deadlift.
How to fix:
1 – Refine your set up and learn how to use the lifters’ wedge and create whole body tension. There should be no wasted movement when the bar leaves the floor.
2 – Strengthen your back. Lots of rows. If you think you’ve done a lot, do more. Focus on keeping a tight and neutral back during all rows to reinforce the position you want.
3 – I love Will’s suggestion of the paused deadlift. I would probably have you do them 1″ off the floor to teach you how to stay engaged and maintain position.
4 – (this should be a given) Make your midsection bulletproof. Birddogs, McGill Crunch, planks, stir the pot, weighted caries. Do them EVERY SINGLE DAY.
Hope this helped you brother! You can always look into getting some coaching as well. I, along with a few others on the team, would be really helpful to lend an objective eye to your training.
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Paul is an elite level raw Powerlifter with personal bests of an 805lbs squat, 440lbs bench, 725lbs deadlift and a 1960lbs total in the 242lbs class, as well as an 800lbs squat, 430lbs bench, 700lbs deadlift and 1930lbs total in the 220lbs class.
Paul brings a deep educational background to the team as he has earned Master’s degrees in both Sports Management and Exercise Science. He is a former D1 Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coach, who now works as a Functional Rehabilitation Specialist in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Paul provides coaching services in the areas of training and nutrition through his company Master Athletic Performance and is also the co-founder of a technology company, 1-Life Inc. Stay tuned for more information on that in the future!
