Don't try this at home

The current sessions don't have any adverse effect on my back at all. The full deadlift is with fat grips so weight is drastically reduced but intensity is just as high. None of us like injury but it has been nice to see my recovery rate is still there, it will never be good enough obviously but if it was I wouldn't have that recovery.
I saw you are back to deadlifting again, which has to be a major boost. I thought there was a chance that I would have to stop longer than I did and hated that idea.
 
Yeah, I started again. I maxed out at 225 lbs with terrible form, but then again, it has been two months. Just need to climb back up the mountain. Felt good though. I've talked to some older guys in the last couple months who have said that heavy dead lifting is over rated, and if they could go back, they would stick with medium weight, 8 rep(ish) sets of deads. My grandfather-inlaw being one of them. He told me to stop doing heavy deads, and to do medium weight deads and do more cleans. There's an older guy that I work with (65) who said the same thing. Funny that both of those bits of advice came up when I hurt my back dead lifting.
 
I think variety is key. Do some heavy with low reps others the opposite. Reality is most people don't hurt themselves doing the work in the gym, it's outside when they are unprepared for it. In these situations it is often a one of heave or lots of small lifts so doing one or the other alone is not as real world useful.
Personally I always like to find out what the people giving the advice have done themselves in these instances. Everyone I know who avoided deadlifts due to percieved risks has a bad back, those who have always done them virtually never have.
Moderation is safer, so doing 8s and up would be safer than 5s and down, but I would hate to get to my deathbed after a totally moderate, safe life.
If you want to save your back, deadlift light and still feel like you are at your limits I can recomend fat gripz or similar. It's like deadlifting really heavy coke cans and makes you feel pathetic while knowing you are working like hell, I love it, but I would. I might try videoing myself doing them this evening just for a laugh and post it as my second ever attempt at deadlifts with fat gripz.
 
I've seen you talking about using fat gripz, and I looked into them. I like the concept and was planning on ordering them, actually.
 
The mind needs to be worked every bit as much as the body. We all know hindsight is 20/20 so I use this to my advantage, have needed to so often. Always a work in progress
 
Deadlift 03-Oct-2013

Workout details are in the above but the video basically covers it.
First set I tried from a different position and all I got was very close view of my face, scary, then face sized chunk of my torso as I lifted. I decided face with blue blur and face again wasn't very good.
I have no doubt most knew using the phone upright would produce video the wrong way up, I didn't. The camera work leaves a lot to be desired, I make technology, I don't use it, but it'll do for a first attempt.

The idea of posting this is to get critique. I am new to gripz and walk handle so very aware that my form could be suffering. I take being told I'm doing it wrong far better than injury so please do so.
Obviously don't copy what I am doing here unless everyone says it's perfect, I doubt that very seriously.

[video=youtube_share;39pGShZoa3A]http://youtu.be/39pGShZoa3A[/video]
 
I'm totally going to rip your form to pieces. I kinda feel sorry for doing so. I suspect several of the technique issues I've spotted are the effect of the fat gripz, either causing weakened grip to inhibit technique directly or causing reduced confidence in grip to inhibit technique, and your final set of pull ups adds weight to this hypothesis. The resolution of course is not to remove the fat gripz but to just be all the more conscious of technique while they're there (or, perhaps, to conclude that my judgements are wrong).

Hmm, looks like your knees cave in a little at the bottom of the deadlifts. I'd try straightening up your feet so that they're parallel, and if your knees still dip in at the bottom, then move your feet in closer. Looks like you're keeping the bar out away from your legs, and you might be in a more mechanically advantageous lifting position with a little more knee bend at the bottom. Of course, then the question is are you deadlifting to move the most amount of weight (longterm, obviously the presence of fat gripz means you aren't trying to lift the most weight possible within the session), or for a different adaptive goal? The distance between you and the bar, and the appearance that a little more knee bend would help, makes it move towards stiff-legged deadlifts. Not a technique problem, but I noticed you always go right over/left under with your mixed grip. Do you notice any back or bicep imbalances developing that way? Last thing I noticed with your deadlifts is that as it gets harder, you've got the temptation to get the bar off the ground with your arms rather than your legs and hips. Again, bar to shins and more knee bend at the start would probably facilitate resistance to this temptation, and I definitely think that the fat gripz promote this temptation. As I said above, solution is not to remove fatties.

On the 1-arm DLs, it might just be the camera angle playing tricks on me, but it sometimes looks like you'r getting more hip extension at the top when using your left arm than your right arm. When I first read that you were doing 1-arm DLs, I assumed that you were doing it suitcase style, ie leg-leg-farmer rather than leg-farmer-leg. I don't think one is more right than the other. Doing it the way you're doing it will probably allow much more weight to be lifted than the way I initially imagined it. Your starting position looks far more advantageous to me than with the barbell DLs. The one thing I'd be most concerned about from a safety standpoint is the rotation through your trunk as you do these. Being a one-armed movement, it's not in the least bit surprising that there would be trunk rotation, as 80kg+ hanging from one side of the body will do that, but torsion + weight is not exactly friendly to a spinal column, and especially knowing that you've injured your back this year raises some worries.

I enjoyed your flailing about with the pull ups. Grip was a very visible struggle there, and you can see the difference on the reps where there are no grips. I notice that at the top (when you make it that far), you tend to round your chest/upper back, which is a sign that you may be deferring away from your scapular retractors and over to your chest to get the full distance. I'd like to see more thoracic extension at the top. What do you tend to be thinking when doing pull ups? I've noticed that prettier, back-oriented technique often comes more reliably when people are focused on keeping their chest up and tucking their elbows down rather than thinking about pulling themselves up.
 
Thanks for that. I wanted the form critiqued and you did it. Most of what you spotted I saw when watching it myself but not all and having my thoughts confirmed is great. There were wieght increases compared to last week on both the initial exercises which will have been part of the issue but not all.

I spotted that deeper start and closer bar would be worth having at the start of the deadlift but didn't consider foot width. In order to be able to hold the bar I have my hands straight down and was moving my knees to avoid my arms, not a good idea. I am always wanting to lift more, predictable I guess, but it appears that I have been moving away from that while getting used to the grips. Being unfamiliar with this kit has meant I am tending to engage arms first and they are nearly always going to be the weakest link so will be throwing technique well out. Better to fix this early than let it continue and damage work I have done before.
I have used the same grip for years and whether I have noticed it or not will have built imbalance in back and biceps by doing so. I do plan to mix things up in the near future, seeing one of your sessions recently reminded me of that. At the moment I am trying to get used to the new kit from a position of strength, then I want to mix it up when I am safe with it all. That will seriously impact my weights.

Trunk twist in the one arms I will accept, bizarre as it seems I have never had any issue from doing that, could be luck or simply that the weight I can hold in one hand is not enough to damage me in this movement. I am likely fooling myself but I think this is keeping my trunk stronger. I have only damaged my spine once and that was impact fixed within minutes so I guess I am a little over-confident about what I can do with it. Only other times I have hurt my back have been muscular or other soft tissue mixture of luck and judgement, proportion, jury's out. Never done them suitcase style, always been either between legs all the way or between then to the front if using dumbells that seemed at risk of changing my gender. I am not totally sure on the hip extension part either. My shoulder is forward as it would obviously be but I am confident that the hips aren't pushing fully through either, combination means it may look worse than it is but definately needs attention.

By the time I got to pull ups my grip was fried, glad it amused, it infuriated me at the time but is funny to watch now. I find pull ups/ chins really easy normally but the chances are I cheat a lot doing them. Climbing was my background so I do just aim myself at the bar with little care on how I get there. Comes of this being my easy finisher I guess rather than thinking of it as a serious exercise, not smart. I tend to think more on technique when doing pull downs than chins which is very silly, elbows come to sides or slightly behind with chest high. There is a strong chance I haven't done a predominantly back pull up in years.

Thanks for that. Others are welcome to join in with bits we may have missed or to enforce what has already been said.



Run was dreadful.
 
This really makes me see the difference between being a "good" height and being, well, me. I have to start my deads with my thighs almost parallel to the ground, and push like I'm trying to dent the earth. Yours looked a bit more closer to a straight leg dead compared to mine, but I have to bend more than you to get to the bar.

I also straighten my feet out as much as I can. I had the buckling problem with heavier weight a while back, and when my knees started to buckle, it would kill my back. When I use a mixed grip, I switch the over/under on my hands every set so I don't get imbalances. I'll have to get a video of mine to put up. I could probably use some critiquing.
 
Height is a major thing on deadlifts. I do remember being exceptionally envious of a power lifter who could do natural lifts without bending his knees to 90 degrees, not stiff leg style like mine here.

I knew the new kit was likely messing up my technique and the chances are even without the sheer effect of training alone without judgement for so long would have so it's good to find out where I am going wrong.

I am hoping to get all 3 sessions in this week, not sure if I will but still hope to. If not the big question, do I skip bench or squats?
Crazy week this one, outside of training that is. There are often things more important, but if I can still train it's good.
 
Deadlifts are one of the few things in life that give me some solice over being not very tall. I would have replied post-critique much earlier, however these forums have been disagreeing with Chrome and Firefox for the last couple days, and hadn't updated anything since giving the form critique. Now I'm on internet explorer and feeling very sad about it, but at least I can see stuff that's been posted since Friday night (my time).
 
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