Confession of a non-Dead Lifter

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soflsun

New Member
So the DL is the king of the gym.  Well I've never mentioned this before, but I have never done a DL before today.  I was always scared of pulling weight from the floor and possible back injury or hernia.  Anyway, since joining this forum I have now done free weight squats and now DL's.  I wouldn't have ever had the courage to do it if I wasn't a member here.  Thanks to everyone.  I think the sig, "what's the use of living if you can't do the DL," or something like that was starting to really **** with my mind.

Anyway, it felt f-ing great! I now just need to make sure my form is absolutely correct.  I felt pretty good on the rise, but when I was lowering the weight I felt that my back was bearing a little too much of the load.  Any really good links or movies of the lift would be much appreciated.  My heart was beating pretty damn good from these suckers, probably from nerves as well as the lift itself.  

I did 8 sets of 3 for 185 lbs. and 1 set of 5 for 205 lbs.  I felt this was honorable for my first time.  Thanks to everyone.
 
soflsun,

Great job man!

Congrats, I think you'll find them a very valuable addition to your arsenal!
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But yea, make sure that form is good, cause they are more of a risky lift than some others. If done correctly, they are well worth it.
 
To lessen the risk of injury, I only do deads with a trap bar. You don't have to hyper-extend your back to keep the bar in front of your knees. It thus allows one to handle heavier weights as well.
 
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(soflsun @ Nov. 05 2007,15:52)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I felt pretty good on the rise, but when I was lowering the weight I felt that my back was bearing a little too much of the load.</div>
I try to lower the weight in the exact opposite manner that I lift it.
 
That's really good to hear Solfsun. You will get to love deads once you have your form down.

If you didn't catch it, check out this recent thread: Stuff on deads

There are some useful vid links and lots of helpful advice.
 
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(soflsun @ Nov. 05 2007,14:52)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">&quot;what's the use of living if you can't do the DL,&quot; or something like that was starting to really **** with my mind.</div>
same here! I felt exactly the same way when I 1st saw that sig
 
the problem is when you are doing a new lift you can get carried away with the weight,try improving your lifting form every week first before you trying to inprove your weight.
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Faz'z advice is the very best and most important, especially for squats and deads. I went the ego route and now am having to correct with light weights again.
The tendency is to cheat the lift using the back rather than targeting the legs, and once you get into big numbers, you will stall out due to using the back and cannot correct it (I was told by a PL coach and gym owner here) while lifting big. Much better to come up slowly with proper form than having to start all over again.
I've just gotten up to 315 and am starting to notice my bad habit trying to return. I'll refuse to advance until it's all legs throughout the first 2/3 of the lift. I could easily do much more right now, but it would be all wrong, and I would just stall out again and never reach my &quot;goals&quot;.
 
Great points from Quad and Faz , approaching this with the &quot;visualization&quot; of pushing the floor/earth away with leg drive will go along way towards ensuring good form at the bottom portion of the lift . Very much like how envisioning pushing yourself away from the bar in bench works.

And congratulations on beginning to pull! The only thing I would add to the above comments is to point out that deadlifts &quot;cost&quot; more than other lifts CNS wise , and be aware that the bill never comes during the workout but later - so you want to be sure to leave a little in the tank on these until you develope the ability to predict fairly accurately (and in real time) just what kind of debt you're taking on. As you work these into your routines you'll want to be cognizant of this.


Anyway , Great to hear - good luck , and best wishes for some limb-ripping pulls!!!
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(RUSS @ Nov. 06 2007,16:49)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">The only thing I would add to the above comments is to point out that deadlifts &quot;cost&quot; more than other lifts CNS wise , and be aware that the bill never comes during the workout but later - so you want to be sure to leave a little in the tank on these until you develope the ability to predict fairly accurately (and in real time) just what kind of debt you're taking on. As you work these into your routines you'll want to be cognizant of this.</div>
Like Quad, Faz and Russ have said, form is key with deads. It is a deceptively complex movement. Most new deadlifters (I was one) think you can just grab the bar and stand up! But actually there is a very particular groove which you need to learn and lock into your brain. It took me quite a bit of reading about it and quite a few cycles to feel like I had figured it out. Even now, after two years of working on it, I still use the warmup sets to get locked in again before any heavy stuff.

Totally agree with Russ about the CNS &quot;cost&quot; from a set of heavy deads too. Rippetoe recommends only one top set of 5 rather than sets across when deadlifting. For me, this really applies when I am close to or above my 5RM load. Lighter than this and I can get away with doing a few sets across.

Max Stim reps work really well with deads.
 
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(quadancer @ Nov. 06 2007,10:12)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Faz'z advice is the very best and most important, especially for squats and deads. I went the ego route and now am having to correct with light weights again.
The tendency is to cheat the lift using the back rather than targeting the legs, and once you get into big numbers, you will stall out due to using the back and cannot correct it (I was told by a PL coach and gym owner here) while lifting big. Much better to come up slowly with proper form than having to start all over again.
I've just gotten up to 315 and am starting to notice my bad habit trying to return. I'll refuse to advance until it's all legs throughout the first 2/3 of the lift. I could easily do much more right now, but it would be all wrong, and I would just stall out again and never reach my &quot;goals&quot;.</div>
i had a similar habbit, now i try to spread the lift between legs and back, more in the legs to start the lift and then back towards the latter.

ive noticed my errectors and hams have benefited from strict form, dead lifts are teh s@@t!
 
I use sumo style myself and don't find it too taxing until hitting maxes, and I can lift a lot more in deads than squats - but since I'm 'retraining', what I've set up for myself is beginning a workout with full weight squats for two sets, then two light sets of deads. Next workout is the reverse. This way I advance my strengths plus work on form with the light stuff plus really slam the shoobugger out of my legs!!! THEN I worry about upper bod, if I don't just do a split. (some days)
 
Thanks for all of the replies.  I have been reading and watching the videos to make sure I am using proper form.  

I think I was pretty good for my first attempt, but the bar should have been closer to my shins and my delts weren't in front of the bar (I don't think) so my blades probably werent properly aligned with the bar.  The first time I lifted the weight for each set it felt heavy, then It felt much lighter on the subsequent reps.  I believe this may be due to using proper form on the first rep, and them using more back and poorer form on the rest of the set.  It's hard to tell because I don't want to look sideways at the mirror and crick my neck, but I'm sure I'll get the feeling.

The negatives are much harder for me to control.  I think I let them down too slowly and used more back as opposed to legs on the way down.  For some reason it was hard for me to reverse the movement exactly.

What I can say for sure is that my lower back is sore, but doesn't feel injured.  My legs don't feel much of anything (but the weight was light in comparison to squats so maybe that's why), and my upper back, rear delts and traps feel wicked sore.  I like!!

*I'm starting to see why iso's aren't 100% necessary in most instances...exceps curls.
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Having correct form is necessary, work with the light weights to get it right. I'm still trying to get my form correct, and I have been off of the Smith machine for nine months.

Congrats soflsun, you are part of the all mighty DL Club!
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soflsun.the negative part can sometimes be the hardest for some people,the problem is you forget its still part of the lift and tend to just let the weight take you down,this is what causes a lot of injuries.

i see some guys in my gym who do the full deadlft,where they touch down for a second,then pull from the floor.

i saw one guy lifting the weight to his waist then dropping it and then restarting again
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which IMO is a waste of time because you are not doing the negative of the lift.

in my personal opinion i prefer to do romanians,after years of different types of lifting i find that these are the best for me,because they keep my back under tension the whole time,if i touch the floor and restart as in normal deadlifting i find that i relax to much and that has given me problems,wheras romanians i just lightlt touch the floor then straight back up keeps my form and concentration better.
 
Great going soflsun.

As Faz puts it, nab the form first before improving the weight, its a great lift but your back will feel it till you get into the groove, once you're there its plain sailing.

Me and JV once joked before that the Count Dracula himself must have invented this one...its one of the best movements in the gym and sadly ignored by many
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You mean feared by many!
But as you say, once you get into it and find the groove (and that's THE groove, not YOUR groove!) it becomes your steadfast companion. But there are synergistic muscles to train up, balance to be learned, mental aspects to acquire (which ARE your own), and neural learning to the main lift mechanisms, primarily the erectors for some, unless you've been a fan of good mornings or hypers.
The back is amazingly resilient, strong, and trainable. I think we just push it on a back shelf because it's behind us, out of sight, out of mind.
Except when it hurts. And of course, some of us had weak backs that hurt because of health 'practitioners' and the lot who say NOT to do exersizes that use the back - the very opposite of what we should have been doing all along!!!
 
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">You mean feared by many!</div>

Maybe so...quad, maybe so...along as you say with misinformation about getting a back injury, when the opposite is true, it strengthens your back so that you will not develop an injury that easy.

Agreed...good mornings and hyper extensions are good additions to back strength.
 
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