In previous posts,
I’ve discussed foot placement and hand placement/grips when setting up to
deadlift. In this post, I’ll go over how to set up for the deadlift before you
start to pull the bar off the floor.
First, you want to
place your feet and hands correctly on the bar. These placements should
serve as reference points for the rest of your set up. After getting your
foot and hand placement right, you want to optimally position your body in
order to pull the bar off the ground, with the best mechanical efficiency
possible. To do this, you want your shins to be relatively vertical, your
hips to move back, and your torso to lean slightly forward (figure1). The
deadlift is referred to as a “hip hinge” movement pattern. This is not a
squat, which is a knee-dominant movement pattern. A hip-dominant pattern like
the deadlift requires you to use your glutes and hamstrings (a.k.a. your
posterior chain) more than you would during a squat, which is more of an
anterior chain movement, utilizing the quadriceps muscles to a greater
extent.
Figure 1:
Deadlift setup
Relatively
speaking, your hips will be higher at the start of a deadlift than the lowest
point that your hips reach in a squat (figure 2). When deadlifting, your hips
only need to get as low as necessaryto get your
hands on the bar. Once you are in this position you will need to gather
tension throughout your body before you start to pull the bar. This will allow
you to better hold your position when you're lifting the weight, preventing you
from rounding your back, tipping forward onto your toes, or compromising your
deadlift position in some other way, shape, or form.
Figure 2:
Deadlift compared to a squat.
In order to
gather tension in your body, you need to first set your lats. When setting your
lats you need to imagine pulling the bar into your body/towards your shins. Doing
this will help activate your lats and keep the bar close to your body later on
when pulling the bar from the floor.
The next
step to gather tension in your body is bracing your core. This is sometimes
referred to as a Valsalva maneuver. A note on the Valsalva maneuver: if you are
a healthy normal person and do not have high blood pressure, performing at Valsalva
maneuver is not incorrect. In fact, it is the body's natural way of achieving spine
stability as a protective mechanism so we don't injure ourselves. You can brace
your core by breathing into your stomach and contracting your abdominals in order
to create spinal stability and tension through your torso.
The next step is
to slowly start to pull on the bar. This should not be an aggressive or violent
motion that pulls you out of your position. Doing this should allow you
to start to turn on musculature that you have not turned on yet, helping you
hold a better spine position and keep you aligned to lift the weight.
By this point you
may not feel the most comfortable globally throughout your body. You're
attempting to pull a relatively heavy weight off the floor while keeping your
spine stable and lifting a weight that will help you get stronger, grow more
muscle, and improve your physical performance.
Now you're ready
to start to pull, the actual act of lifting the weight. We will go over
this in the next post so stay tuned.
As always, thanks for reading!
Ryan Goodell, PT, DPT, CSCS
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If you are interested in other content from Weights and Stuff you can find it at: Email: ryangoodell@weightsandstuff.com
The inability to dissociate your hip and low back movements
from one another is one of the most common problems I see when walking
throughout the gym. This problem is especially easy to spot if you watch a good
sample size of people deadlifting. I’d like to also mention that it’s very
impressive to see just how much weight some people can lift while just pulling
with their low backs. In addition to deadlifting, this disassociation issue can
also be seen while running, jumping, and squatting. Notice that the
aforementioned movements are all extension-based.
When I refer to dissociation between your hips and low back,
I’m talking about getting extension from only your hip while your back remains
relatively neutral, acting isometrically. By performing activities without
causing flexion and extension moments at your lumbar spine, you can reduce the
amount of stress and dynamic load you place on it. Dynamic load on your spine
is not an ideal scenario.
Individuals who like to extend with both their low back and their
hips to create forward propulsion when running/sprinting-or performing any of
the other activities listed above-like to move into relative lumbar flexion so
they can then extend through those spinal segments. This is what is considered
dynamic load. For example, in the picture below, both stick figure lifters end
in the same position. The one on the left was in relative flexion and used hip
and lumbar extension to finish the lift, causing dynamic load, while the one on
the right used hip extension and isometric action at the lumbar spine. Those who use the movement strategy of hip and
low back extension together to create movement often have complaints of back pain,
due to repetitive use of their back extensors. If you are familiar with the
feeling of gradually worsening tightness or discomfort of your low back when
exercising, this is one of the common causes. (Please note that there can be
other causes as well.)
This inability to dissociate can arise for multiple reasons.
Three of the main contributors are weak anterior core musculature, poor neuromuscular
control, and tight hip flexors.
The anterior core musculature is made up of a couple
different muscles aside from the popular rectus abdominis, aka the six pack.
These include the internal/external obliques and transverse abdominis. Their
job, as a collaborative unit, is to increase intraabdominal pressure during
movements in order to keep the spine stable. If these muscles are weak and
cannot counteract the forces of your hip flexors or momentum when moving
forward, you will move into extension.
Neuromuscular control can also present as a problem. The
abs, hip extensors, and back musculature can all be plenty strong, but that
doesn’t mean they sequence correctly. In my opinion this is the hardest problem
to fix due to the repetitive nature of movement and the amount of repetitions
required to create a new movement pattern. This is where people often get
frustrated when they do not see immediate results because their previous
movement pattern is so ingrained into the brain that it becomes hard to change.
Hard to change, but still possible. This change in movement patterning calls
for a lot of repetitive tedious exercises, which aren’t physically challenging
but frustrating because they come with a lot of trial and error of movement
till you get it right.
Lastly, tight hip flexors. These buggers can
cause many problems, and disrupting your hip and low back dissociation is just
one of them. The iliopsoas muscle of your hip flexor group attaches to the
lumbar spine and inserts itself onto the femur. You can think about your pelvis
as having four ropes attached to it. These four ropes consist of your anterior
core musculature, hip flexors, hip extensors, and spinal erectors/back
extensors. If the hip flexors are tight, they throw off the balance between
these four strings, moving you into an anterior pelvic tilt. When it comes time
to perform an activity that requires hip extension, like squatting, jumping,
and especially running/sprinting, the hip flexor will pull your spine into more
extension as your hip extends, causing extension of the back and hip at the
same time.
So how do you correct some of these issues listed above?
Simply put, strengthen the anterior core muscles, practice
hip extension with isometrically acting back extensors while keeping a neutral
back, and lengthen the hip flexors/make them more supple.
Some good isometric anterior core exercises to try are
reaching planks and shoulder tap planks shown below. While performing these,
making sure to contract the glutes and abdominal musculature at the same time.
For neuromuscular control, I like to start with a prone hip
extension and then progress to a birddog. It is important to pay attention to
where the extension is coming from during these exercises, feeling the spine
stay relatively neutral and the motion coming from the hip. It is good to
concentrate on the glute contraction when performing these exercises and not
attempt to extend the leg too high towards the ceiling. People do not generally
tend to have a ton of hip extension. Normal is considered ~10 degrees of
extension at the hip. If you are getting more than that, you might be getting
it from the low back.
To lengthen the hip flexors, I like the hip flexor bench
stretch. I don’t have a fancy name for this one so if you have a better one
please let me know :)
Hip Flexor Bench Stretch
Shown below is the proper way to perform this stretch. It is
important to keep the abs tight to keep from going into extension of the lumbar
spine. Remember to breathe as you perform this stretch as well.
When
the abs are not held tight, you can fake hip extension as shown below. Most of
this motion, however, is coming from the lumbar spine. Trust me, you are not
impressing anyone with your stretching skills so just preform them correctly
and get the desired affect even if it makes you look very inflexible. That is,
after all, why you should be doing the stretch in the first place, so don’t
cheat yourself.
This should be a good place to start if you have difficulty dissociating
your hip and low back movement. If you have any questions about this topic feel
free to leave a comment or send an email to the address listed below.
As always, please like, comment, and share! That always is a
huge help to get this information out there.
Thanks for reading,
Ryan Goodell, CSCS
If you enjoyed this and would like to help me out please share this article!
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