Heavy Deadlifts

Official Crossfit Langley WOD

Deadlift : 1-1-1-1-1-1-1

Pretty straight forward : GO HAAAAARD !


My warmup consisted of a 1 Mi run with the vest (15# today) : 7'30"

DL numbers while wearing my vest : 135, 205, 255, 275, switched to alternate grip 295, 305, 310...

Pictured here is my last rep. I wanted to be able to analyze my lift to see if the bar was going straight up (hence the chain in the back to compare).

When I started to pull, my knees extended (to get outta tha way of the big bar), but I couldn't keep my lumbar curve.

I somehow managed to straighten my back! Go figure. Imperfect lift HELL YEAH... Still managed the 310# with my 15# vest on... not bad.

Now I have to figure out what happened :

1. Head higher than neutral.
2. My shoulders were behind the weight and not over it. GOOD !
3. Bar against the shins.
4. Bar over the middle foot (the oly shoes straps are great reference points !) ;

The lift :

1. Did I lead with my chest, keeping it up : NO at one point my chest went down. I think even when I started my chest wasn't quite up (the 1st picture was BEFORE I started lifting).
2. My back lost the lumbar curve as soon as my knees went into extension ;
3. My hips didn't quite follow the knees extension in keeping the hips angle constant, resulting in a smaller hip angle (back more parallel to floor = BAD) ;
4. The rest of the lift was a fight to straighten the back and lock the hips.

I have to learn how to keep the chest up and the hip angle constant when I start the lift ! I have no problem extending the knees so I should focus on my chest and hips a little more. I found out in my "Barbell Bible" (Starting Strength, from Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore) that this is a common problem in lifting... And I realize now that prior to my lift, when going through my checklist or technique points... I was focusing on : 'get your knees outta tha way first, THEN extend your hips'. I'm going to change that point to 'extend your knees while keeping the hip angle constant, then extend the hips more'...

Good learning experience today, and a 'PR' if I can add the full 15 pounds from my vest (325# total, last PR was 313#, so 12 pounds heavier !).