You're a real one for posting a video like this Eugene. As a trainer myself there's so often this "I've already figured it out, there's nothing left to learn" mentality (especially with younger trainers), but you're showing that an elite like yourself will always benefit from outside input, and that there's always room to learn. Form evolves, people are different, and it's hard to take a step back and reevaluate for yourself. You're humble and hungry to learn, and I want you to know that it's inspiring your viewers like me to always be looking to learn.
Very interesting! I use to pull the slack with my arms engaging my lats etc and this often leads me to use more low back to start the lift, I'll try to "push the slack" using more legs to create tension with the bar and start the movement.
Dude, this little change of focus blew up my deadlift. Amazing how much difference in strength potential can be elicited via an increase in technical efficiency.
Humble pie for me. I had to go down a lot of weight to engage correctly with my legs. I've been doing it wrong for a while. But long term I know it will be worth it.
At 07:45 when Will is demonstrating bar floats, I could really see the difference in pulling out slack. Watch how his butt drops slightly as his upper torso comes up. It all moves as one unit with the hip as a lever. Totally been doing deadlifts wrong for a long time, looking forward to trying this out tomorrow. Thanks for the video Eugene and Coach!
I recently started lat awareness but watching this it seems my natural inclination was better, before that. I do appreciate the bending the knees only as much as needed to grab the bar.
didn't even watch the full video but already know this is going to be good, the amount of effort with the camera quality and the time spent by both you, eugene, and by powerlifter will, is just amazing and this is for free. this should have 1 million views because this information is about as valuable as it can get for any lifter.
One thing I noticed is that Eugene, starting from the top position, starts to bend the knee simultaneously with the hip flexion, to lower the bar. While Will starts the movement only with the hip, almost like a rdl, to bend the knee from the middle of the movement, which seems to me to be better to prevent the bar from touching the patella, making the movement seem segmented, divided into two moments. That's why Will's movement feels so fluid, i think. Great video!
Love that you are working on form. Great example to everyone to keep learning and improving! Would like to say (if you didnt get this already) that your set at 9:20 your butt rises at the start of each rep. That cue about leg drive to take out the slack in the bar made you refocus back to your favorite habit too much (too much leg). The lat cue helps keep you from losing the connection form arms to core to hips. In these reps you are doing more of a good morning to finish the rep than you should.
Horseshit. The hips are rising to the correct position. This is not a good morning. The hips are not too high. He just lowers his hips during the setup and then the body automatically readjusts it for a stable pull. It happens to everyone who starts with their hips too low, regardless of how much leg you are using. He gets pulled forward due to the hip rise which makes the movement look a bit off, but if he just started in that position, it would be fine. (he's also overextending during every single rep but that's besides the point)
I like Will's take, that we overthink the deadlift. Like you, I overthink my setup and find (perhaps unlike you?) that my lifts are suboptimal because I'm discouraging myself. My better lifts have always been when I've relaxed and just cued to "Push" the barbell off the ground.
Okay, this video broadened my perspective on deadlifts. I'm a novice lifter and I always feel my lower back, but I tried how Will explained and tomorrow at the gym I'll try with weights to see if my form improves. Thanks for this content Eugene! Edit: 9:13 goddamn Will... Your legs are massive.
Great collab! Had Will as a coach a couple of years back and couldn't recommend him/Nexus more. His coaching is responsible for two of my biggest periods of growth (both literally and metaphorically) in my lifting journey. Great to see you doing vids with him :)
This content is great, i now can see i have changes i need to make in my form with the different cues in the lift. I been wondering about how to get to big numbers in dead lifting and here we are. Will and Eugene thank you for your time in the creation of this content.
It's one of those things I'm semi-aware of, but not always mindful about. Because sometimes I'll do a deadlift that really feels good and strong and I'm noticing that sensation of pushing downwards rather than _just_ pulling upwards. But it's not consistent. Well, I'm doing deadlifts today, so I guess I'll be working on it.
I know this is a older video, but thank you! This helped me a lot with my Deadlift as a long torso, Orangutan-armed 6'3 guy. I was in the boat of just over thinking technique and ques. Thanks for this vid!
Seriously just recorded my deadlift and it looked like crap. I’m going through my IG stories and you uploaded this video at the perfect time. Thanks for all the great content!!
probably one of the best deadlift explanations, i also tend to overthink at my lifts, im gona make sure the technique is right before i put heavy weight on it
i personally adore the way Chris Duffin coaches the deadlift in a video with Supertraining vid is called "Deadlift like Mad scientist Chris Duffin" or something. He also goes indepth on bracing mechanics in the squat video. Those 2 were big foundations for me
Love it Eugene!! I failed on 315 today, I really feel like I should have been able to achieve that based on my usual working loads. Here to get better!
One cue that works for me is to keep the butt tight, push knee out, and let your body weight be on the outside of your feet. That will transfer the power focus to lower body
This is a fantastic video sharing the process and explanations given in the process you took part in for your lift. Gives a great additional perspective on someone's being coached.
I personally have found it much easier to learn a neutral setup with proper tensioning through removing the term "pulling" from the deadlift in my mind. When I "pull" slack, the only thing that's even kind of a pull is slight shoulder extension. I actively flex the tricep to "push" the bar away, protract and depress my scapula ("long arms!"), and push into the floor with my feet as I float my hips back. If you deadlift over 400 lb or weigh over 200 lb, the bar should float to 275 lb in your warm-ups, maybe even 315 or above if you're really aggressive in cueing during the warmup sets. A lot of people are really extension dominant in the deadlift. It's much more helpful to think of it as a pushing movement to eliminate the accentuated lumbar extension, scapular retraction, and elbow flexion you see from a lot of lifters. What happens under heavy loads is the spine gives first, the bar drifts away from the body, the hips shoot up, and people either round back it or stiff leg it if they can even finish it. A lot of times these lifters are also slow off the floor, so max attempts get glued. I used to be exactly this way and fixing my setup has allowed me to add 80+ lb to my 1RM in about a year. So much of my progress has been because of the lower fatigue from session to session. My lumbar just doesn't get fatigued the way it used to because it's not getting that "unfolding" effect of losing position during the set. Instead, most of the fatigue is in my glutes which recover much more quickly, allowing me to get in more volume and hence more practice. It may seem counter intuitive, but neutral lumbar and mild thoracic rounding make the lift more efficient for most lifters.
Hello, first off all I think your technique is very good. When you are comfortable with it, you can leave it as ist is. If you want more engaged scapulae, you can point your elbows backwards and also use it as an overflow activation (that comes from the tharapie with stroke Paitients) The neutral position of the hips is 11 degrees outward rotation, but the gluteus aktivation may be restikted by that
I’d almost cue the slack by getting your shoulders a bit further over the bar and pull the slack as you lean back like you’re hanging off the edge of a pool. The reps at the end look really good.
I love his way of finding the starting position- high hips but also super tight and nice lower back. But I guess it won't work with straps because you can't lower yourself into position then take the bar.
Ive noticed having tight hips really limits your ability to get into starting position, and once you begin to loosen them up you get a nice feeling of tautness in your hip flexors that is engaged immediately, rather than being slack and activating upon lifting
I was going to say the same. You are letting your knees bend as you descend which shows you are using you Quads a lot more than your hips. That dude is Strong!
Doing this puts much less pressure on my lower back as if I was to do it the way I was taught. Tried it out today, needs a bit of practice, but it's definitely better ! Thanks for that. By the way, where can I buy these straps ? Are they leather ?
Nice. I have a really hard time doing conventional deadlifts. I'm bent over almost parallel. But with the bar over my mid foot I cant move my knees forward more. So I'm not sure if I'm supposed to still move them forward more like in this video. I've recently switched ot sumo. Feels way better, actually feel it in my lets now not my back. I'm not sure if I'm genetically stronger with sumo or conventional, because I'm 6'2. But even if I'm not 'stronger' sumo, it feels a whole lot better to do. So to anyone reading, if you feel conventional in your lower back way too much and its making you not want to deadlift because ur sore 24/7, try sumo.
Personally I prefer to do the wrist-straps kneeling and then getting into pull-position. When standing, holding that static position limits my lifts. Eugene, on some lifts it looks like you¨re flexing your right arm, (just a little bit) that will put extra stress on the biceps. Try to flex the triceps when starting the pull. Good stuff, love your videos.
A power lifters goal is to lift as much weight as possible. A bodybuilder wants to make lighter weight feel heavier in the muscles that you want to target. What technique you use really depends on your goals.
How does he manage to pull heavy weights quickly? I understand he's an advanced lifter still most people I see are not able to pull weights quickly as he does. Great video❤
Its weird cos sonce I focused more on pulling my lats down in my deadlift i removed unbalanced strain on my right lower back and feel way stronger. I don't actually use the lats as a cue for taking the slack off the bar though, definitely the leg drive and squeezing glutes is what feels like takes thw slack off to me.
Because most of the time people will simply hyper extend their back and pull their shoulders back in order to feel their lats engage. If you're starting in the right position with shoulders slightly ahead of the bar your lats will do their job because the lats are an arm extensor, so as the bar leaves the ground its your lats keeping the bar up against your body. If your lats weren't working the bar would simply drift away from you like a pendulum during the beginning phase of the lift where you're more bent over.
The initiation is in your hamstrings/glutes, then the power of the lift is through your legs/back. The lats and upper body are for bracing the bar path, not pulling it off the ground.
@@stuntmonkey00 awesome advice. Was wondering why I could only feel my back and shoulders after (conventional) deadlifts. I also don’t have any straps so my forearms and grip usually fatigue at 120 kgs.
Hi Eugene, just came across one of your old videos on benching without retracting the scap and with shoulders depressed etc. Was just wondering your thoughts on the decreased stretch at the bottom of the movement we have when we bench flat with virtually no arch. Whilst we have the increased rom in the shortened position during the scapulohumeral rhythm portion of the lift, surely we are losing rom in the lengthened position as we can’t get the elbow in to extension behind the body as much as we would do with an arched back. Interested to hear your thoughts. Thanks!
I think that depends on youre split. On U/L i would do them on Lower Day. On PPL i would do them on Pull Day. I would recommend that because I dont like doing Deadlifts and Squat on the same day. If you do Deads on Legday on a PPL you need to do them at the same Workout or you need do create 2 Leg Days and hit the gym 6 times/week do do both at least ones per week. On U/L you can do 1 Workout with Squats and one with Deadlift and this way you just need 4 Workouts per week to do them twice. Sorry for bad english.
