The deficit deadlifts from Tuesday and my own inspection in the mirror afterward got me thinking about the position of the entire back while doing deadlifts. A criticism that a lot of us (including me!) have of each other while doing deadlifts is that the mid-back is rounded. I no longer think that that is a problem. First, note the following diagram of a healthy human spine.
Note two things. First, the lower back (lumbar vertebrae) is arched in the way that we usually think of as "arched." Second, the mid-back (thoracic vertebrae) is "rounded." However, if we were to try to "arch" the thoracic spine, we would actually be putting undue stress on those vertebrae equal to the stress from rounding the lumbar spine, but in the opposite direction. Add to this the fact that most advanced pullers (I think) advocate a "neutral" spine - meaning keep the natural curves of the spine - instead of an "arched" one, and I am starting to think we should stop calling a little mid-back rounding "rounding."This is not to say that all mid-back rounding is OK, but I think it becomes much more of a judgment call on the part of the observers. Here are a few things that I think might be better to watch for:
1. Make absolutely certain that the lower back is arched, or at least flat.
2. Keep the head slightly down or forward, to keep the cervical vertebrae safe.
3. Make sure that the mid-back curve does not degenerate over several reps or across sets.
4. Make sure that any "rounding" does not get worse as the weights increase.
Thoughts? Comments? Criticisms? I'd be especially interested in any other reading you guys have done on this, since I know that a few of you are much more well read than I am about this stuff.
If I'm not mistaken (have to read this again), starting strength says that your upper back should be in "neutral position". However, from my experience, near-maximal lifts usually cause neutral to become rounded, and rounded to become dangerously rounded. For this reason, I think it's important to arch as hard as possible. Also, when someone says "your lower / mid / upper back was slightly / very rounded", it doesn't mean that the lift is not legit; this is just providing input.
ReplyDeleteYeah. I agree that a round upper-back in general does mean upper-back weakness. I just didn't want us to get caught up in insisting that any roundness (mid/upper-back only!) was a bad thing. A little is natural, but too much is definitely a cause for concern.
ReplyDeleteI know this is old, but I have some feedback on this. I asked my ex-trainer Ironaddict about this a while back. He said its going to be pretty much impossible to have textbook technique with your max weights. He said a more important thing to focus on is not having back position change. For instance, from straight to rounded, or from rounded to super rounded/ugly/broken.
ReplyDeleteI have nothing to add other than I've been saying this the whole time. :)
ReplyDelete