Friday Fix: (Upper body) Tension in a deadlift

Have you ever seen an ugly deadlift? Do you remember what made it so ugly? 

Chances are, it was a rounded back. It’s true that on a truly HEAVY deadlift (like 600+ pounds) you’re probably going to get a little rounding no matter what you do (you animal you! 600?!). 

But unless you are a power lifter in a competition, chances are you don’t need to be pulling at a weight that wrecks your form (I’m looking at a few athletes out there deadlifting with bad form and the coaches who allow for that to happen; shame on all y’all). 
Here’s what I’m talking about today: no upper body tension. I’m talking rounded upper backs with no lat engagement. In short, this: 

This was painful to take. Don’t do this.

I see this with a lot of new lifters, who don’t know better, and people whose egos get in the way. 

I’m looking for something more like this: 

Do this one. Not the other one.

My back is flat, my lats are engaged, and my back is protected (which is a huge deal for me, because I HAVE a bad back from deadlifting improperly when I was younger and dumber). 

So how do we go about teaching tension in the upper body for the deadlift? 

One of the first cues I’ll use is “hold a clutch purse (or towel/newspaper/wallet) under your armpit like someone’s trying to steal it.” Or, you can physically place a towel or your hands under their armpit and tell them to squeeze. 

That right there will often clean the entire thing up. If it doesn’t, step number two is to ask them to show me the logo on their shirt. They lift their chest slightly, taking slack out of the bar/kettlebell. 

If they haven’t quite learned to take the slack out of the bar, step three is to tell them to pretend they are going to lift the bell/bar off the ground but stop before it comes off the ground. 

I will often have clients re-set between each deadlift, or take a page out of Tony Gentilcore’s book and have them do light hover deadlifts to teach tension (stopping just shy of the ground on each rep and holding it for a moment before moving to the next rep). 

Give it a shot!