Deadlift Lockout

[fooz]

I've been having some serious problems locking out my deadlifts. My one rep is 345. I've done 360 half way, but the lockout part i just can't always stick. Is there any excercises that i can focus on mainly for this? I've been stuck at around the same weight for about a month now.

[Notorious]

Rack Pulls, shrugs, deadlifts with bands, speed deadlifts

[jtteg_x]

rack pulls; discover your sticking point and set the pins there

[Reko]

Upper back work and glute work.

[Detard]

Rack pulls man. Do it from about 3 inches below your sticking point, and you should make some progress

[Rusty]

Rack pulls, just below the knee, against bands.

[zen]

When you do rack pulls, and you set the pins fairly high (because your sticking point is more than half way up), do you still try to bend your knees, or are you trying to work on your back?
I guess it depends on why you are stuck, but my first guess is that anyone with a high sticking point is having trouble straightening out with the back, but he said he was having trouble with his lockout.

[fooz]

Zen. The times i've done rack pulls i've bent my knees, Is this wrong?

[zen]

Zen. The times i've done rack pulls i've bent my knees, Is this wrong?

That's sorta what I am asking. If your form/posture is correct, I guess you should be arching your back enough that your knees do bend, but I'm not even sure if it would, depending on some variables like how far up you rack the weight and the length of your arms.

[C.Pop]

The biggest thing I did to help my deadlift lockout was stretch my hip flexors. I could always pull weight to my knees, but it would just stop there. For a while I was told that my glutes were weak, but my raw squat was pretty decent and my oly squat was good too. Stretching the hip flexors opened me up quite a lot and long story short my pull went up about 50lbs in a couple months. I've never been a great deadlifter so this was big progress to me. I have a desk job, so most of the day I'm sitting and making the hip flexors tighter. The stretching took a month or so before I noticed a difference. I got the idea that it might be hip flexors from Jim Wendler. He was right. Good luck.

[Ben Moore]

What sort of stretching do you do for the hip flexors? I've had some sciatic issues in the past and I think it may partially be due to an imbalance in glutes/hip flexors.

[WillKuenzel]

Hip flexor stretch

[AdamBAG]

The biggest thing I did to help my deadlift lockout was stretch my hip flexors. I could always pull weight to my knees, but it would just stop there. For a while I was told that my glutes were weak, but my raw squat was pretty decent and my oly squat was good too. Stretching the hip flexors opened me up quite a lot and long story short my pull went up about 50lbs in a couple months. I've never been a great deadlifter so this was big progress to me. I have a desk job, so most of the day I'm sitting and making the hip flexors tighter. The stretching took a month or so before I noticed a difference. I got the idea that it might be hip flexors from Jim Wendler. He was right. Good luck.

Can you expand on what you ended up doing? Just normal static stretching. I've been told the exact same things, but never thought it might be hip flexor problems.

[C.Pop]

What have I been doing? Any static and/or dynamic stretch I could. I just did basic lunge while leaning backwards type stretches for most of it, later on I ended up doing it with the leg that has the knee down up against a wall, so it pulled even harder on the flexor (also the quad). It's not complicated; like I said, it took me over a month to notice a difference, then I just kept doing them.

[fooz]

Great advice guys, thanks!

[AdamBAG]

I also read an article where Louie said that the toes should be straight forward (conventional) in order to get the hips through and help the lockout. I also read that many of the Finns say toes out. Any opinions on this guys???

[thewicked]

rack pulls.. rack pulls with bands, rack pulls with chains, pulls with bands or chains..all of it! Those and good mornings really helped me yank the hell out of some heavy weights as I progress!

[RhodeHouse]

Rack Pulls are good for overall strength, but not the lockout. The body is in a different position when pulling from the floor than it is when pulling from the pins. I use them for overall strength, but they do nothing for the lockout.

Bent Rows
Power Squat
Olympic Squat
Box Squat
Back Raises
Heavy Ab Work

Make sure to do the Abs and Back Raises 2x per week. Pick 1-2 other exercises and use them for 2-3 months and see how it goes. If your lockout gets better, you've found what works. If not, try some different stuff. It won't happen overnight, so be prepared to work at it for several months.

The stretching is also huge. This will definately help.

Another thing, if you're a full meet lifter, make sure not to hinder your squat/bench progress by paying too much attention to your deadlift. Something will suffer if you focus too much on something else. Train everything like it's weak.

[SGT ROCK]

Set the weights on a 3-5 inch box and pull. Also reverse band pulls with the greens. Heavy ab work, heavy rows, and GMs. Don't neglect technique work. Often times a lockout may not be weak, its a problem with form or lack of speed off the deck.

Semper Fi

[Ben Moore]

Hip flexor stretch

Cool - thanks bud. I knew that one, but wanted to see if someone reinvented the wheel

[WillKuenzel]

Cool - thanks bud. I knew that one, but wanted to see if someone reinvented the wheel

Nothing new but if that stretch isn't enough, take a 10lbs plate and hold it with both hands over your head. The extra force down will provide a better stretch and pushing the hands over the head will give a bit more stretch, as well.

[WillKuenzel]

I also read an article where Louie said that the toes should be straight forward (conventional) in order to get the hips through and help the lockout. I also read that many of the Finns say toes out. Any opinions on this guys???

I've found toes out works the best. Toes forward is great if your technique is flawless. Pointing the toes out a little gives a little room for error, in case your knees like to knock towards each other.

[douglasoh5]

anything that over loads the top end....shrugs...db rows....maybe your form sucks ass

[fooz]

anything that over loads the top end....shrugs...db rows....maybe your form sucks ass

My form has gotten alot better, shouldn't be so much the case. I'm going to try this all out, thank you.