Yeah I agree with everyone here in some way. Form is absolutely of the utmost importance starting out, to 'train' the nervous and muscular system on how to handle the lift efficiently, and not get hurt. However, after a certain point, when training 90%+ of your 1RM, form will deteriorate a bit. When I get to 405 and above, I do feel some slight rounding of the back, but have watched video of myself on those reps and it actually isn't that round at all, probably because of my strict form on all other reps conditioning my CNS. It used to be that my form would deteriorate around 355-365, but as I've progressed, it's strict as can be in that range.
Elliott Hulse once talked about deadlifting 600+ lbs, and made an analogy to jazz musicians. It was something like this:
When you start out learning an instrument, you do very strict and robotic exercises, learn your scales and how to read music. After a certain point in your development though, all that goes out the window, you forget everything you've ever learned, throw out the sheet music, and just play.
It's like lifting. You must learn strict form on all exercises starting out, and keep that good form as much as possible. Once you reach a certain point in your journey though, you shut the fvck up and just lift the weight.
That's not to say injury isn't possible though. The only way I've seen lifting related injuries occur is through a big error in form. It's not the lift, it's the person (in 95% of cases).
I have had my back round dangerously in the past, once or twice, and you can DEFINITELY tell when it's not ok. As long as your body is as tight as possible a bit of rounding isn't a horrible thing. You should still try to avoid it as much as possible. Just my $0.02.
Moral of the story: form is likely to break down on max effort attempts, but as long as it's limited to that, and you don't just have terrible form anyway, it's not a huge deal.
disgustipated said:
I was practicing what I thought was good form...not rounding my back basically...im learning more as I go with these new movements so I knew not to JUST LIFT. Think the problem all along is weak.lower back which I'm trying to.address. See above post for questions.
Thanks for all advice.
Rack pulls and glute ham raises will fix a weak lower back. Flexibility could also be an issue. I know some people who literally cannot even get into a proper deadlift position without horribly rounding their lower back.
