Don’t Break Your Back, Here’s How to Deadlift Better than Donald Trump Jr.

On Friday Donald Trump Jr. posted a video of himself setting a new personal Deadlift record at 375 pounds. An above average pull to be sure, until you look at Junior’s form which is anything but impressive.

Like any good Crossfitter, he of course acknowledges his crappy form and tries to justify it.  “The form went to hell” because “at the extreme ends it gets tougher to stay perfect.” Right. I haven’t heard that a million times.

Deadlift is not a lift to screw around with when it comes to form. The success videos always get posted, the inevitable video of the lift where he blows multiple discs in his back? Probably not so much.

The answer to failing form is not to pack on the weight and go for it anyway. The answer is to deload, work on form over function, and slowly build up weight while maintaining form.

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Well it wasn’t pretty but I set a new personal Deadlift record today hitting 375 lbs. I know I know the form went to hell so I’ll save you the need for commenting. Back too rounded legs up to fast etc etc… At the extreme ends it gets tougher to stay perfect. That said still pretty psyched. #crossfit #deadlift #pr #weightlifting #fitness #ugly

A post shared by Donald Trump Jr. (@donaldjtrumpjr) on Nov 10, 2017 at 5:48pm PST

Good lord is that ugly. Doughy, pencil arms, pencil legs, of course has a belt on and a back as round as Kim Kardashian’s fake ass. He’s clearly no where near ready to pull this much weight. He’s rounding his back so much he gave himself a solid chance of herniating a disc. But that’s not all that went wrong. The mistakes happen from the very beginning, the setup is whack. His chest and line of sight are pointed straight at the ground at the start of the motion instead of forward. When dead-lifting it’s critical to straighten your legs and initiate the lift with them before involving your back, something Trump doesn’t come close to pulling off. These are things he should have been training at lower weights so this attempt wouldn’t have ended in such extreme curvature of the spine.

For reference, here is a video of the world record deadlift at 500kg where Eddie Hall doesn’t give up an ounce of his perfect form. No excuses here:

Sure, the goal of dead-lifting is to ultimately lift heavier and heavier weights, but the groundwork starts light. You absolutely must start out small and work yourself up to big weights. The focus should always be on getting form right. It’s not just about injury either. You’ll ensure you’re working the right muscle groups with the lift, which is kind of the whole point to begin with. Doing a good-morning with 375 lbs. is not impressive, it’s just stupid.

If you want to nail down your dead-lifting form, load up a bar with lightweight and follow along with Mark Rippetoe: