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Off the Floor

Your Upper Back Is Loose at the Setup

The fault

No tightness through the upper back before the bar leaves the ground.

Why it happens

The upper back is what keeps the bar close and the chest up. If it is soft at the start, the shoulders round as soon as the bar loads and the bar drifts forward before you have done anything.

The fix

A short set of drills to find and hold upper back tightness before you pull. If you cannot feel it standing, you will not find it under a loaded bar.

About this fix
Originally published as "Upper Back Stability", part of The Lifting Fix, the free weekly technique series Danny Lehr started filming over a decade ago. He gave every episode away then, and they are still free here. Danny Lehr competed in Olympic weightlifting from 2010 to 2019 and won the 2019 Masters World Cup. More about Danny Lehr.
Transcript

everybody with The Lifting Fix I have Lexi with me once again she has a problem when she gets set for her snatch is that she struggles to get her back tight but that feels like on the ground so she gets set I'll kind of show you what she does wrong here and how we're gonna fix it so as she gets set her shoulder forward she needs to rock them back and set them back So how we're going to teach her what that feels like, what that scat traction feels like, we're going to slide a board up. And she's going to stand on that and she's just going to do some rows. All right? Just scapular rows.

So she'll get set here. All right? Now you'll notice that she does not bend her elbows. Elbows stay straight.

She's going to pull it back using her rama. And then down. And up. Good.

And down. And it's a lot to do. She's just contracting. using her wrong boys or other back by pulling those scapulas together and down.

Alright, that's a really good drill to know what that feels like. However, what that doesn't help is what it feels like when the bar is still on the ground because you want to be set before the bar breaks the ground. So we're going to do that real quick. Next platform over.

So we load up a bar here with something that is safe to say is over her one rep max. All right, so she's not going to be able to actually snatch and actually pull off the ground. But what it will do, it'll show her what it'll feel like when the bar is on the ground to get tight. So she's going to get her snatch grip and get set like she's gonna snap and just pull those shoulders.

back and then driver heels. So she's learning what it feels like to get those shoulders back while in a static state. Okay, she's learning that isometric contraction over there. She practices the concentric contraction.

Thank you once more. Thank you, Ariana. You're welcome. Clear.

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Your Back Lights Up When You Lower the Bar

Pain or a hot, fatigued low back on the way down rather than on the way up.

Off the Floor2:18

Your Hips Rise Before Your Shoulders

Off the floor the hips shoot up first and the shoulders lag behind.

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With Alec Smith

Your Stance Is Too Narrow and It Pulls You Forward

Getting dragged forward on heavier lifts because the pulling stance is too narrow.

Off the Floor1:48

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Plus the snatch pull checklist. One page, nine points, floor to hip.

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