How the fuck do you deadlift (conventionally)?

I've never talked much about this particular subject, as I assumed it was not rocket science--you pick it up and set the goddamn thing down.  However, people do some weird shit.

First, it's not a clean. So don't bother with that shoulder blade squeezing bullshit, and dropping into a parallel squat.  The shortest distance between two points is a line, and if you drop down and deadlift as if you were doing a clean, you probably won't be able to put as much ass into it and you are making the line longer than it needs to be.  The Lift Big Eat Big folk explain it well.

In short, let your thoracic spine do whatever the hell it's going to do.  Also, you might experiment with slightly externally rotating your feet so you can put more ass into it, which I think they mention in the previous video.

Another thing most people like to stop from happening (though it occurs naturally in most of us) is dorsiflexion.  Go walk up a staircase.  When your foot ascends to the next step, your ankle joint moves.  This is called dorsiflexion and it happens all the time.  It even happens when you deadlift, because your knees go forward.  It also happens when you squat--sometimes to a great extent.

Bet his coach is super disappointed because his knees tracked over his toes.

In a deadlift (or a squat) too much of this could lead to an inefficient lift, or some stress on the knee.  So figure out how much you need to keep your deadlift as efficient as possible, but do not fear it.  We are supposed to be able to point and flex our feet.

The variables regarding how much one should are highly individual.  If you have size four feet, and a two feet long shin, your knee will go over your toes severely, and you will look like one weird sonofabitch.  How high your hips start will affect this too. 

Christine keeps her hips fairly low and has a little bit of dorsiflexion.

I am taller, my knees definitely go further and create more of an angle at the ankle joint and my hips are higher. 

And the third example is still different in terms of thoracic extension, dorsiflexion, hip height at the start and even how close the bar is to the shins at the start (which is something you'll wanna fuck around with to make the lift efficient with respect to your body).

For another nuance, pay attention to your grip if you deadlift with a staggered grip.  It is very hard to tell in my video, but my left hand (the pronated hand) is even with the knurling--index finger is right before the smooth.  However, the pinkie of my right hand is about an inch or an inch and a half away from the end of the knurling.  Not real symmetrical, I know, but I hit a 60lb PR in a year that I was injured and didn't deadlift much so I think I might be on to something. 

If I were to match it up to where my right pinkie and left index finger were both even with the end of the knurling, the bar itself wouldn't be in a straight line.  I don't know if anyone else experiences this, but it is certainly worth noting and tinkering with in your free time.

Lastly, your history might dictate an asymmetric foot positioning.  Think about your own history and figure it out.  I still can't figure out why I have to turn out one foot slightly more and keep it an inch behind the other foot, but really it only matters because I am curious.  What matters is that it doesn't fuck my body up and the deadlifts feel easy all the time as a result.

Hopefully, this will give you some ideas to play with.  If you test something and it doesn't jive with what I described, that's cool. It just means your needs are different than mine.  Maybe you do need more thoracic extension in your life.  What tests well trumps the aforementioned.  Play with it.  Nobody got good at deadlifting overnight--except maybe Ed Coan.