Is my Conventional DL a SLDL?

[Ragholmes]

This is now the second conversation on SLDL's thats making me think I need to post a formcheck for my deadlift.
I am very longlimbed and my squat sucks, relatively my deadlift is pretty good. Nothing like the numbers that others here put up but its always been well over 100 lbs more than my squat. So up until now I didn't feel the need to do a formcheck.
When I look at an SLDL it looks to me to be how I deadlift.
I don't know if its my untrained eye just not seeing the difference between a SLDL and a regular DL. Is the difference pretty subtle?
Or maybe is it that people with long arms and legs DL looks like, or is more like, a SLDL?

So, have I been doing more of a SLDL all this time?
Any other form advice would also be appreciated.
Thank you in advance.

[KarlM]

These don't look like SLDL to me. That said, it doesn't look like you're focusing much on leg drive to get the bar off the ground. When the weights get heavy, do they stay glued to the floor, or do you have a sticking point somewhere else in the pull? @cole has talked about his deadlift feeling more like an SLDL in his log. I believe his SLDL is actually pretty close to his competition DL.

[Wilhelm]

My eye is limited in this, but it doesn't look like your hips could be lower.
They seem close to moving at the same time as your shoulders and back rise.

I don't know what it's like to have longs legs.
@ChasingCurls69 has a really big deadlift, and long legs. Maybe he could offer some insight to anything that is right or wrong with yours.

[ChasingCurls69]

It doesn't look like a SLDL, but yeah there is a noticeable lack of leg drive off the floor and your stance is pretty wide with your shins angled in. Also are those WL shoes?

I would narrow your stance to hip width and shove your knees out a bit, which should get you a little bit more knee flexion and more deadlift looking in the set up. It'll probably enable a slightly narrower grip, too. You already have your forearms in line with your knees at the start, which is a good cue for figuring out if your hips are too high/low or the bar is behind/forward of the midfoot. As for the lift itself, you do a good job of pulling up against the bar to get tight before each rep after the first, so it'll probably work just as well with the set up changes above.

[Ragholmes]

When the weights get heavy, do they stay glued to the floor, or do you have a sticking point somewhere else in the pull?

I have never done singles. Always 5's, I've done the occasional triple. I've only failed once and it didn't come off the floor. It's hard to say for sure having never gone for heavy singles, but I feel that if I break it off the floor then it's going all the way up to lockout.
What does this tell you?

[Ragholmes]

It doesn't look like a SLDL, but yeah there is a noticeable lack of leg drive off the floor and your stance is pretty wide with your shins angled in. Also are those WL shoes?

I would narrow your stance to hip width and shove your knees out a bit, which should get you a little bit more knee flexion and more deadlift looking in the set up. It'll probably enable a slightly narrower grip, too. You already have your forearms in line with your knees at the start, which is a good cue for figuring out if your hips are too high/low or the bar is behind/forward of the midfoot. As for the lift itself, you do a good job of pulling up against the bar to get tight before each rep after the first, so it'll probably work just as well with the set up changes above.

Thank you for looking. I will look harder and closer at what you've said when I get home. I didn't think my stance was wide, my shins are inside the knurl and my thumbs are right on the edge of the knurl.
And yeah, they are lifting shoes. It's been a while since I bought them. I think they're called adipowers.

ETA: re stance, I went back and looked, I see what you mean about shins angling in.

[CtMcBride]

It doesn't look like a SLDL, but yeah there is a noticeable lack of leg drive off the floor and your stance is pretty wide with your shins angled in. Also are those WL shoes?

I would narrow your stance to hip width and shove your knees out a bit, which should get you a little bit more knee flexion and more deadlift looking in the set up. It'll probably enable a slightly narrower grip, too. You already have your forearms in line with your knees at the start, which is a good cue for figuring out if your hips are too high/low or the bar is behind/forward of the midfoot. As for the lift itself, you do a good job of pulling up against the bar to get tight before each rep after the first, so it'll probably work just as well with the set up changes above.

I agree with all of this.

[ChasingCurls69]

It doesn't look like a SLDL, but yeah there is a noticeable lack of leg drive off the floor and your stance is pretty wide with your shins angled in. Also are those WL shoes?

I would narrow your stance to hip width and shove your knees out a bit, which should get you a little bit more knee flexion and more deadlift looking in the set up. It'll probably enable a slightly narrower grip, too. You already have your forearms in line with your knees at the start, which is a good cue for figuring out if your hips are too high/low or the bar is behind/forward of the midfoot. As for the lift itself, you do a good job of pulling up against the bar to get tight before each rep after the first, so it'll probably work just as well with the set up changes above.

Thank you for looking. I will look harder and closer at what you've said when I get home. I didn't think my stance was wide, my shins are inside the knurl and my thumbs are right on the edge of the knurl.
And yeah, they are lifting shoes. It's been a while since I bought them. I think they're called adipowers.

ETA: re stance, I went back and looked, I see what you mean about shins angling in.

Thumbs on the knurl is fine for grip then and give you some room to push your knees out to the side (in line with the same toe angle you have now). With my height/leg length I still have my stance closer to the center knurl of the bar than the regular knurl. I would also try pulling barefoot vs weightlifting shoes, but it's not as important as the other stuff.

[KarlM]

When the weights get heavy, do they stay glued to the floor, or do you have a sticking point somewhere else in the pull?

I have never done singles. Always 5's, I've done the occasional triple. I've only failed once and it didn't come off the floor. It's hard to say for sure having never gone for heavy singles, but I feel that if I break it off the floor then it's going all the way up to lockout.
What does this tell you?

If your deadlift is glued to the floor, you may be lacking in sufficient leg drive. Glued deadlifts can also point to lack of tightness, but as @ChasingCurls69 pointed out, it looks like you’re pretty tight at the start of the pull.

[Ragholmes]

I would narrow your stance to hip width and shove your knees out a bit

Somewhere along the way, probably the blue book, I got the impression that shoulder width or just inside the knurl was appropriate.
I just now stood up and tried to feel the position you described, it feels good and I am due for deadlifts tomorrow and will definitely Incorporate this change.

you do a good job of pulling up against the bar to get tight before each rep after the first

I didn't catch that bit I put in italics on the first read through. My second rep always feels much easier than the first. One thing I worked out myself was that I wasn't taking as big a breath on the second and was getting a little pumped up before the set and taking too big a breath in the first. Changing that made a difference but the second is still easier.
I will try to feel what I'm doing on the second rep when I'm taking out the slack and getting tight, and see if I can mimic that on the first rep.
In summer I often pull barefoot. But that floor gets really cold in winter. I'll start pulling barefoot consistently, and I have about 8 months to work out a solution for this winter.

[ChasingCurls69]

@Ragholmes I think on the first rep you start with hips at the right height for your current stance width which is why they don't move up and you get tighter. If I set up a bit too low I'll feel it either because of that or losing some back extension as the hips rise. On every rep after the first you are basically dropping it exactly where it needs to be vs trying to measure it out with the full set up.

And the blue book recommended a hip width stance as far as I remember, but for bigger guys or hogher bf% guys that will be closer to the knurl. Some of it is because they need more space fpr their torso between their legs, too. Whereas that's closer to shoulder width for you.

Socks are what I pull in at my gym, but you could also get some DL slippers or a pair of Nike soccer shoes with the insole taken out like all the cool BBM kids before the davinhoes were discontinued. I am not jealous of their shoes at all and definitely didn't find a pair that matches my obsidian romaleo 2's.

[Ragholmes]

@ChasingCurls69 is it the heel height of the lifting shoes you don't like? I should be looking for a shoe with minimal heel?
The floor in Jan/Feb is too cold for socks, and I've never used Deadlift slippers but I'm assuming they aren't much in the way of insulation, someone correct me if I'm wrong.
I just had a thought that maybe a real thin rubber mat I could keep inside and take out to the garage and stand on that with socks would be the simplest option.

ETA: I just googled the slippers. It looks like they do have a thin rubber sole, I didn't know that, I wrongly assumed the sole was just a continuation of whatever the visible fabric was on top. They will probably work fine

[Fzt]

I wouldn't stress about deadlifting in flats instead of powerlifts. I know that sometimes having one pair of shoes for all of your lifts is more convenient. I'd prioritize modifying your stance by moving your heels in so that your knees are pointing out. Maybe try fixing that and post another video next time you deadlift.

[ChasingCurls69]

@Ragholmes less about the heel height and more about putting the knees further forward at the bottom than is effective. The extra ROM in the lift from heel height doesn't help, but it's not a huge deal either. Like fzt said, prioritize the stance changes first. Deadlift slippers were surprisingly insulating, though.