I wouldn’t say you are wrong about the rounded back, but I would say that someone who hasn’t lifted atlas stones shouldn’t start with that. Learning the “correct” deadlift form to learn bracing and to strengthen their back/legs from years of not doing strict back workouts would be advantageous before going to town on a 50 kg stone. But yes, get to lifting now and feel less pain later!
One is that I definitely agree - getting strong in the conventional dead is definitely a logical starting point, and I would 100% recommend that path to someone new to lifting.
But I also want to generally push back against the idea of human frailty which seems to have become quite pervasive in our society. I think if someone is really inspired by strongman competitions, and if that is what is going to get them into exercising, then we shouldn’t discourage them… just reasonably caution them. After all, no one says you need to hit a certain deadlift number before you start, say, practicing jujitsu, where a lot of what you will be doing is bearhugging a heavy object and doing concentric and eccentric spinal extensions. Or if a friend says “hey, help me move this awkward cabinet”, I don’t think your response should be “sorry, my deads are only at 185, so I don’t want to lift awkward objects yet”.
I think being part of a good community or having a good instructor can help a lot here, helping the newbie differentiate between reasonable and fun try-hard, and try-hard that is likely to result in injury.
I wouldn’t say you are wrong about the rounded back, but I would say that someone who hasn’t lifted atlas stones shouldn’t start with that. Learning the “correct” deadlift form to learn bracing and to strengthen their back/legs from years of not doing strict back workouts would be advantageous before going to town on a 50 kg stone. But yes, get to lifting now and feel less pain later!
I have two thoughts here.
One is that I definitely agree - getting strong in the conventional dead is definitely a logical starting point, and I would 100% recommend that path to someone new to lifting.
But I also want to generally push back against the idea of human frailty which seems to have become quite pervasive in our society. I think if someone is really inspired by strongman competitions, and if that is what is going to get them into exercising, then we shouldn’t discourage them… just reasonably caution them. After all, no one says you need to hit a certain deadlift number before you start, say, practicing jujitsu, where a lot of what you will be doing is bearhugging a heavy object and doing concentric and eccentric spinal extensions. Or if a friend says “hey, help me move this awkward cabinet”, I don’t think your response should be “sorry, my deads are only at 185, so I don’t want to lift awkward objects yet”.
I think being part of a good community or having a good instructor can help a lot here, helping the newbie differentiate between reasonable and fun try-hard, and try-hard that is likely to result in injury.