Shoulder on Deads; Over, in front, behind?

[John Seiler]

Rippetoe advocates the shoulder slightly in front of the bar when setting up for the dead. I've also read some opinions on directly over and slightly behind. I'm curious to read the opinions and logic of this esteemed crew.

Cheers.

[Pierre Auge]

Wherever you start the shoulders end up in the same place anyways so the difference is minute. Either way in order for the bar to come up everyone who lifts with their back in extension and the bar against the shins will end up with the shoulder over the bar as it breaks the ground. Biomechanically its just not going to happen otherwise. You can pull the bar off the ground with your shoulders behind the bar when you're in flexion but you're going to fuck yourself up eventually.

Rippetoe knows what he's talking about and what he describes is exactly that your shoulders will end up there anyways so why not start there? Personally I don't start there because I use a dynamic start but I end up there before the bar breaks the ground and I stay in that position until it breaks the knees so - either way its all the same.

[Steven Low]

Generally most peoples' torsos are long enough along with angle of the hips and length of the legs that the shoulders should be a bit in front of the bar to keep the path as close to the knees as possible because it makes it easier that way.

Basically what Rip says should work for most if not all of the population unless you're just some genetic freak.

[Derek Simonds]

Pierre good to see you around.

I was actually going to start a thread to see if anyone had a Pierre sighting.

Sorry for the brief hijack and now back to the regularly scheduled programming.

[Robb Wolf]

Ripp's analysis is great. Using a set up of shoulder slightly in front of he bar, bar lined through mid axilla...it has cleaned up so many problems we had with folks.

From a side view people look like the truss of a roof.Shoulder straight down to low back, leg parallel to floor, arm straight up to shoulder. A nice triangle, perfect for lifting.