How should I film and judge my deadlift if my lower back slightly rounds because I have long legs and a short torso?

Short Answer

In short, a small-looking lower-back round on deadlifts is not something to ignore, but a single gym clip also cannot diagnose whether it is dangerous, anatomical, mobility-related, or just a bracing issue. With long legs and a shorter torso, your best conventional setup may look more folded-over than someone else’s, but the key checks are whether your lumbar position stays stable, the bar stays close, pain is absent, and your hips and shoulders rise together. The detailed plan below shows how to film it clearly, what to test before adding load, and where a short edited form-check video can help you get better feedback.

What To Check First

Do not judge the lift from one front or mirror angle. Film a strict side view at hip height, 8-12 feet away, with the plates, bar path, hips, ribs, and lower back visible. Add a 45-degree rear angle if you want to check stance, knee tracking, and whether the bar drifts around the knees. Use the same warm-up weight, working weight, shoes, stance, and camera height for every comparison so you are not comparing different lifts.

For the actual lift, watch three things before worrying about whether your back is perfectly flat. First, does your lower-back position change as the bar breaks from the floor? Second, do your hips shoot up before the shoulders, turning the pull into a stiff-legged deadlift? Third, does the bar move away from your legs? NSCA, ACE, ExRx, and Physiopedia all emphasize some version of the same basic pattern: maintain trunk and spine stability, hinge through the hips, extend hips and knees together, and keep the bar close to the body.

Feeling deadlifts mostly in the lower back is a useful warning sign, but not proof that your lower back is weak. It can also mean the bar is too far forward, your lats are not tight enough, your brace collapses, the load is too heavy for the position you can hold, or you are trying to squat the deadlift with hips too low. If the same rounding appears at light warm-up loads, treat it as a technique or setup problem first. If it only appears near heavy sets, reduce the load and rebuild from the heaviest weight where your position stays stable.

Setup Tests

Start with a simple reset: bar over mid-foot, shins close but not pushing the bar forward, hands just outside the legs, arms long, lats tight, ribs stacked over pelvis, and a breath-brace before the pull. Pull slack out of the bar before it leaves the ground. If the bar clicks upward and your torso position changes before the plates move, you probably are not tight enough at the start.

Because your proportions matter, test variations instead of forcing one textbook silhouette. Try a slightly wider conventional stance with toes turned out a little, a modest sumo or semi-sumo stance, and block pulls or rack pulls from a height where you can keep the same lumbar position. If an elevated starting position suddenly gives you glutes, hamstrings, and a stable spine, that suggests range of motion or setup is the limiter. If every variation feels like a low-back-only lift, get in-person coaching or a qualified clinician’s input before pushing intensity.

Mobility work can help, but it should be specific. Random hamstring stretching may not fix a deadlift if the real issue is bracing, lat tension, bar position, or trying to start with hips too low. A better test is to film unloaded hip hinges, Romanian deadlifts, paused deadlifts just below the knee, and light tempo pulls. If you can keep position in those drills but lose it from the floor, adjust the start height or stance. If you cannot keep position even unloaded, practice the hinge pattern before loading it heavily.

Use Short Video Wisely

A good form-check clip is short, plain, and evidence-based. Show one warm-up set and one working set from the same angle, slow down only the first pull from the floor, and add neutral labels such as bar over mid-foot, hips rise early, lumbar position changes, or bar drifts forward. Avoid dramatic captions like “destroying my back?” because they attract confident guesses instead of useful analysis.

You can draft the clips in YumCut as a quick side-by-side form check: one version with your current setup, one with a wider stance or raised bar, and one with a lighter load. Keep the overlays factual, not medical. The goal is to make the movement easy to inspect, not to turn a form question into fear-based fitness content.

If you want to post the clip publicly, include the useful context: height is less important than proportions, list the weight as light/moderate/heavy relative to your max, say whether there is pain, and mention what you have already tested. Do not ask strangers to clear you for heavy pulling. Ask narrower questions, such as “Does my hip position change before the bar leaves the floor?” or “Which variation keeps the bar closer?”

When To Stop

If you have sharp pain, pain that persists after training, symptoms that worsen at night, numbness, radiating pain, or repeated back discomfort even after lowering the load, stop chasing online form fixes and talk to a qualified health professional. MedlinePlus and CDC guidance on exercise safety is clear that pain is different from normal training soreness, and persistent or severe symptoms deserve medical attention.

For normal training soreness, the practical move is to reduce intensity, warm up properly, and rebuild with a version you can control. Film every few weeks, not every set. Once you find the stance, height, and brace that keep your lumbar position stable, create the video in YumCut for a clean training log or coach review, then keep the actual programming boring: repeatable reps, small load jumps, and no max attempts while your setup is still changing.