In the conventional deadlift the shoulders are supposed to be slightly in front of the bar until the bar is well past the knees. As can be seen in this exaggerated example this causes the hips to come closer horizontally to the bar. So the benefit of this is lower torque requirements at the hip and less strain at the lower back. Both which is good. In return we must apply a clockwise torque with our lats trough the shoulders that forces the bar in towards the legs so that the barpath becomes vertical. How can we make sure that we do this and the barpath is indeed vertical?
