Here are a couple additional Deadlift drills that can help improve technique and ensure that you can lift big weight without injuring the spine!
The hip hinge drill: grab a PVC pipe or broomstick, hold it against your back with the stick in contact with the back of your head, your spine between the shoulder blades, and your tailbone. Then practice hinging at the hip while keeping the stick in contact with those three spots to ensure that you are keeping the spine perfectly neutral. This teaches us to hinge at the hip and use our glute muscles instead of rounding at the back and using the back muscles. Perform 2 sets of 10 a couple times per day until you really drill this down and feel that your hip hinge is perfect. This will translate directly to your deadlift technique.
Here we set up a band around the rig and attach it to a PVC or barbell. Set up in a deadlift position with some tension on the band pulling in front of you. In this drill we will be going through our normal deadlift technique, but focusing on squeezing the lats to keep the bar close. This does a couple things for us: It recruits the big lat muscles that actually come across the entire low back and help provide stability to the spine. It also trains us to keep the bar close, so this is great if you feel like the bar gets out in front of you too much. Try 2 sets of 10 when warming up for your deadlift or pulling exercise day.
Enjoy these additional Deadlift drills, and I wish you much heavy, and pain-free, lifting!
Ascend Performance Therapy 