The argument of deadlifts being a "dangerous" exercise for the back is somehow not going away. Instagram, facebook, youtube, and GP practices are still breedings ground for this patently false statement.
This article is about easing your mind that this is not so.
Low-back pain is the number one type of physical pain on the planet. No other physical ailment comes close, and probably no other condition can be as debilitating long-term as this one. Once manifested in the body, it can hurt like a bad toothache. It hurts when you stand, it hurts when you sit, it hurts when you bend over, it hurts when you twist, and hell, it even hurts when lying in bed.
To date - after decades of proclaimed "scientific advancement" (which is a fancy term without much substance), we still do not know the real causes of chronic back pain. Lack of activity, genetics, "faulty" biomechanics, social factors, psychosomatic factors - they MAY all play a role to various degress, but no one can say for sure which one it is, and which one it isn't.
One thing is for sure: you need to get your back stronger. Much stronger. And by much stronger we mean about a thousand times.
Weak backs are no good. They're in fact totally useless. They can't lift anything heavy, they age quickly, they waste away rapidly, and they very much likely hurt way more often and severely than stronger backs.
Yes, we know: no none has figured it out. But the argument that having a stronger rather than weaker back should sound appealing enough to you, shouldn't it?
An observation we have made at Strong For Life is that people's back pain often resolves after several weeks of strength training - and most of this improvement we attribute to the deadlift.
The fear about the deadlift being "dangerous" is inasmuch unfounded that there really is no rational argument not to deadlift as long as it is done correctly. If you do not know what you're doing - either not coaching the lift correctly as a coach, or not lifting with correct form on your own - then the deadlift obviously might present a problem further down the line. But even then, it only might.
The thing with the human back is that is very good at handling heavy loads. Extremely good. There are numerous muscles holding the spine together, and the discs are much better at weight bearing than what we normally assume. If this wasn't the case, then everyone picking up a heavy box off the floor (which surely most people do at least once in their life) would be paralyzed by now.
We need to understand that the main point of the deadlift is to make the back stronger - and not avoid it in order to "prevent damage".
Maybe your back actually is more prone to damage because it isn't strong enough? Give this some thought.
Deadlifting makes your back rock-solid, less prone to injury and pain, and more resilient against wear and tear (i.e. conditions presenting symptoms like osteoarthritis or severe disc degeneration). And we have found that no other lift does the job better than the deadlift.
In the bent-over angle in the starting position, the muscles and structures of the lower back in particular are exposed to high moment forces once lifting the bar off the floor. You cannot produce any forces higher than this on your back safely other than through the deadlift. The entire length of the spinal erectors, the traps, the lats, the quadratus lumborum, the external hip rotators, and the deep-lying "small muscles" attaching to the facet joints of the spine have to tighten as hard as possible in order to do one thing: keep the bar close to the body and the bar path vertical in order to make the weight feel the "lightest". Any deviation of the bar coming off your body will make the weight a multitude heavier.
The paramount part of the deadlift is to keep the back in rigid extension upon lift-off. You need to be able to feel a tight contraction in your lats and muscles surrounding the lumbar spine when you do that. Only then can you develop first of all a stronger back - but also only then can you develop the awareness of what your back is doing in the starting position. Again: you need to learn how to feel this tightness in your back.
To set the upper part of your back into a tight contraction, imagine showing your chest to the wall in front of you really hard. Like someone is actually pulling your chest towards the wall. This will slide your shoulder blades into a locked-in position on the rib cage.
To set your lower back correctly, imagine showing your belly button to the wall in front of you. This will extend the lumbar erectors - like creating an "arch" in your lower spine.
The final bit is that you never lift the bar actively with your back. You need to push the floor as hard as you possibly can with both feet. This ensures that there is "balanced" load distribution between your legs and your back - instead of just the latter bearing all the weight of the bar.
Set your back tight. Drive the floor. Keep the bar close.
The three main things you need to remember for deadlifting correctly.
If you follow these principles, your deadlift numbers will go up swiftly, and you're going to reap the rewards of this incredibly valuable movement.
Have you had long-lasting back pain and are tired of it?
Have you tried other forms of exercise to "strengthen" your back, but without success?
Do you want to learn how to deadlift proficiently to take your back strength to new dimensions?
If your answers are 'yes', then you're in the right place.
Contact us now via the field on the bottom of the page, and we get you started.
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