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Must've deadlifting wrong when younger

EMW14

New member
I always heard deadlifts were primarily a back exercise. Total body, for sure, but mainly back. I never remember feeling it in my back - well, except my lower back, dowe by my waist, where it hurt - back then. I'm talking late teens. I could pull a lot of weight, just about 500 pounds, but...

I've added deadlifts back into my back training maybe 6 or 8 months ago - I'm 46 now - and I pay real close attention to proper form. I'm not pulling as much weight as I was back then, and I've worked up to it slowly, but at 385 lbs I feel it from my traps to my glutes! My lats are working, even triceps, believe it or not. I now know for SURE deadlifts are a back exercise! O, and no lower back pain, either.

What is it they say about young and dumb/older and wiser?? Lol!
 
I don't know for sure what caused my back problems but I was deadlifting heavy for approx a year before my injury getting into the 500-600 lb range fighting at welterweight (170lbs). I had a stupid mentality and went way too heavy at times with poor form. I fractured my spine and one of my discs are all fucked up and refused back surgery so had to completely change my career path. Deadlifts are no joke, if only I had been wiser....
 
I am with you guys. Deads where my lift. I was 160lbs pulling 550lbs, but doing it wrong.........totally fucked my back. Now I can barely do 315 and it is scary as hell. I have stopped doing them altogether............young and dumb is right!!!
 
I still pull up to 570 but I can do it without my lower back folding. If I get tired and feel my form start to go I back the weight down and finish my sets. Check your ego at the door on the big compound lifts or you will spend more time recovering from injuries than lifting. My worst is flat bench trying to tear my pecs without trashing my shoulder. It's a balancing act.
 
Deadlift really is one of those full body compound movements like the squat. If anything there are ultimately more muscles being activated in the deadlift. It's mainly a posterior chain movement/ lower back though. Powerlifters won't train deadlift on back day. That seems to be a bodybuilding thing. We generally Deadlift and then do movements that are associated with it like hamstrings and glutes. i.e.- SLDL's, RDLS, Rack pulls or pin pulls, GHR's, reverse hypers, leg curls.. etc.

Another thing for building a big deadlift, is just practicing the deadlift, and constantly practicing your form and feeling the movement. making small tweaks here and there. You should be at the point where you can be off by just a little bit and you'll know it. Then when you make those muscles that are specific to the deadlift stronger that's also keeping you safer as well. You're essentially building a deadlift machine.

I don't recommend as much for people who are just super strong and can pull a lot, to pull a lot. Some people are naturally very strong and can deadlift more then most people, even more then most people who actually train for it specifically. It's not bad everyonce in a while but it does put you at risk.

If you are a powerlifter and your dedicated to getting better at bench, squat, and deadlift, theres nothing wrong with following a program that has you lifting heavy at certain points. In my programming, I don't pull max effort singles on the deadlift but a few times every 12 weeks and most of the time that's if i'm either peaking for a meet, or just finishing a training cycle in the off season.

I follow the lillibridge method because it just suits my interest in training. It's a 12 week long training cycle. You deadlift heavy every other week. On the weeks you deadlift light, you squat heavy and vice versa. On the light deadlift days its usually around 55-60 percent of your max off a 1-2 in deficit for 3 sets of 5 reps. On the heavy days your just starting 12 weeks out at basically 87 percent for a top set of 5. Each heavy day the percentage goes up and a rep drops. You can also add 5-15 lbs to the number depending on how the last week went. Has you progressively working up to a new one rep max at the end of the 12 weeks. I think something like that is a good way to go about training for the deadlift. There are many many different programs out there though.

Again, if you're not serious about getting better at the deadlift, keep the ego one rep maxes to a minimium. If you're dedicated to improving it, and you follow a proper protocol you can very easily keep yourself safe. It's all in how you go about it.
 
If you're dedicated to improving it, and you follow a proper protocol you can very easily keep yourself safe."

With regard to safety, I'll sort of broaden that to "injury free" and say that the stronger I get the fewer injuries I have overall. But specific to this topic, I had avoided deadlift for quite a while because of periodic low back issues. But since I've incorporated them into my training again, starting with light weight, focusing heavily on proper form, and slowly increasing weight, I have had fewer and fewer low back episodes.
 
If you're dedicated to improving it, and you follow a proper protocol you can very easily keep yourself safe."

With regard to safety, I'll sort of broaden that to "injury free" and say that the stronger I get the fewer injuries I have overall. But specific to this topic, I had avoided deadlift for quite a while because of periodic low back issues. But since I've incorporated them into my training again, starting with light weight, focusing heavily on proper form, and slowly increasing weight, I have had fewer and fewer low back episodes.

well put brutha! Inproper Form = Injury Born
 
wicky wicky wicky....superman looked down at me, he said you rock so naturally!

im a poet and dont know it
 
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