Deadlifts ARE Worth the Risk
How to Break the Cycle of Back Pain with Deadlifts
You love the gym. You love deadlifting. The feeling of ripping heavy weight off the ground fills you with joy and pride. Until that one lift- maybe last week, maybe 10 years ago, that changed everything.
As a physical therapist who specializes in barbell lifts, this is by far the biggest complaint I see. The game changed. What you used to love has become something you fear. You stopped for a little while. Your friends said you just need to rest for a couple weeks. You did, but when you went back the pain was still right there. You’ve tried resting more. You’ve tried lighter weight. But anytime you try lifting anything close to what you used to, that pain returns and you’re right back to square one.
Let me break down what’s happening here, so you can finally break the cycle.
Form Error:
The injuries from deadlifting I see in my clinic usually come from one of two scenarios:
You’re warming up, it’s a lighter weight you’ve repped countless times, so we weren’t locked in on form and misgrooved the warm up, resulting in the injury.
It’s a max effort lift, maybe even a new PR. Form will ALWAYS break down with fatigue, and this time we got hurt.
Maybe your form was textbook perfect before, maybe it admittedly needed some work. Either way, it almost certainly needs retraining now. What happens after the injury is some heavy duty muscle guarding as the muscles try to protect the joints around them. This is the crazy muscle spasms you feel right after the injury that lead to the tightness, pinchy, or stabbing feelings. And if a nerve gets caught up in the mess? Numbness, tingling, or shooting pain down into the glute or leg. For better or worse, the human body has gotten REALLY GOOD at learning from what has caused injury and avoiding it in the future. This served us really well before modern civilization; it creates some bad habits to break after an injury now. This is why your deadlifts and RDLs have never felt the same since.
The body remembers what hurt it. The muscles are going to guard against that old injury again because they don’t trust what you’re doing yet. When those muscles tighten down to guard the spot that got hurt before, they can pull you out of position and/or aren’t as strong or mobile while they’re already spasmed down.
This is why re-working form is CRUCIAL after an injury. Look at the position of your back and core. The muscles you’re engaging while you brace may have changed (or even where you’re holding your brace; this is where I see pelvic floor issues arise after a back injury). Analyze if you’re shifting your weight to one side or twisting when you lift. I’ve seen a lot of new and weird form issues arise after an injury like this, so make sure you or your trusted professional leave no stone unturned!
Build Back Trust:
We’ve established how the muscles guard after an injury, but how do we make them stop?? This is the hardest part for most people. It’s often rushed, started in the wrong spot, or skipped entirely.
Right now your muscles understand hinge movements (deadlifts, RDLs, good mornings) = pain. You hinge for your deadlift, RDL, or even just picking up your shoes, the brain sends the pain signals. You ignore the pain signals and push through it, the brain sends them earlier and earlier (literally begging you to stop) until you can’t even touch your knees without an excruciating pain anymore.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Let me show you an alternate reality:
You still got hurt on your deadlift. Your neuromuscular system still equates hinge movements with pain. But you go to your favorite trusted physical therapist who specializes in barbell movements (if you don’t have one, consider this my application to be yours). We take a look at how you’re moving. We find a good entry point to start moving in a hinge pattern again. I remind you this is not a time to push into pain, and we need to respect what your body is telling you. You find as you go through the exercises, you’re actually able to hinge more, and the muscles are relaxing and feeling more comfortable. You’re back to your regular workouts faster, and we laugh about how crazy that injury was when you PR your deadlift 6 months later.
If you’ve already gone down the first path, it’s okay and it’s not too late!! These cases are primarily the ones I work with! It’s just going to take some extra time and extra expertise for you to make your comeback.
So Can You REALLY Get Back to Deadlifting? Is it Even Worth It?
YES!! Absolutely!!
I won’t lie to you, depending on how severe the pain is and how long it’s been going on, it can take a long time. There will be ups and downs (unfortunately progress is never linear). Starting in the right place and knowing when to push it is the hardest part, so having someone on your team who knows what they’re doing is huge here.
The benefits of deadlifts far outweigh the risk, if you ask me:
core strength and stability
improved bone mineral density
full body strength
build long term functional independence
a more resilient spine
generally feeling like a badass when you rip some crazy heavy weight
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