I screwed up my back so I took a good 6 month back from dead lifting. I think its time. I feel weak and pathetic. I tried 335 the other day just to see how my back felt. I felt great except that felt really damn heavy. I was up to 410 at one point. I’m done resting its time to get strong. Anybody got articles or suggestions to supplement the dead lift?
Check out Eric Cressey’s stuff. This dude is a beast at the deadlift and wrote a whole series on it as well.
I think you’ll really appreciate his stuff. He integrates assessments and corrective exercise along with heavy lifting. I haven’t got the slightest clue regarding the nature of your injury but I would advise you to pay close attention to his corrective stuff. (Mobility, stability, efficient movement patterns, and etc)
Good luck!
MM
Yeah I’d agree with martian. Cressey’s the man.
I dunno about what your injury was, but in general I’d say start ridiculously light and get your body and tendons used to moving the weight again. high rep sets of 10 or so. I also like good mornings before deadlifts. I just rehabbed a back tweak I got about 5 weeks ago, and I added good mornings in at conservative weights and higher reps. You have to really concentrate on staying tight because other wise your body will let you know, but if you’re conservative it can be a good rehab move. I worked up conservatively in the 6-8 range and then did a high rep back-off set of 15-20 reps.
Srength endurance is just as valuable, perhaps more so during rehab, as regular strength. I think one reason many people injure their backs is not that they don’t have the strength there, but that their backs are tired from other exercises they’ve done and can’t handle the repetitive strain. In other words, they lack the work capacity/endurance to stay tight or properly aligned.
I still haven’t added deadlifts back in, but my back is 100% now. I’m concentrating on bringing up my squat at the moment so I have 2 squat days instead of any deadlift work.
As with these guys I have to say Cressey’s article is the one thats gonna help you the most. Wasn’t long ago at all that it was on here.
Some points that I found a great help: Pulling and holding shoulder blades back and flexing pectorials, looking directly ahead for the entire lift, keeping a pronounced (away from the weight) arch in your back and keeping the bar as close to you as possible to avoid unnecessary leverage.
Incidently I also hang with a wide grip from a chinup bar before I squat or deadlift for about 30 secs.
Thanks a lot. I’ll look into Cressey’s stuff. Aragorn, any thoughts on doing glute bridges for work capacity/endurance?
I read Cressey’s Mastering the Deadlift. It was very helpful. I was starting too low and doing a squat like motion. I did a couple sets of 1 today just to ease back into it. Felt good.
I was in a similar boat for a while (I strained my low back muscles doing Anderson Squats). What I did and am doing to come back is starting very very light on deadlifting/squatting and working my way back up to setting PR’s. Focus on keeping everything as healthy as possible while building everything back up.