I have been weight training for 6 months, coming from couch potato status, I am 62 years old, I weigh 155 pounds now. I am now able to deadlift 165. My question is, will there come a time when my lower back is strong enough that I won’t “pull” those lower back muscles? Over the last. 4 months I have strained my lower back 3 times. I know this was from bad form, not having my back straight at the beginning of the lift.
Last week I strained it again when lifting 165 for the first time. Although it hurt like hell I rest and started over and finished the set as well as the remainder of my workout for the day. My back was fine the next morning, a testament to the value of previous hard work at the weights. Ihave watched videos of other more experienced lifters doing deadlifts and their backs are bent and they are attacking the lifts with abandonment with no apparent injury.
Will I get to the point someday where my back can take mental lapses of form or is my age just going to force me to be form vigilant?
I think form vigilance becomes more important as you age. Plus, some people’s bodies are just more forgiving and more designed for the sport of powerlifting. That being said, you might post a video for feedback. You might also consider switching to sumo. I’m assuming you pull conventional? Done properly, sumo takes much of the back out of it. Even at 62, you should be able to continue to make gains with this lift.
[quote]kpsnap wrote:
I think form vigilance becomes more important as you age. Plus, some people’s bodies are just more forgiving and more designed for the sport of powerlifting. That being said, you might post a video for feedback. You might also consider switching to sumo. I’m assuming you pull conventional? Done properly, sumo takes much of the back out of it. Even at 62, you should be able to continue to make gains with this lift.[/quote]
Actually I’m using a trap bar to deadlift with. Thinking about it I beleive the problem this last time was I hit the lift too hard in the beginning, IOW I jerked it up instead of lifting it up. Hindsight, you know.
Yesterday during my workout I did the lift slow and had no problem. I am working 5x5 and the gains are coming slowly but surely and as long as I can keep the gains coming I am happy. Weight progression is like an addiction.
Widgeteye, there’s no reason a 62 yr old can’t enjoy the same lifting a younger person can. I’m 55 and have a blast with DLs, no pain at all. Oh, and I have scoliosis.
If you’ve been a couch potato for 61 and a half yrs, it may take a while to undo the damage and whip your body into shape. But it can be done.
Agree with Snap that we need take a look at what you’re doing.
Any doctors or chiros looking at your back? Any diagnosis? Absolutely not good you’re getting problems on an almost monthly basis.
If it’s just a matter of weak muscles, you may have to take weight down even further and just rehab your back into shape.
What about diet? If you not getting enough protein down your throat, no way your body can rebuild itself.
[quote]Widgeteye wrote:
Actually I’m using a trap bar to deadlift with. I jerked it up instead of lifting it up. [/quote]
Be very careful here. The arms should be nothing more than hooks. You don’t want to jerk or slacken your arms at all on a DL. Also, a trap bar usually weighs 55 lb. So you may be lifting more than you thought.
Several years ago I started to learn how to deadlift. For the first few months i occasionally had a ‘goofy’ feeling in my lower back that started a few hours after and went for another day or so. Studying proper form eventually got me on track.
One text explanation went like this: use the legs to start and bring the bar about 3/4 up the shins, then think of yourself as swinging your hips forward. This activates the back muscles while the leg muscles are still finishing, so at no time is the back handling the weight all by itself.
Another explanation with a small short video is available here:
In fact, the www.exrx.net website, going to the exercise and muscle directory in the drop down menu, has a whole host of such tutorials grouped according to muscle group.
[quote]kpsnap wrote:
Be very careful here. The arms should be nothing more than hooks. You don’t want to jerk or slacken your arms at all on a DL. Also, a trap bar usually weighs 55 lb. So you may be lifting more than you thought.[/quote]
[quote]cavalier wrote:
Any doctors or chiros looking at your back? Any diagnosis? Absolutely not good you’re getting problems on an almost monthly basis.
If it’s just a matter of weak muscles, you may have to take weight down even further and just rehab your back into shape.
What about diet? If you not getting enough protein down your throat, no way your body can rebuild itself.[/quote]
Chiros and Dr’s have looked at the back, The problem is muscular. When I first started this 6 months ago I was astonished at how weak I was. I think it’s just a matter of whipping everything into shape. And as I said earlier the pain doesn’t last and this last time was better by the next morning.
I use Gold Standard whey and and eat a lot of Chicken, Fish, eggs, and Beef as well as dairy products.
Hmm. Very weak when started . . . docs say muscular . . . is the 175 lbs a 1 rep max or do you do it for 10 reps easy? What exactly is your DL workout?
Over on Techno’s log, we have a discussion about muscular spasms. If that’s your problem, some Somatics exercises can help relax the muscles. You’ll still have to strengthen the muscles back there, though.
many years ago, I got rehab for my scoliosis. Six weeks of exercises, bodyweight only, to work my back and core. Boring, but definitely got me going on the right path for weightlifting. I’ve seen descriptions of the exercises here and there on the web, but nothing gathered together in one place. I went to an doctor, spine specialist, for mine. Is something like that an option?
form before weight. You admit that your form needs work so fix that first. There are solid videos on EliteFTS, Supertraining.tv and others.
if the problem is muscular, and you keep hurting yourself at 165-175, then the weight is too heavy. Stick to multiple sets of 3-5 with something like 135 to build base strength.
back muscles can take longer than a month to be fully healed, so even though everything feels OK you still might be compromised. Don’t come back too hard, too quickly.
I notice that you didn’t mention how often you are deadlifting and which part of your back has been giving you the problems. Also what does your prep sets look like? Being in my 50’s I can no longer deadlift with the frequency I did in my 20s. Also the prep time is substantially greater. I usually know during the warmup what the session is going to be like. I used to push through a bad day, but not anymore. If the warmup sets feel strong and pain free, I run with it. If not, I back off and work on form. Some call it autoregulation but I think it is just good common sense (that comes with age). IF you have access to a good coach (one that actually has gotten on the platform to compete) have him watch you on both the submaximal sets and your max set. Form on a max set can be substantially different and sometimes it takes someone other than ourselves to tell us to take some weight off the bar until we can do the lift right. Sometimes a little more volume at a lower %1RM can work if the back is acting up. Best of luck to you.
