In the earliest days of my lifting career I injured myself whilst deadlifting. The doctor told me I’d sustained minor herniation in two spinal discs and, as a result, I have sciatica now. My doctor told me never to dare deadlift, squat, or press anything again. He also recommended that I do 100 reps of bicep curls every day if I wanted to be muscular. Naturally I didn’t follow his advise and continued lifting (after taking a few months off).
Its been over a year and while its not the lower back pain that is scaring me, I am beginning to question if, for longevity’s sake, I should drop the deadlift all together. I notice that as my deadlifts get heavier the pain and discomfort also increase. So for the last few weeks I’ve omitted deadlifting from my workouts.
I realized that if I was going to get sound advice anywhere it would be here.
So my question is: having an abnormal back, should I refrain from deadlifting? Maybe even squatting? If I do, are there alternate exercises I can do to hit the legs and back, but that do not put as much stress on my spine as the deadlift or squat?
[quote]FCB93 wrote:
In the earliest days of my lifting career I injured myself whilst deadlifting. The doctor told me I’d sustained minor herniation in two spinal discs and, as a result, I have sciatica now. My doctor told me never to dare deadlift, squat, or press anything again. He also recommended that I do 100 reps of bicep curls every day if I wanted to be muscular. Naturally I didn’t follow his advise and continued lifting (after taking a few months off).
Its been over a year and while its not the lower back pain that is scaring me, I am beginning to question if, for longevity’s sake, I should drop the deadlift all together. I notice that as my deadlifts get heavier the pain and discomfort also increase. So for the last few weeks I’ve omitted deadlifting from my workouts.
I realized that if I was going to get sound advice anywhere it would be here.
So my question is: having an abnormal back, should I refrain from deadlifting? Maybe even squatting? If I do, are there alternate exercises I can do to hit the legs and back, but that do not put as much stress on my spine as the deadlift or squat?
Thank you.[/quote]
Well, there’s always a trade off… You should seek out a competent lifter who can teach you the correct mechanics of the deadlift. It might be that you can do a trap deadlift, that is with a trap bar… Also I read where Andy Bolten the world champion in the deadlift said that if you are a weekend warrior you should only do deads from the knee position and in a rack…
Also just because you have a herniated disc it doesn’t mean you will have back pain or sciatica unless its hitting the sciatic nerve.
So with you I’d figure out how to do other exercises that will keep your core strong, I’d also start doing single leg exercises that take the load off your back. Its your back and you are the one who will have to deal with the pain ok. If doing deadlifts and squats are so important to you then you should definitely check out a specialist who can work with you on technique. No one here can tell you that you will be ok if you do these exercises they don’t have that power to say so…
Of course your doctor is simply wrong about doing 100 reps for biceps lol… He should have told you that you need to learn how to move correctly both with resistance and without.