When I started deadlifting about half a year ago, I started without weights (King deadlifts, etc. BOM style. My lower back was sore as hell for a couple of days. After I got used to deadlifts (with weights), the pain did not reoccur as harshly, but was always slightly there.
Now that I’ve been deadlifting a bit heavier, the pain is coming back. It’s not so much pain as soreness, but very harsh soreness. The kind that makes you bend over a bit when you walk. I actually have to sit down after a set of deadlifts like an old man. Stretching my back and doing some ab exercises after each set helps a bit at relaxing my muscle.
The soreness I get isn’t the kind that stays with me for days… as a matter of fact, it goes away after about 5 minutes after the deadlifting.
Am I somehow hurting my back, or is this rather normal? Sorry for such a long post about a tiny, whiney complaint.
Why do you assume he’s doing something wrong right off the bat and then why don’t you offer him anything other than that assumption? You mine as well have not have responded at all.
Firstly, if you are pulling correctly you are going to experience some pain regardless. It may be your lower back is your weak point right now so concentrate on reverse hypers, pullthroughs, etc to bring up your lower back. If that’s the only thing holding you back then a few weeks of tough lower back work will improve your dead. If you’re not sure if you’re performing it right find someone at your gym you trust and yes, have them spot your form. Keep an open mind and listen to any suggestions they have. Good luck.
What part of your back are you feeling the pain? Is it the lower part just to the left or right of the spine? Sitting helps lessen the pain, what position increases it (i.e. standing, bent over forward, bent over to the left or right, etc?)
[quote]It’s not so much pain as soreness, but very harsh soreness. The kind that makes you bend over a bit when you walk. I actually have to sit down after a set of deadlifts like an old man. Stretching my back and doing some ab exercises after each set helps a bit at relaxing my muscle.
The soreness I get isn’t the kind that stays with me for days… as a matter of fact, it goes away after about 5 minutes after the deadlifting.
[/quote]
This is not normal. That is why I told him to have his form checked. How much can you tell from your “Internet Diagnosis”? Answer: You can’t tell shit without seeing it.
I did 3 max DL attempts on Saturday, and with none of them was I hobbling like an old man.
Finding weaknesses won’t help if he fucks himself up not doing them right in the first place.
I really think I’m doing it right. I just checked some illustrations/videos and that’s exactly how I’m doing it. Also, the trainers at my gym love to correct my form, and the deadlift is probably the only exercise I haven’t been corrected at.
I have tried working on my lower back before (pullthroughs and similar exercises), and it didn’t really help much. But I’ll give it another try.
The pain/soreness is in my lower back, around the middle. It’s the kind of soreness that leaves you short of breath… it doesn’t hurt, but it’s really not a nice feeling. It’s not so much sitting that helps lessen the feeling, but just relaxing my body while lying down, stretching it, and performing ab exercises. I have found that doing some hard ab work before and during my deadlift sets is quite helpful. When I’m done with a set, I basically have to bend over slightly like an old man and walk to the mat to sit down, as keeping my back straight seems to increase the feeling.
The only pain I have deadlifting (and I shouldn’t even refer to is as pain) is in the hands during the lift and in the upper back when I stop exerting as the weight touches down.
I’m only maxing around 350 though, so maybe I’ll develop different pains as I progress.
Anyway, don’t mess around with your back. Immediately find out what, if anything, you are doing wrong and correct it. If you are absolutely sure you aren’t doing anything wrong, have your back checked out.
If you must, find other ways to work out while you are doing all of this – this also applies if you can’t afford to get your back looked into. Just don’t risk it. That’s my opinion anyway.
You should probably lay off the deadlifts for a while, or at least back off the weight so you’re not hurting. That’s not right at all. Try to figure out what’s wrong and work on that instead.
You say the trainers love to correct form, but do they really know how to deadlift? What kind of gym is it? The trainers at commercial gyms can be pretty clueless, so if they haven’t said anything about your DL it may be that they’ve never done it, never seen anyone do it and don’t know WTF is going on.
Be careful that your form is really like you see in example photos, and you don’t just think it’s picture-perfect. Once the weight goes up, form will fall apart, and if you don’t really know what proper form feels like, you may not realize how much you’re breaking. The safest position is to keep the spine in it’s natural curves, so do stuff like bodyweight squats or GMs, put one hand on your low back and one on your abs, and make sure your back never bends. The first time you try it you may be surprised by how much your spine moves. But just practice and get used to going through the motions, bending only at the hips without letting your spine move at all, and build up an awareness of the correct position. I don’t think most people realize just how much flexibility it takes to safely assume the starting position of the DL, so that may be your problem.
Be careful about sitting down between sets too… that’s actually asking for a back injury. When you sit, especially if you hunch over, it can put your spine out of alignment, and once you stand back up there’s significant recovery time. But if you already hurt after a set, that’s your body’s way of telling you NOT TO DO ANOTHER SET.
I really never worried about the feeling, 'cause I’m sitting here right now feeling great after a tough workout that involved deadlifts and there’s no problem at all. I’m just worried that the doctor I see will simply tell me to stop deadlifting… Would there be any specialists anyone would recommend?
lmjudek, i know the exact feeling man, so i think i could help you out a little. How is your hamstring flexibility? I used to barely be able to touch my knee caps, and when i would do deads it would kill. Definately work on your flexibility, because your hamstrings insert on your lower back with your spinal erectors, so tight hammies pull down on everything in the low back. This area is called the posterior chain, a lot of people have this area underdeveloped. So i would advise you to work on the flexibility and strengthening the posterior chain through ways like deads, good mornings, glute ham raises, stiff legged deads, etc. hope this helps.
It’s not a flexibility issue: I can rest the palms of my hand on the ground with locked knees. Talking about good mornings… I do remember getting the same soreness when I did heavy good mornings a couple of months ago.
[quote]lmjudek wrote:
It’s not a flexibility issue: I can rest the palms of my hand on the ground with locked knees. Talking about good mornings… I do remember getting the same soreness when I did heavy good mornings a couple of months ago.[/quote]
The only problem may be that you wait too long between your heavy sessions for the lower back. What have been your training beween that. I deadlift 550 at a bodyweight of 180lb and I can tell you that I were just fucking sore when I go back to real work training 85-100% but have adapt to the weigth.
Hope this help, what is you goal pound a minimum of 1 out of 3-4 weeks.
Keep fighting
adonail