SPOILER: Deadlifts are not bad for your back. They are not going to hurt your back. They are going to use your back muscles, but that’s not a bad thing. You are so strong, it’s going to be okay.
With the rise of CrossFit back in 2012 or maybe 2013, we were seeing a lot of people who were experiencing back pain, and they were blaming it on their deadlift. From there everything kind of tumbled, and there has been this fear that has been created around deadlifts, and we are here to dispel that fear today.
What are deadlifts?
Deadlifts are a primarily lower body movement that also utilizes your upper body to push something off of the ground, stand up, and then put it back down on the ground. It is a part of our “hinge” movement pattern family.
Deadlifts are found in powerlifting competitions, but are also incredibly useful for the everyday person. Deadlifts can transfer over into things like picking up your groceries, picking a box up off of the ground, and picking your kids up, and also they make you feel badass.
So why were those CrossFitters always hurting their backs? Why do people say that deadlifts are “bad” for your backs?
Well, it is a complex exercise that does use your low back, and if you are doing it improperly, it can put a lot of stress onto your low back. If you are not prepared for that, then it can hurt, just like any other part of your body during any other exercise.
We know now that injuries most often happen from doing too much, too fast, too soon. If you are not prepared for an exercise and you go and do it 30 times in a row without proper form, then yeah, it might not feel very good. Again, that happens with any exercise.
People saying that they are “bad” has also created a fear around the exercise. Fear can send unnecessary pain signals from your brain to the area that can overreact when you use your low back muscles, resulting in you “feeling” your back more.
We want to minimize fear-mongering around exercise as much as possible. If you think something will happen in your body, it is more likely to happen.
Properly learning how to deadlift by engaging your glutes, quads, hamstrings, lower back, lats, and core makes deadlifts one of the best exercises to do to get the most bang for your buck.
*Picture thanks to Kestrel Bailey Photography
