Quote: (04-08-2015 01:55 PM)Spike Wrote:
Quote: (04-08-2015 10:46 AM)H1N1 Wrote:
Done properly, deadlifts and sandbag/odd object lifts are, in my view, the very best exercises you can do for building a strong and resilient back, and a fundamental human movement pattern.
Any injury obtained is likely the result of either poor form, an existing underlying injury, or a muscular imbalance. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the exercise, indeed it is an excellent strength and muscle builder, and will encase your vulnerable spine in thick cords of protective and supportive muscle.
Deadlifting a barbell weighing 160lbs should not lead to injury in a healthy adult. Without wishing to be disparaging, I recently saw a video of a 13 year old boy weighing under 140lbs deadlifting 315lbs without any trouble at all. I simply do not believe there is any circumstance where a healthy and otherwise normal adult male lacks the capacity with proper training to out-lift a barely pubescent child.
It sounds to me like your pre-existing injury was not properly rehabbed, or something else was drastically wrong. A hip hinge movement is, as I've mentioned, a fundamental human movement pattern, and if you can't perform it under a very modest load, then you have a much bigger problem than the deadlift.
It's exactly this kind kind of bro-science advice which is prevalent all over YouTube and forums that suckered me into dead-lifting again. It's just not for everyone. People who have success with deadlifting may have genetically strong lower backs. I don't. When I worked in construction as a carpenter for nearly 8 years my lower back was also always killing me.
I do use slow and proper form in all my exercises and I too laugh when I see people use momentum just to lift heavy weights. I leave my ego in the locker room when I lift. I'm 38 and left all youthful brazenness behind me. I don't need to proof myself to anyone and I don't give if a fuck a 10 year old can do a 500 kg deadlift and I can't.
Like I said, it was the last time I got suckered into this kind of lifting. There's is no one-size-fits-all exercise. I can't barbell squat either. Another one of the staple exercises half the bodybuilding and fitness community is lyrical about.
What can I do? Just about anything but not those two "staple" exercises and with good success and growth but just like everyone else in the gym I'm looking for that little extra edge.
Herniating discs isn't cool bro.
I don't usually argue on the internet, but I think this needs to be addressed.
Nothing in my post is bro science, it is demonstrable fact. Hinging at the hip under moderate load is an absolutely fundamental human movement.
There is nothing inherently dangerous about a movement that involves hinging at the hip to lift something off the floor.
I was very clear that issues experienced as a result of deadlifting are the result of pre-existing injury that has not been properly rehabbed, an imbalance, or bad form. Healthy (read: adults with no lingering injuries) do not hurt themselves lifting light loads.
None of that suggests you should have been deadlifting. It is most likely that you have failed to properly rehab your previous injury, developed negative posture traits during your injury which have created imbalances over the intervening years, or have some kind of degeneration in the disk itself. Any one of those would be a perfectly good reason for you personally, with your own injury history, to avoid deadlifting.
What is not an excuse is height, or that the lift is fundamentally dangerous. That is the only broscience, and anyone without a pre-existing back condition, who is to all intents and purposes healthy, has nothing to fear from it. Deadlifting and picking odd objects up from the floor are the most effective way of adding strength and mass to your spinal erectors and back more generally.
Crashbangwallop is perfectly correct that rows are an excellent way of adding muscle to the back, although they do not add muscle to the lower back particularly effectively. This is not at odds with my original post, and at no point did I say you must do deadlifts. If your lower back is weak, it seems reasonable to suggest that you ought to try to strengthen it, even if you personally cannot do deadlifts or odd objects.
