In the exercise community, deadlift exercises carry a pretty scary name for themselves when it comes to injuries, but how much of that is hype and how much is real – and just what can you do to avoid hurting yourself? Well, this reputation for harm is not over hyped and instead comes from real world data. According to prevalence studies, as much as 31% of sub elite athletes experienced some form of injury while performing deadlifts. Ouch.
However, all is not lost – this doesn’t mean that deadlifting isn’t safe and as a matter of fact, deadlift is used in the field of rehabilitation in order to correct muscle imbalances, and to attain higher levels of function. There are even clinics who use deadlifts as an exercise for geriatric population, yep you read that right, even elderlies are capable of doing deadlifts!
We cannot simply ignore the huge benefit of deadlift exercises. The combination of a compound chain of body movements that occur during deadlifts are highly effective at targeting the posterior chain of your body, an area that is often neglected by most exercises. This results in overall functional strength gain while encouraging balance in your body mechanics.
With that being said, why then does deadlift seem so dangerous and what can you do to manage these risks? The answer is simple, injuries are occuring from incorrect exercise form and overloading when doing the exercise. There’s a lot more involved with safely performing a deadlift than simply picking a heavy bar off the floor.
So, here are some important things that you should remember while doing your deadlifts, so you can experience the full benefits of this exercise group without worrying for your spinal health.
Practice the movement
Failing to prepare is preparing to fail and exercise is no different; ideally you should prepare for any of the exercises you want to try out. Practice every element of the exercise from the starting position right through to the fine details of the routine, such as the body position during the movement, as well as in the end rage.
Either you can video record yourself doing the exercise or practice it in front of a mirror. You may also want someone who has experience of performing deadlifts to guide you during this learning phase.
Practice the deadlift by just lifting the bar itself without the added weights, or without the bar at all. Complete several full sets, until you acquire a firm grasp of how it feels to perform the movement and what muscles should fire throughout the motion.
Do not squat the deadlift!
One of the most common mistakes while doing deadlifts, is to position your hips too low at the start of the exercise. This essentially mimics the position of squats, and thus makes the exercise ineffective. It also makes the exercise dangerous by positioning your body’s centre of gravity way behind the bar, therefore creating an awkward leverage and causing unnecessary stresses upon the lower back.
What you should ideally do, is to keep your hips positioned between the level of your head and your knee, forming an acute angle of about 30 to 60 degrees. You should also aim to keep the position of your barbell in line with your shoulder blades (scapula).
Do not round your back! Keep your spine straight!
Rounding your back during a deadlift is the most dangerous of mistakes, and the common cause of injuries such as slipped discs and nerve impingement. Ideally, during the pull you should maintain a straight spine. Remember to keep your head, spine and hips all in one straight line throughout the movement.
Keeping your spine straight takes away much of the pressure directed at your spine, and effectively transfers this tension down to your legs and gluteal muscles.
Push the floor away from you
Imagine that you are pushing the floor with your feet, similarly to how you would do your leg presses. Do this push during the first few inches of each deadlift.
This motion will effectively cue your body to prioritize the activation of your leg and gluteal muscles, rather than straining your lower back from abrupt movements of your hips.
Ideally, push the floor in a smooth motion away from you as you lift the weight up, then complete the movement by moving the hips forward. Perform this in one continuous movement.
Strengthen your hip muscles first
Arching your lower back is typically an instinctive reaction when your body has weakness of the hip muscles.
You should support your deadlift training with isolated hip exercises before trying to increase the weights used in your deadlift workout.
Some of these strengthening exercises are banded hip raises, split squats and hip thrusters.
Stretch your muscles
Stretching your hip muscles will ensure proper mobility of the hip joint during the deadlift exercise. You will benefit the most from performing dynamic stretching of your quadriceps, hamstrings and gluteal muscles during training.
Maintain a straight barbell path
To ensure an efficient and effective deadlift, you must ensure that the barbell path follows an exact and straight line. During the pull, the bar should remain in a vertical line directly over where it was while on the floor, it should not move out of this straight path while moving up or down.
Keep the bar as close to your body as you can, to avoid unwanted body reactions such as rounding of your back or straining of your shoulders. You can help with this by starting your movement with the bar in line with the center of your feet, and then as you pull the weight upwards aim to keep the bar as close to your thigh as you can.
Engage your lats muscle
Before the pull, you should engage your lats muscle (latissimus dorsi) and keep it firing throughout the movement. This will ensure overall body stability and straight bar path as you lift the weight.
To engage your lats muscle, start off with contracting your lats against the barbell without producing significant movements, do this while pulling the bar towards your back (isometric contraction). Once you feel the contraction of your lats muscle you can then proceed with the vertical component of the lift.
Lift your chest up before the pull
After setting up for your lift, the next thing you should do before the pull is to lift your chest while slightly pulling the bar up, creating the necessary tension for you to lift the weight.
This will help to prevent your shoulders and upper back from suddenly moving / jerking due to insufficient muscle tensions, which are required to generate a strong pull force.
Do not hyperextend your back!
One of the most common mistakes of people during a deadlift, is the hyperextending of their lower back when they approach the end range. This is usually the case when the person is effectively trying to cheat the exercise by locking the joints of their spine, which is done to provide additional stability for overcoming the weight.
This action puts their spine through unnecessary stresses and pressures, which may in turn then lead to bone and soft tissue damages over time.
You should remember that the whole motion of a deadlift is completed only after the bar travels to its highest point or when the hips move to their final position – generating enough tension to your glutes and leg muscles.
Conclusion:
Deadlift can be a safe and extremely beneficial exercise when performed correctly. The key though is to keep your body prepared when performing any highly demanding exercises including deadlifts. Ensuring that you have perfected the form and have the necessary hip strength are crucial first steps to the success of your training, as well as to preventing injuries.
