How To Return To Deadlifting After A Back Injury
Tweaking your back while lifting is a pretty common thing. Hurting your back lifting can feel totally demoralizing and scary. We’ve been there too and we’re here to help.
First of all, don’t listen to those people who say “deadlifting is bad for your back.” If you hurt yourself deadlifting, this might seem true but it’s just fear mongering. Deadlifting can be challenging for your back, but that doesn’t make it bad.
In fact, deadlifts are one of our favorite ways to build low back and hip strength and resilience in our patients. If you know how to do it properly and have a good plan for incorporating it into your training it is an amazing training tool.
Not only are deadlifts not “bad for your back,” but they can be the exact thing you need to recover from a back injury, get back to training and feel more confident in everyday life.
In this blog, we’ll go over some ways you can start getting your back moving and a progression we use to work people with cranky spines back into doing deadlifts.
If you already know you want to work with us, click the button to schedule a discovery call and see exactly how we can help you.
Why Did I Hurt My Back Deadlifting?
Back pain can be complex and the answer to this question (just like many others) is “it depends.”
However, we consistently see the following factors at play with our patients:
Lifting too much too soon (after too little for too long)
Less than ideal form ;)
Poor training plan/schedule (too much training volume or intensity without recovery)
Your low back is just like any other part of your body. If you stress it too much without allowing for recovery, you can end up with an injury. This is what happens when people deadlift too much too soon or have a less than ideal training schedule.
Consider the following analogy: If you are prescribed a certain dose of a medication and you take 5x the recommended dose instead would you be surprised if there are side effects?
The same concept holds true for exercise. You need to understand what a proper “dosage” of deadlifts is for you. Then stick to it. You can’t call something bad just because you don’t know how to use it properly.
Proper Deadlift Form
Deadlifts are a great exercise but they can be challenging to learn. A deadlift is a hip hinge. We find that many people are overusing their low back during the movement because they don’t know how to properly load their hips.
Here are a few things to pay attention to when you deadlift:
Keep the bar close. If it drifts away from your body, it can strain your back.
Focus on getting your chest up (you should be able to see the logo on your shirt in a mirror in front of you)
Think about pushing the floor away (instead of lifting the weight)
Pick the right deadlift variation for you. There are a lot of options out there.
HERE is an article of ours from a while back going into the concept of a hip hinge and how doing it well can keep your back feeling good.
How To Return To Deadlifting (or start Deadlifting)
If you previously hurt your back and it’s starting to feel better, it may be time to start easing back into deadlifting.
Your back may be sensitive so you’ll need to test the waters. This is also a good time to work on hip mobility.
Here are some of our favorite warm ups before deadlifting:
Cat/cow exercise for low back mobility
Hip flexor stretch to improve hip extension
Shin box to improve hip rotation mobility and loosen up your back
If all of this feels ok, we want to get into a hip hinge progression. Below is a progression we use all the time with our patients.
Dowel hip hinge to work on deadlift form
This will let you test out a hip hinge while getting feedback about form. Focus on keeping a slight arch in your back while also keeping the dowel in contact with your mid back and tailbone.
Pull Through to start adding resistance
This is a great way to add some resistance to the hip hinge and start working back into the full movement. The cable helps guide the movement and you can start as light as you need to.
Trap bar deadlift to get some weight in your hands
Once you’ve been able to add a good amount of resistance to the pull through, a trap bar deadlift is a good option for progression. The trap bar allows you to stay a bit more upright, which will put less strain on your back. Elevate the bar on some plates to shorten the range of motion even more if you need to.
If you want a similar movement, but need less weight, try a Kettlebell Deadlift.
Full Deadlift
You made it! Now you can get back to full deadlifts from the floor. Just take it easy if you are still getting a little sore. If getting all the way down to the floor still bothers your back or hips, elevate the bar by putting some weight plates or blocks on the ground. Then slowly decrease the height until you are back on the ground (if that is the goal).
How Long Does It Take To Get Back To Deadlifting After Injury?
If you just had a mild low back tweak, you might zoom through this progression in a couple workouts. A more severe injury could take months to rehab.
Our goal with this article was to give you somewhere to start when getting back to deadlifting. You don’t have to stop lifting altogether if you get injured. In fact, it is usually better to keep doing what you can while you listen to your body.
Back pain rehab can be complicated and overwhelming. We deal with this kind of stuff all the time so give us a call if you need help getting back to your full gym routine (and life).
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