How To Treat & Avoid Lower Back Pain after Deadlift
At some point, almost everybody lifting weight is going to get injured. Especially in compound exercises like the deadlift injury is common.
But why does lower back injury from deadlifting happen so often?
How can you prevent & treat lower back pain from the injury?
Those are the most important topics that I am going to cover in this article!
Especially if you have been struggling with injury, this article will help you to get out of that vicious cycle!
At some point, almost everybody lifting weight is going to get injured. Especially in compound exercises like the deadlift injury is common.
But why does lower back injury from deadlifting happen so often?
How can you prevent & treat lower back pain from the injury?
Those are the most important topics that I am going to cover in this article!
Especially if you have been struggling with injury, this article will help you to get out of that vicious cycle!
How To Avoid Lower Back Injury After Deadlifting
Here you will find out why lower back injury happens & how to avoid it.
There are multiple factors that have the potential to get you injured doing conventional deadlifts.
Especially as a beginner, I recommend you to study as much as possible about perfect form to avoid as much risk as possible.
But even as a more advanced athlete, there are multiple factors that you have to be aware of!
Common Deadlift Form Mistakes
Even though you might think you know everything about the deadlift, even the smallest mistakes can cause lower back injury. Therefore I have made up a list of the most common mistakes.
Obviously you do not want to be in pain the day after deadlifting, although soreness is not a problem!
Below you can find the 7 most common issues that can cause lower back pain & injury!
Mistake 1: The Bar Is Too Far Away
One of the most common mistakes with deadlifting is having the bar too far away at the start. But why does this increased the risk of injury? When placing the bar too far away, your upper body will lean too much forward at the start. Therefore your legs & hamstrings will be less engaged while all the pressure moves towards your lower back.
Especially with heavier weights, this type of deadlift will not end up pain-free!
Mistake 2: Overextending
Another common mistake is overextending. With deadlifts, there is the common misconception of having to thrust your hips forward in the end of the motion. But the problem is that this motion tends to arch your back which will make your back hurt after deadlifts.
Still, you should be going all the way up towards an upright position. But please do not think of pushing your hips & stomach forward once you are at the top of the motion!
Mistake 3: Rounded Back
The opposite of an arched back would be a rounded back. In the deadlift, you aim to have a straight back. Otherwise, you will not activate the posterior chain sufficiently!
Especially if you are moving from a rounded back to an arched back throughout your deadlifts you will put additional strain onto your back muscles.
I recommend asking a friend or gym instructor to check on proper form for you to avoid injury!
Mistake 4: Neglecting the Eccentric Phase
Once you lift up the weight you are done, right?
Of course with heavy lifts & in the competition you are allowed to drop the weight. But especially if you are doing high repetitions or low volumes, you should respect the eccentric phase.
It is at least as important as the positive part of the motion! Focus on a controlled motion. Also, be careful to not arch/round your back while letting the weight down.
I often see people with good form in the concentric phase but then they totally forget about everything in the negative part of the motion!
This is going to cause problems to the lumbar region of your body!
Mistake 5: Not Bending Your Legs
Directly related to a rounded back, is forgetting to bend your legs. Of course, the deadlift shouldn't look like a Squat. But please do not think of it being a straight leg exercise!
Especially in the start, your legs should be bend enough so that you do not have your upper facing down. Because this motion can actually cause damage to your lumbar spine!
Mistake 6: Pulling the Bar
The deadlift definitely is a full-body exercise! But it is not mainly a pulling exercise! People have the misconception of having to pull up the bar, which is going to cause your hips going up too fast.
You should rather focus on pushing against the ground with your legs. Overall, the exercise would rather be a pushing exercise.
So with proper deadlifts, you have to think more about pushing rather than pulling!
Mistake 7: Too Little Body Tension
During your deadlift, you have to think of engaging every single muscle group. Especially if your core is not under tension you are going to cause your back to bend. Another very important aspect of form is the hip hinge. If you haven't heard about it before, I highly recommend you to read through the hip hinge article on bodybuilding.com
Overestimation:
As you might have found out, most injuries come from inappropriate technique. One of the primary causes of lower back deadlift injury is an overestimation. Instead of lifting your ego you should lift the weight properly! To be honest I also put on too much weight every now and then. But please think about your own capabilities in advance! Because any form of mistake makes it lightly for you to get injured!
Poor Warm-Up - Causes Back Pain
Another common cause of having your lower back sore after deadlifts is missing out on your warm-up. Especially when going heavy you want to warm-up enough.
But how do you actually warm-up for deadlifts?
Personally I love to keep it as simple as possible.
It is important to understand which muscles you have to warm-up. So what muscles are mainly engaged in deadlifts?
The answer is relatively simple; most muscles of the posterior chain.
For a warm-up, you should think of starting with a little bit of cardiovascular exercises to increase your blood flow. Once your system is awake you should do some mobility & easy strength exercises.
Recommended Warm-up Exercises:
- Burpees (to get your System started)
- Downward Dog (On hands & feet you are trying to push your hips up and down)
- Upward Dog (Get your hips as close as possible to the ground while opening up your chest)
- Side Lunges
- Light Deadlifts (Do about 12-20 reps at 30% of your max)
If you do two sets of each exercise with repetitions between 12-20 you are going to be warm enough to start training!
Do Deadlift Assistance Exercises!
Please be honest with yourself! You have to admit the weak areas within your body. Deadlift back injury can also come from having weak abs or lower back muscles. Therefore you should do some sort of accessory exercises in the areas of your body that you struggle with!
Areas that YOU should strengthen:
Lower Back
Do Back Extensions, or you might also consider doing an exercise called the Hatlefield Back Raise. If you have never heard of it you have to watch the video below!
Don't get skeptical because its old!
Quads
Do front Squads!
You might be wondering why you should be doing front-squads for your deadlifts. But there is a simple explanation.
Front Squats are going to be very beneficial for your quads, lower & upper back and hamstrings. You use most of those muscles in your deadlifts as well, which makes it such a good exercise.
But why would you need strong quads?
The answer to that is that extending your legs fully to be able to lock-out entirely!
Stretching
Despite strengthening people tend to forget about stretching. One common misconception in bodybuilding is that stretching & strength does not go hand in hand.
If you share this belief you might want to check out athletes such as Jujimufu who easily disarm this statement.
What Stretches Should You Do?
In terms of stretching, I recommend you to work on your hip flexors.
Especially with desk jobs, you are going to have very tight hip flexors. In such cases, it might be the most beneficial to read our review about Unlock Your Hipflexors!
Here are some highly beneficial stretches for your deadlifts:
- Straight Leg Swings (Dynamic Stretching)
- Splits
- Lunges (Focus on pushing your hips forward!)
- Downward & Upward Dog
In case you do not know some of the exercises you can search them on Google/YouTube!
How To Recover From Lower Back Injury
But what should you do in case you are already injured? Before doing any strength training or rehabilitation you should go to a doctor if you are unsure of your condition!
Please do not start exercising right away if you are injured. Back pain from deadlifting should not be taken easy. Don't go to the gym and try to break your bench press PR the next day!
But what should you do to get over the injury as quickly as possible?
- Listen to your doctor!
If the injury is more serious, I recommend getting advice from a physio/doctor
- Rest
Depending on the injury you should definetly take a break for a weak or more. Listen to your body and see if the pain is decreasing or increasing!
- Active Recovery
- Massage
With light injuries, active recovery is going to help. Taking a walk or going to the sauna will increase the bloodflow. The more blood flow you get around your lower back the faster the injury is going to heal. Another option would be icing. Especially right after getting injured ice is going to reduce swelling.
Rehabilitation Exercises:
Once the pain is gone, the next step would be to recover the muscles that have gotten weaker. Especially your lower back is an area that you should work on after being injured.
At the start, you should primarily do stability & core exercises.
Doing planks is going to engage the stabilizing muscles in your abs, upper & lower back, which will help you with recovery.
Another excellent exercise is the pelvic tilt. Lie down on your back with bent knees. Then you try to move your hips up. The exercise is going to engage your hips, lower back, hamstrings & glutes at the same time. Therefore it is going to help a lot with recovery!
Overall I recommend doing bodyweight & stability exercises for rehabilitation. You have to be careful with weights right after back injuries!
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