Why Your Back Hurts During Deadlifts

If you've ever been deadlifting, hurt your back, and then had to walk around like a hunched-over grandma for the next few days, don't worry, you're not alone. There are 5 main reasons people hurt their back on a deadlift. In this short video, I'm going to show you what they are, how to fix them, and how you can safely lift heavier weight without getting injured. The first mistake is you are not bracing your core correctly. You've probably heard this term before, brace your core. What does it actually mean? Well, when you are able to brace your core properly, that is going to help save and protect your lower back. You may have heard before, you should be bracing your core by sucking in your stomach and pulling your belly button to your spine. That is in fact the worst way you can brace your core and the best way to injure your lower back. Here is how I want you to brace your core properly. I want you to think about one of 3 things. Number one, I want you to think about if you were on the toilet and you were really backed up trying to push one out as hard as you could. That's how I want you to think about bracing your core. And by the way, there's no need to ask me why I have a winter coat on and a wig while I'm taking a shit. Right now, you're a guest in my house. I can do whatever I want, okay? Or you can think about if somebody is going to punch you as hard as they could in the stomach and you're trying to bear down so it doesn't hurt. Or the third one, If you put your hand on your stomach and you cough, do you notice how when you cough you kind of feel your stomach brace a bit? Any one of those 3 things is going to help you brace your core properly, and when you can do this, it is really going to help you keep your lower back safe during deadlifts. Now the second mistake most people make with their Romanian deadlifts actually goes hand in hand with the first one. And it's going to be not bracing something called your lats. Now, your lats are these 2 big muscles that run across each side of your back, and they really help keep your spine stabilized and neutral. And so if you aren't bracing your lats properly, you're not going to keep your spine and your back neutral, which will end up having you have this rounded back deadlift, which is how people end up hurting their lower back. So in order to make sure you are bracing your lats correctly, here's how you're going to do that. You're going to make 2 fists with your hands. You are then going to think about punching the ground beneath you, effectively moving your shoulders down and away from your ears. Once you've done that, I want you to think about getting a piece of paper, putting it under your armpit, and trying to make sure that this piece of paper does not leave and fall out of your armpit. And if you do these 2 things, you will know you're doing it right because you will feel some tension around this part of your back. Now, when you go to grab the bar for your deadlifts, you're going to punch the ground away, act like you're squeezing that paper, and then you're going to keep this position the entire time. Notice how my back cannot round if I'm doing these 2 things. But the second that you let go of that, that's how you're going to end up rounding your back, which ends up hurting your back. Now, the 3rd mistake is something I'm almost certain that you've heard to do before, and that is you should be trying to look up and keep your chest up during your deadlifts. No. No, and more no. Your spine works in 3 parts: your cervical spine, which is around your neck; your thoracic spine, which is around the middle of your back; and then your lumbar spine, which is your lower back. If you are trying to look up and keep your chest up, you are arching your cervical spine and you are arching your lumbar spine, which is your lower back. And we talked about earlier the importance of keeping a neutral spine the entire time. If you're arching your spine, you're going to end up with some back pain. So here is what I want you to do instead. Before you get down into doing your deadlift, I want you to think about tucking your chin back to the wall behind you while you think about pulling your head to the top of the ceiling. Then once you've done that, you simply just keep this position the entire time. Because if you're tucking your chin and now you're going down into your Romanian deadlift, you can see how there's much less arching in your lower back and you're keeping a more neutral spine as opposed to trying to look up and arching your back. Word of wisdom, when you first start doing this, you are going to think that you're tucking your chin And you're not going to tuck your chin. So when you think your chin is tucked, tuck it more. Now the fourth mistake that most people make during their Romanian deadlifts is going to be going down way too low in the range of motion. You see, most people think more is better when they're doing an exercise with the range of motion. The only issue is everybody has something called their active range of motion. This is the range of motion that you and your body can actively control. So if you're going outside of that range of motion, which you can't actively control, that is where injuries happen. Because what happens is, if you get to here, and that's your active range of motion, you going down lower than this is essentially shifting all of this weight directly onto your lower back. And this can really fucking hurt. So how do you know what your active range of motion is then? It's actually quite simple because you've done all 3 of the things we've talked about earlier in this video. Simply all you have to do is go down into the deadlift until you feel the back of your legs, hamstrings, and your glutes start to stretch. Once you feel the back of your legs stretch, that's it, you're good. You can start to stand back up. For most people, this is usually right below the knee or about the middle of your shin level. And the 5th mistake people make when they're doing their Romanian deadlifts is going down and then coming back up. Yep, you heard that right, and here's what I mean. You see, a lot of times people will get injured during their Romanian deadlift, even if they're trying to do all those other things, because they think about going down with the weight and back up with the weight. Inevitably, this is going to cause you to round your back and end up hurting your back. So what I want you to think about instead is I want you to get something behind you, whether it's a bench, Whether it's a couch, maybe if it's your partner trying to, you know, just grab your glutes. And instead of thinking about going down with the weight, I want you to think about going back with your hips to try and touch whatever it is that's behind you, because this will reinforce you not rounding your back, keeping a neutral spine, and avoid you walking around like that grandma. And then conversely, don't think about standing back up because as you can see from my lower back, I end up arching my lower back when I just think about standing up. So what I want you to do instead, when you get to the bottom of this Romanian deadlift, think about pushing your hips forward and initiating the movement through your hips, and this will help keep your spine much more neutral, and you'll end up using the muscles you want to use, which are your glutes and your hamstrings. Notice the difference between standing up versus going forward. I hope this video helped you be much more confident in your Romanian deadlifts so you can lift heavier weight, get stronger, build more muscle, all without having an injury. If you enjoyed this style of content, you can let me know below in the comment section, as well as if you want some help in your workouts and your fitness journey, you can consider joining my Clubhouse. It's my online training program where you can get exact workouts to do with in-depth exercise tutorial videos, just like this one right here that is backed by science and ensured to get you results. Have a great rest of your day. And if you'd like to check out another video to help you with your workouts, you can do so right here.