STOP Doing Deadlifts Like This (SAVE YOUR SPINE!) ft. Dr. Stuart McGill

If you've ever hurt your back deadlifting or are afraid to do them in fear that you will end up hurting yourself, you're not alone. There's five reasons why so many people injure themselves with this exercise. I'll share what these are. How to find the right deadlift for your body and how to perform it for safer, stronger deadlift. First, let's discuss why deadlifts are perceived as such a dangerous exercise to begin with, despite their many benefits and back strengthening properties. The reason for this has to do with this hard to look at ego driven deadlift that I'm sure we've all seen at the gym or have been guilty of doing at some point in our lifting careers. Now, while rounding the back during the deadlift is actually a popular method that elite powerlifters often use to lift more weight, for the not so elite average lifter who isn't conditioned to lift that way, the safest way to deadlift is with a neutral spine. The problem with deadlifts though is that it's very easy to lose this neutral position in a bench press or a squat. If you don't have enough strength to lift the weight, you won't be able to complete the lift during the deadlift. However, rounding the spine actually makes the lift easier and given that you're not actively looking at your spine in the mirror, it makes it very easy to do this without you even realizing it. Combine this with a heavy load, the lack of back and core strength to support your spine in this position, and just like the continual bending of a paperclip, your back can eventually wear out and lead to injury. This is further complicated by the fact that the structure of some people's hip bones makes it virtually impossible to maintain a neutral spine with traditional deadlift form.

So what can we do about it? Well, today I brought in world renowned back pain expert Dr. Stuart McGill, who has studied the signs of back pain for over 30 years. He's also personally trained and recovered elite level athletes, some of which have deadlifted over 1000 pounds and performed other incredible, incredible feats of strength. Together we'll dive into the five causes of back injury during deadlifts and how you can avoid them.

The first reason has to do with your hip structure. Some individuals are born with deep hip sockets. These individuals tend to have the most trouble getting into and pulling from the bottom position of a deadlift. Here's Stu demonstrating exactly why that happens.

When descending into the deadlift. If the foot stance is too narrow, you can see how in this particular person you will get a mechanical collision between the top of the hip socket and the leg bone and that creates FAI or femoral acetabular impingement.

So in this case, if they try to get deeper than their hip anatomy allows, they'll feel a pinching sensation in their hips that stops them from getting any deeper without rounding at the lower back. In contrast, other individuals are born with more shallow hip sockets. The populations that have the highest rates of shallow hip sockets come from regions like Bulgaria, Poland, China and Ukraine. And it's no coincidence that the top weightlifters are often born there, as their shallow hip sockets make getting into and coming up from the bottom of a deadlifter squat much easier. Now, this doesn't mean that those with deep hip sockets shouldn't deadlift.

The solution would be to widen out the stance with this particular anatomy and you can see you can descend much deeper into the lifter's wedge, setting up the deadlift pull.

Now, to find the perfect foot stance for you and your hips, there is a simple two part test that we can do. Here's the first part of that test.

One of the best tests to link anatomy and deadlift style is the pelvic rock back. So I'm going to set my knees on the floor fairly and then I'm going to adopt an all four position and I'm checking in the mirror to see the curve of my back. I'm going to have my feet the same width as my knees and as I rock back I can now feel the collision in my hip. And if I go any further and check that in the mirror, I can see now that I'm stressing my back. So the solution I'm going to try and find a more stress free position. I've now widened out my knees and my feet and I find spine neutral and rock back. And there all of a sudden I'm matching my anatomy and finding a much lower descent possible in the deadlift. Now I'm going to widen out a little bit further and I see that, oh, I found a little bit of a compromise now. So my optimal position is somewhere in the middle. Now the key is to translate that information onto the platform.

So the first part of the test is going to get you the right foot width to use when deadlifting. The next part of the test is to play around with turning your feet further in or out and seeing what is most, most comfortable as you get into the bottom position and what enables your knees to remain in line with your toes. In general, those with deeper hip sockets find the most comfort with a fairly wider stance and the feet turned out. Sumo deadlifts also tend to be a good option here as well.

However, some individuals, regardless of what stance they try, they just won't be able to find that sweet spot position and will always have trouble getting into the bottom of a deadlift without compromising the lower back. This is where the next cause of injury comes in.

When using standard 45 pound weights on each side, the bar sits 8.75 inches above the floor. This exact height was a manufacturing decision made long ago to protect Olympic weightlifters from crushing their skulls in the event of an overhead lift gone wrong. While it was a smart design feature, it forces you to have the required range of motion and the right body structure to be able to safely deadlift from that height. And if you're using smaller weight plates, the required range of motion increases even further. So rather than forcing your body to pull from the ground, elevate the bar, you can use blocks, a power rack, or weight plates to shorten the range of motion to a level where you can now perform the deadlift comfortably with perfect form. Then, after a month or so, try lowering it slightly and see how that feels. If that goes well, great. Build from there and continue lowering. If that, however, causes back pain or breaks down your form, then go back to the higher plates and continue using that to comfortably deadlift. Only powerlifters are required to pull from the floor, so don't risk forcing yourself to do the same if you're just not built for that. Regardless of your body structure and the type of deadlift you use, you need to create what's called the lifter's wedge before you pull. Popularized by Dr. Stuart McGill, it's a foolproof way to protect your back throughout the lift and unlock the power of your hips.

I'm setting the knee and foot width determined by the rock back test, and I've got my turnout matched to my particular hip and knee hinge. So I'm going to go down into what we call a shortstop position to set up some of the alignment. And then I'm going to descend out of that with my hands outside my knees. And I push my hands into the bar, establish the grip, and I start to set or stiffen in, lock in my low back, and I do that by creating a bending force into the bar, activating my back, lifting my chest just a tiny bit, locking it in, and then as I add the squeeze, the bar starts to move. So I've already got the most difficult part of the lift. Accomplished squeeze. And then with my back locked, I can then unleash full power out of the hips and pull through.

Now, while this technique will help prevent you from lifting with your back, it's often compromised by the next mistake people make. Perfecting your deadlift technique and strengthening your protective back and core muscles. It takes time and repetition during this process, and many let their ego get in the way and try to lift loads that exceed their ability to maintain a neutral spine and stiffness throughout the pull.

If we follow the Russian philosophy, you start by lifting a broomstick. Don't let your ego get in the way. If you can lift the broomstick with perfect form, you now are allowed to have an Olympic bar. If you lift that with perfect form, you're now allowed to put half a cookie on either side. You know a small weight, and then as long as you keep good form, you earn the right to have more weight.

Now, what if you've applied everything that we went through and are still experiencing low back pain? Well, if it's not a sharp shooting pain, then your lower back muscles may just be adapting to the exercise. Even though your back isn't actively moving, it is heavily involved in stabilizing your body as you lift. And considering that most of the general population sit at a desk or hunched over for the majority of the day, being put into a neutral spine position and lifting weight with good form will turn these muscles on and work them like never before. My advice? Pay attention to the level of soreness you get after your first few sessions. If it's just a matter of your back muscles adapting, then the soreness you experience after a session will decrease more and more over time. If it doesn't, or if one day you feel a lot more low back soreness than usual, that's a good indication that you're breaking that neutral spine position and you need to focus on perfecting your form. I hope you guys are able to see just how much the details matter for every exercise you do. It not only keeps you healthy and injury free in the long run, but it gets you results faster. And if you're looking for a program that applies this methodology to transform your specific body safely and effectively with science, then head over to builtwithscience.com and big thank you to Dr. Stuart McGill for his help on this video. This man's knowledge is truly incredible. And for those interested in improving their powerlifting technique from a back health perspective, I'd highly recommend that you read these two books of his and I'll leave.

A link to them.

In the description box down below. Thank you so much for watching, guys. I hope you enjoyed this one. Hit that like and subscribe button if you haven't yet done so and watch some more of my videos here. I'll see you next time.