Deadlift Form – Top 5 Reasons Why You are Hurting Your Lower Back

Deadlift can make you or can break you. It depends on the deadlift form. Proper form is very important for every exercises we perform. Here are the 5 reasons why you are hurting your lower back.

Hey, everyone, I hope you are crushing your fitness goals already.

Deadlifts, as I say, is a great exercise to target your posterior chain and to make it strong.

However, I have seen many people having low back pain while deadlifting!

If you are experiencing low back pain while deadlifting then your deadlift form is not correct!

Yes having sloppy deadlift form can cause not only low back pain but also problems like herniated discs or bulging discs.

So today’s topic is 5 reasons deadlifts hurt your lower back:

You are rounding your lower back while performing deadlifts:

I have always told people that deadlift is not a pull but it’s a push.

However, people don’t practice the form correctly and just ego lift the weight.

There are many reasons that can cause lower back rounding.

The major problem is that your lower back is too weak to perform a floor lift as your hamstrings are also tight which causes the posterior pelvic tilt.

I had the same problem that was causing pain in my lower back due to sloppy deadlift form.

I was trying to keep my back straight but as soon as I started the lift my lower back started to round.

The reason is you have low weak back from sitting whole day in the office, or you continuously stay on a computer desk making your form sloppy.

So focus on your lower back and make it strong by doing accessory work for your lower back at least 2-4 times a week.

This will strengthen your lower back and will help you increase your deadlift and with a good form.

You are arching your lower back too much while setting up:

While keeping your back straight during a deadlift is needed, however, if you overextend your lower back it can cause problems.

You may get strains as soon as you lift the bar.

Our backs are not meant to be overextended but need natural arch while doing anything.

So keep your back neutral while performing the deadlifts.

You are hyperextending your lower back when you lockout:

While deadlifting if you have a great set up but if you hyperextend at the lockout it will compress your lower back.

The lockout should be as simple as you stand without carrying any weight.

It will also have a strong foundation for farmers walk exercise.

This hyperextension may also be caused due to having anterior pelvic tilt.

This means you have tight lower back and you cannot stay in a neutral position which causes you to take bad deadlift form.

Anterior pelvic tilt is the Donald duck style of walking.

You need to strengthen your hamstrings to come to a perfect position you can walk in and loosen up your lower back.

You deadlift inches away from your body:

You have a great setup for your deadlift.

Your back is neutral, you have your stance corrected and you pull the slack out of the bar but screw up the distance that bar should have from your body.

The distance of the bar from your body is as important as the all the minute things in your deadlift form.

If you put place yourself at a bad distance even an inch off then the effort to get the bar to the top will increase.

This will cause you to use your lower back more than other bigger and stronger muscle groups.

So place the bar just at a distance where the bar cuts your feet into the half.

Your lower back is not strong enough:

Understand that deadlift is a full body movement but majorly uses the posterior chain.

Even if one element of a posterior chain is lagging then there would be misfiring that would occur of the muscle groups.

To explain you clearly if you have a weak lower back and if you deadlift then rather than your glutes doing the work your lower back will have to do that work.

This can cause overloading on lower back muscles too much.

And it will cause you lower back pain.

So rather than focusing on only performing the three main lifts do some accessory work on your lower back to build it strong.

These are the top 5 reasons and solutions to improve your performance.

This is a constantly improving process and you need to understand that doing these lifts take the time to master so grind through the process and reap all the benefits that it can give.

Work on your deadlift form with these tips I give and you will see your deadlift improve and also improve other lifts as well.

Well, this is it for this blog post.

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