To deadlift or not to deadlift, that is the question… to parody William Shakespeare’s quote from Hamlet.
As I write this, I’m just a couple of weeks shy of turning 59 years old. Throughout junior high school, college, and some years after, I always incorporated deadlifts into my workouts. I was actually a state ranked high school powerlifter in Texas and a nationally ranked collegiate powerlifter and a Region IX record holder while at The University of Texas at Austin.
I pretty much stuck with a general powerlifting and bodybuilding program for much of my life until a friend of mine from jiu-jitsu was going down to help open up one of the first UFC gyms in America back in 2010. Upon joining, that’s when I was first exposed to all the different types of “functional” training with kettlebells, battle ropes, medicine balls, prowler sleds, suspension trainers, etc. I had never even seen this stuff before then. (Of course not long after, it seems CrossFit also took off). Anyway, joining UFC GYM and seeing how those professional fighters trained, completely changed the way I worked out. I rarely ever did back squats, bench press, or deadlifts after that.
For years now, anybody I train over the age of 38, I don’t have them do back squats or deadlifts anymore. It comes down to risk versus reward in my opinion. I know a lot of trainers will disagree with me on this, and that’s fine, everyone has their own opinion.
However, having actually been an elite powerlifter for almost 8 years, I feel I have an edge over many trainers in that I understand just how many things can go wrong with the deadlift.
The most common mistake I see: literally among 99% of people I see deadlifting in the gym, is that they round their backs.
Here’s a picture of me doing just that competing as a teenager in 1984. Granted, my back is nowhere near as compromised as the folks I’m talking about, but it’s still rounded more than it should be (it wasn’t until I got to college that I improved my DL with the right coaching). As we get older, we all know that the body begins to suffer from essentially “wear and tear,” and what might not have hurt you as an 18 year old (like me in that picture), will certainly hurt you after you’re 40 years old.
Likewise, recovery will be nowhere near what it was at that young age. As we age, we simply do not recover from injury as well as we once did. So that alone should be a big reason not to risk doing deadlifts.
I remember when I was a trainer at a certain famous gym along a famous beach in California and a young trainer I’ll call “John,” got a new client in his 60’s. Now normally, I was the guy that got all the older folks. But I was already booked at the time that this gentleman wanted to train, so he was assigned to John.
One day I noticed John having this gentleman doing deadlifts. Afterwards, I asked John if he thought that was a good idea and of course John gave me a smart aleck reply:
“Mind your own business Mr. Former powerlifter, functional training, black belt man.”
Well, not soon after that day I was leading a client through the gym and I saw that older gentleman rounding his back like crazy trying to pull the bar off the ground while John stood by encouraging him. Suddenly screaming at the top of his lungs, he dropped the bar, reached for his lower back, then collapsed to the floor in horrible pain. It was a terrible sight. In our weekly meeting shortly after that, the gentleman had apparently threatened a negligence lawsuit, but it was eventually dropped.
The deadlift is a very technical movement, though it doesn’t look like it. If someone does not have a trainer or coach who really knows the deadlift and/or the client doesn’t already understand how to engage his body properly for this movement, they’re going to get injured. It is only a matter of time.
Furthermore, I remember once watching a great video of NFL Texans linebackers Brian Cushing and Connor Barwin getting into a competition in the weight room, thinking one of them was going to surely harm themselves. Luckily they didn’t, but so often when it comes to lifting with friends, the dark side of competition rears its ugly head. The bros start deadlifts, and then they start adding more and more weight and sooner or later it becomes a contest to see who can lift the most. Form is the first thing that goes completely out the window because it’s all about who’s gonna lift the most weight to have the bragging rights, and that’s exactly when injury can happen.
In fact, on the Joe Rogan podcast #1321, strongman Robert Oberst even says deadlifts aren’t worth the risk! One of the strongest men in the world…
So my argument is that when there are so many other options requiring less weight and potential injury to the lower back, and that essentially accomplish the same thing targeting the same posterior chain and muscles:
Why do deadlifts?
If you’re young and you understand the proper mechanics and technique, okay go for it. But if you’re not a competitive powerlifter or CrossFit athlete, I strongly suggest Kettlebell Sumo Deadlifts, Trap Bar Deadlifts, Rack Pulls, Sandbag Deadlifts, Romanian Deadlifts, or Kettlebell Swings. They all employ the same muscles and what’s great is you won’t be using a ton of weight as that’s where the real danger lies.
