Newbie Deadlift Injury Advice

[Francesco.M]

Hi everybody, first of all forgive me for my bad english, i'm writing from Italy.

I'm 29, weight 170 lbs, height 6,07 foots (185cm) i'm underweight, i know.
I'm a weightlifting newbie, just bought the book from UK and i hope it arrives next week.

Three days ago (wednesday) i injured my low back while deadlifting on the second set of 5 (i'm a beginner so the weight was light, 140lbs) , not that much pain when it happened but the morning after i couldn't just step out of my bed, the strange thing is that on sunday i've done a 5x5 set with the same weight and had no problem. The only thing that felt different the last time was that i was trying to overextend my lower back in order to keep it straight and not to '''round'' it, probably wrong choice?? Probably because of that i wasn't engaging hamstrings and gluten properly to be tight before the lift?
I've seen a Nick Delgadillo video on YouTube where he says ''shove your belly into your thighs'', next time i will try that.


Now it's getting a little better, i try to move myself during the day, the worst part of the day is still waking up....(on wednesday i will go to the osteopath)

The first thing that i will do when i will be able again to train is contact a SSC for an online checking of my main exercises form.

I can post a video but it's recorded from the side, unfortunately i've read the ''sticky thread'' after recording them. It's OK too?

Here is my question, i really have problems into getting in the right starting position before starting the deadlift, should i avoid them for now and do something like reverse hypers or rack pulls to strengthen the lower back and then try again to perform deadlifts?

Thanks a lot.

Francesco

[Hayden-William Courtland]

I would start eating more and get a coach to guide you through proper setup and lifting form. You can post videos to the technique forum if you don't want to hire a coach, but try and post a video that is at least slightly to the 45. You don't need other exercises to strengthen your lower back - you need to deadlift with the proper form, and to start working on that you'll likely need to drop down your DL weight a bit.

[Steve R]

Your writing in English is better than at least half of the population of the US.

You were right to keep your back moving with more deadlifts. Had you stopped lifting in order to recover you would be much worse off now. It's hard for a man to overextend the lower back. Some women can do it but when a man tries to do it in the deadlift it results in a straight back which is ideal. If you record yourself from the side you may see that you are not overextended at all.

Don't worry about how much this is working your posterior chain. Just do the movement correctly and when you get stronger remember to reduce the frequency of your deadlifting because this movement is overtrained by novices who get excited about their strength gains and want to do more work than they can recover from.

[Oso Rojo]

" and do something like reverse hypers or rack pulls to strengthen the lower back"

My wife is a chiropractor and she said that when I'm dead lifting she sees the most muscle growth in my lower back. I would just back the weight down to what is comfortable and get the form correct. Then march up the linear progression.

Regarding stiff in the morning, it's part of the deal for being big and strong. Wait till you get to 58 and have to pay that bill every morning, haha.

Keep the faith, get healthy, and get back to it.