If there’s one exercise that can help you build functional strength and greater muscle mass, it’s deadlifts. You know them best for their ability to build full-body strength and power by engaging almost every skeletal muscle. But like any complex lift, deadlifts come with inherent risks. Let’s look at the most common deadlift injuries that inexperienced lifters fall victim to. The goal? To reap the most benefits from this powerful exercise while minimizing the risks.
Understanding the Deadlift
Before opening the book on deadlift injuries, let’s review what this exercise entails. The deadlift is a compound exercise, meaning you use multiple muscle groups when performing them. It involves lifting a weighted barbell from the ground to hip level, then lowering it back to the floor. Deadlifts target the posterior chain – the glutes, hamstrings, and lower back muscles, yet they also engage the core, quadriceps, and upper body muscles.
When you do deadlifts correctly, you can build incredible strength, including functional strength that helps you conduct the movements you do routinely with greater efficiency and with less risk of injury. To lower your risk of injury, you must first know what the most common deadlift injuries are. Let’s take a closer look.
Lower Back Strains and Sprains
Although deadlifts work multiple muscle groups, the most common injuries related to deadlifts involve the lower back. If you’ve ever gotten sloppy with your technique when deadlifting, you might have experienced a lower back injury yourself. If you’re lucky, the injury was a back strain that resolved quickly. But you can also experience more serious back injuries, including herniated discs.
What are the most common mistakes that lead to lower back strains? They include:
- Poor form, especially rounding your back when you lift the bar.
- Lifting too heavy too soon
- Lack of core engagement
- Hyperextending your back at the top of the lift
Making these mistakes with your deadlift technique stresses the muscles in your lower back and pulls on your spine. For example, when you round your back, you subject your spine to shearing forces. Plus, when you work with heavy weights, it overwhelms the muscles that support your spine.
And if you don’t have a strong core that engages when you lift, your lower back muscles must work harder and are more likely to get strained. Plus, when you hyperextend your back at the top of the deadlift it compresses your spine and can irritate your facet joints.
Prevention
To prevent back injuries, start with lighter weights until you master your form. You can always increase the resistance over time. Focus on keeping your spine neutral and engaging your core. Just as importantly, don’t arch your back at the top of the lift. Also, strengthen your core for more stability and support and a lower risk of injury. In summary:
- Maintain a neutral spine throughout the movement.
- Engage your core muscles before and during the lift.
- Progress the resistance gradually.
- Focus on the hip hinge movement rather than lifting with your back.
Hamstring Strains
Hamstrings play a significant role in deadlift form too. When you descend into a deadlift, you lengthen your hamstrings under tension to maintain control. Hamstring strength and flexibility helps counter your torso’s forward lean. Also, if you have weak or tight hamstrings, it’ll limit how low you can descend into a deadlift without arching your back.
Other causes of hamstring injuries include:
- Insufficient warm-up
- Overloading the muscles you’re working.
- Poor flexibility
- Imbalanced muscle development
Prevention
The first order of business is to work on improving hamstring flexibility. Flexible hamstrings give you a greater range of motion when you lift a bar off the floor. Plus, you’re less likely to get injured when your hamstrings aren’t tight. Flexible hamstrings can manage the load you place on them without recruiting compensatory muscles in your lower back.
To improve your hamstring flexibility:
- Do a thorough warm-up. (at least 5 minutes)
- Do dynamic stretches, like legs swings and walking lunges.
- Perform light Romanian deadlifts to activate the hamstrings.
- Relax your hamstrings by using a foam roller if you have access to one.
- To correct flexibility differences between sides, use single-leg deadlifts to target one side.
- Do static lower body stretching after your workouts and on rest days.
- Add yoga or mobility routines to improve how flexible your hamstrings are.
- Work toward building balanced strength in your lower body. Ideally, your hamstring to quadriceps strength ratio should be one.
By focusing on these aspects, you’ll improve your deadlift performance. Plus, you’ll reduce your risk of injury when you do this exercise that builds functional strength. Remember that progress takes time, so be patient and consistent in your approach to hamstring flexibility and strength development.
Bicep Tendon Tears
You can also injure your upper body when you do deadlifts. One painful injury that you can sustain with poor deadlift form are biceps tendon tears. It’s a particularly painful and inconvenient injury to have and one that can keep you from training for a while. So, it’s best to avoid practices that place you at risk.
Causes
There are three main causes of biceps tendon tears when deadlifting. They are:
- Excessive use of a mixed grip
- Attempting to “curl” the weight up
- Sudden jerking movements
When you use a mixed grip (one hand under and the other overhand), it stabilizes the bar but also places uneven tension on the biceps tendon, making it easier to sustain a biceps tendon injury. In the case of a tear, it’s usually the supinated side that has the greater likelihood of getting damaged.
Prevention
So, what can you do to prevent this significant injury? Doing these three things should lower your risk:
- Alternate your grip or use a hook grip.
- Pull with your back, not your arms.
- Use lifting straps for heavier weights to reduce grip strain.
Shoulder Injuries
The shoulder joint is inherently unstable and prone to injury. If you’re unlucky enough to get one, it can take months to recover from a serious shoulder injury. That’s why prevention is your best bet. The most common shoulder injuries you could sustain from deadlifting are shoulder strains and shoulder impingement. When shoulder deadlift injuries occur, it’s usually because you’re making one of these mistakes:
- Allowing your shoulders to round forward when you lift the bar.
- Gripping the bar with too wide of a grip
- Jerking the weight off the ground when you lift it.
Prevention:
Here are ways to reduce the stress on your shoulders when you deadlift:
- Keep your shoulders back and down throughout the lift.
- Retract your shoulder blades but avoid shrugging your shoulders toward your eyes.
- Maintain a grip width just outside your legs.
- Lift smoothly, avoiding sudden jerking motions. Keep the speed controlled.
- Don’t bounce the bar off the ground between each rep.
- Keep the bar close to your body throughout the exercise for greater stability.
Knee Pain
When you deadlift, you can also experience knee strains or worsen knee inflammation if you’re sloppy with your deadlift form. The most common missteps that cause knee pain include:
- Starting with the bar too far from the shins
- Allowing your knees to cave inward during the lift.
- Locking your knees too forcefully at the top of the movement
Prevention
Prevention is always the best practice, especially if it saves you an injury and helps you get more out of the exercise. Protect your knees from injury by taking these precautions.
- Start with the bar close to your shins.
- Keep knees in line with toes throughout the movement.
- Avoid hyperextending knees at the top of the lift.
Other Tips for Avoiding Deadlift Injuries
You know how important warming up is, right? Don’t work with heavy weights when you have cold, tight muscles. Raise your body temperature and warm up your muscles before doing your first deadlift. Do it by engaging in light cardio and performing dynamic stretches, like arm swings and leg kicks. Save the static stretching for the end of your workout.
For an effective, injury-free deadlift, focus more on core training with exercises like planks. Having greater strength and stability in your mid-section will better support your back and spine when you deadlift. Also, improve your hip mobility with targeted mobility exercises.
Conclusion
So, make sure you’re doing deadlifts, but do them safely. Remember these tips when you train. If you’re unsure about your form, have someone whip out their smartphone and video you as you do the exercise. It’s one of the best ways to see where you’re falling short with your form.
References:
- Bengtsson V, Berglund L, Aasa U. Narrative review of injuries in powerlifting with special reference to their association to the squat, bench press and deadlift. BMJ Open Sport Exerc Med. 2018 Jul 17;4(1):e000382. doi: 10.1136/bmjsem-2018-000382. PMID: 30057777; PMCID: PMC6059276.
- McKay, Stuart. “Total Physiotherapy.” Total Physiotherapy, September 4, 2019. https://www.totalphysiosydney.com.au/blog/2019/9/4/deadlifting-tips-to-prevent-injury.
- Strömbäck E, Aasa U, Gilenstam K, Berglund L. Prevalence and Consequences of Injuries in Powerlifting: A Cross-sectional Study. Orthop J Sports Med. 2018 May 14;6(5):2325967118771016. doi: 10.1177/2325967118771016. PMID: 29785405; PMCID: PMC5954586.
- Ulrika Aasa, Ivar Svartholm, Fredrik Andersson, and Lars Berglund. “Injuries among Weightlifters and Powerlifters: A Systematic Review.” British Journal of Sports Medicine 51, no. 4 (October 4, 2016): 211–19. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2016-096037.
- Ramirez VJ, Bazrgari B, Gao F, Samaan M. Low Back Biomechanics during Repetitive Deadlifts: A Narrative Review. IISE Trans Occup Ergon Hum Factors. 2022 Jan-Mar;10(1):34-46. Epub 2022 Jan 7. PMID: 34875981; PMCID: PMC9837526.
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