Do You Feel Low Back pain When Deadlifting?

The deadlift, despite being a king among exercises, is often performed poorly. Do you ever feel your low back working overtime during a deadlift? It's a bit of a trick question because your back muscles are engaged, but they shouldn't be the primary movers.

Think of the deadlift as a full-body symphony. For it to be powerful, safe, and effective, every joint needs to be stabilized by the right muscles, allowing the big, strong players to do the heavy lifting. In a proper deadlift, your hamstrings, glutes, and quads are the stars, responsible for pulling the weight from the floor.

Meanwhile, muscles like your traps, lats, abs, and low back act as crucial support, statically holding everything tight so those primary movers can shine. Interestingly, even though stabilizers are often smaller muscles, the lats and spinal erectors – some of the biggest muscles in your back – play this vital role in the deadlift.

If any of these supporting muscles aren't pulling their weight (pun intended!), you're not only leaving potential strength gains on the table but also significantly increasing your risk of injury.

Why are low back injuries common in the deadlift?

Your low back can become an easy target for injury because you can push (or in this case pull) too far overboard in either direction.

Follow me for a sec.

Excessive Lumbar Flexion - NO GOOD

Too much Lumbar Flexion (low back rounding over) puts your back in an unsafe position that is begging for a posterior disc herniation or a sprained SI joint. I've had both, not fun, do. not. do. this. ever.

Lumbar Hyper-extension - Also potentially dangerous (especially for people suffering from Extension Based Low Back Pain)

Lumbar Spine in Neutral Position - Safe and Strong

On the other hand, too much Lumbar Hyper-Extension can put your back in an unsafe position that's susceptible to anterior disc herniation, end plate fractures and more if performed without proper abdominal and spine stiffening techniques.

We want you somewhere in the middle. You see that last pic? Neutral spine, straight line, something like that. Abdominals are braced, lats are engaged and your legs are doing all the pulling.

Individual Coaching is Necessary for New Lifters and People in Low Back Rehab

Funny story, a couple years ago I met Matt Wenning (a world record powerlifter who deadlifts over 750lbs). He also has a Masters Degree in Biomechanics. He's clearly a very smart and really strong individual whose knowledge is helping the world become a stronger place. I remember him saying "Whose ever injured their back from too much Lumbar Extension in a deadlift? It doesn't happen haha."

However, that's not necessarily true. If you suffer from extension based back pain, hyper-extending your back in a deadlift can lead to pain and further injury.

This is why programming and technique can and should be based on individual needs. It all depends on who you're training. Matt for example works with elite athletes, armed forces, firefighters, etc. Basically - Strong people, getting even stronger. They're not likely to hurt their back hyper-extending in a deadlift or olympic lift (which requires some extension) especially under his supervision.

On the other hand a new gym goer who hasn't touched a barbell before can sure as hell hurt themselves. Even intermediate gym goers can hurt their back from shitty technique or from something outside of the gym. Tons of folks are throwing out their back shovelling, or carrying objects at home or at work. This is the same idea - carrying load without supporting the spine.

 The thing is once you hurt your back no matter how you did it, you've gotta be careful how you execute the hip hinge and deadlift in general.

Just like life itself, the spine requires a delicate balance to stay strong and healthy.

If you feel your lower back working overtime in a deadlift check out the images to the side. They show you what Lumbar extension, flexion and neutral look like.

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What SHOULD You Feel After Deadlifting?

The most common muscles to feel DOMS from (delayed onset muscle soreness) after deadlifts are your hamstrings, traps, mid-back and sometimes core. If you're low back is the most sore muscles group, you've likely been using poor form and either over-extending or over-flexing your spine.

While you're deadlifting it's common to feel a low back pump or even some stiffness (not soreness) and that's simply because the low back is STILL a working muscle group when deadlifting properly. The difference is that you want it to be working statically. Meaning - working to stabilize the spine but not actually to produce hyper-extension movement of the spine.

How Can You Prevent A Low Back Injury?

Learning proper technique is the first thing you should do. This ensures that even at heavy loads (near 1RM) you aren't putting your spine in a risky position. Learning Abdominal Bracing under load is KEY.

Once you've got that down, warming up the right muscles and movements will seriously decrease your risk on injury.

Activating the muscles that support the spine are crucial. This would be the Abdominals, Glutes and Lats.

I like doing any combo of activation exercises to "wake up" those spine protecting muscles that allow me to keep a neutral spine.

Here's a list of my go to's for each muscle group:

Abs:

Deadbugs, RKC Planks, McGill Curl Ups, Active Straight Leg Raise

Glutes:

Lateral Band Walks, Glute Clams, Glute Bridges, Band Pull Throughs

Lats:

Band Rows, Lat Pushdowns (cable or band)

Just pick one from each category and throw it into your warm-up. Your back will thank you. Remember, the purpose is to get the muscles working and ready to lift so really focus to improve your mind-muscle connection and don't over do the volume so you're fatigued before you start deadlifting. All you need is 1-2 sets for 6-10 reps each.

This might be obvious to some but the coach in me has to say it:

Make sure you warm up the actual exercise too! When you start deadlifts, do 2-3 warm up sets where you slowly build your way up to the working weight. Here's an example. If your working weight is 250lbs for 5 reps, start your warm-up at about 50%. 125lbs for 5-8 reps. Then as you add weight your next 1-2 sets start decreasing the amount of reps per set. You might do one set at 185lbs for 5-6 reps, then 225lbs for a 2-3 reps. This is because we don't want you fatiguing yourself before the working weight. The 250lbs is going to stimulate your gains much more than 185lbs so save your energy for that!