It seems that this exercise goes against the wisdom of “lift with your legs.” Why is that?
In: Biology
thats why I like to do deadlifts using hex bar…if I am not competing then deadlift with straight bar is dangerous.
Its a combination of bracing as other have said, but its the whole posterior chain really. Hamstrings, glutes lats all play a major role. It just seems like you’d throw out your lower back because when you finish, you’re straightening out at the top but really thats just the last 20% or so of the movement.
Not sure if this has been said but for the most part the big, heavy personal bests are only done once and require a good deal of rest after.
So good deadlift form mostly engages the legs.
it’s worth mentioning the fitness community in my side of internet seems to be coming to the conclusion that it’s worthwhile to train the lower back too and eventually load it heavy.
Very light weights and poor form seems to serve a purpose for our body. We were supposed to be able to move around just about any way and make it work.
When the spine is stacked and braced properly there is very little risk of injury. You’ll either make the lift or fail. There are internal muscles around the spine that are kind of like the wires that hold telephone poles in the ground. This plus the muscles you can see if the back, obliques, and abdominals. When you contact all these muscles together in addition to the diaphragm pushing down from your breath you create an immense amount of pressure that can hold a lot of weight. Obviously you need to train these muscles and progress properly to ensure that you don’t get hurt.
Like all exercises, a little is good, a bit more is great, and overdoing it is going to ruin you.
Below that limit it’s amazing for developing a strong posterior chain which is *crucial* in any physical activity for both performance and injury prevention.
Above that limit, yeah, you risk either chronic injury or catastrophic injury. I know a lot of people who have hurt themselves lifting.
I’m 45 and love deadlifting and squatting, but there is absolutely a limit above which my body lets me know it’s not a good idea. Doesn’t matter how strong my core, back and legs get, your skeleton still needs to hold you up and 300+ lb lifts feel like playing with fire with my spine.
It’s not really a back exercise. Though, as I like to say, everything is a back exercise if you do it wrong enough.
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