You have not stopped to think about it, but in your daily life you are doing the deadlift movement regularly. When you drop something on the floor and pick it up, you flex your hips. So technically you are performing a deadlift.
This movement is very popular among crossfit enthusiasts and powerlifters, although the deadlift can be performed by anyone. It is an exercise that has extensive benefits in the extensors of the lower back, the upper back, the strength of the hips and the grip. Put like that, it sounds like a perfect exercise. But it is not easy to execute.
Basically, it involves lifting a bar off the ground with several discs on its ends, and then lowering it. Due to the nature of the exercise and the muscle groups involved, they are usually very heavy weights. So anyone, novice or veteran, can make technical mistakes and get injured.
Precisely, the deadlift can be one of the ways to follow to strengthen the back and try to solve the derived problems. But it is an exercise that requires a very polished technique to be able to be done correctly and without feeling any kind of pain. A little more posture here or a little more grip there will open a window to new and worse pain.
If every time you try to deadlift the bar you have some type of lower back pain, it is best not to keep trying until you strengthen the area or improve your technique. Therefore, try to perform an alternative to the deadlift that is less painful. These are some of them:
Deadlift with trap bar
It is one of the great alternatives to the traditional barbell deadlift. Instead, a trap bar is used, which is a hexagonal shaped bar. This way, instead of getting behind the bar, the move starts in the center of the hex. Since the load is not in front of the body, the back does not suffer as much.
- Get inside the bar
- Squat down. For a hip-dominant lift, roll your hips back. If you want to work the quadriceps, bring your knees forward.
- Take a firm grip on the handles on both sides.
- Roll your shoulders back and down
- Fill yourself with air and squeeze your core to lift the weight by propelling off your feet.
- Lean your hips forward and squeeze your glutes.
- Return to the starting position and repeat
Partial deadlift
The rack deadlift is a great variation on the traditional deadlift that is performed with a loaded bar using the support of a rack. So, by using the platform, you are saving yourself the most painful part of the move.
- Place rack supports below or above the knees
- Grab the bar slightly more than shoulder width apart
- Roll your shoulders back and down
- Fill yourself with air and squeeze your core to lift the weight by propelling your feet
- Return to the starting position and repeat
Hip Thrust
This exercise trains the same muscles as the deadlift, but from a different approach. It is a great alternative to protect the back.
- prepare the bar
- Lie with your back against the long side of a bench.
- Straighten your legs and roll the bar over them
- At hip height, grab the bar, plant your feet and press your back into the bench to perform a glute bridge.
- Squeeze the glutes and return to the starting position to repeat again
