I’ve been bodybuilding for about 8 weeks now, I did some deadlifting from week 3-5 but I stopped because I was worried about the possibility of back injury.
I’ve spent enough time reading to know not to round my back and to have a slight arch, to pull my shoulders back and push my chest forward etc. The recent deadlift article has got me interested in deadlifting again, as well as the widespread info saying that it is good for posture.
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If you feel pain in your lower back during or after the lift is it likely to be because of incorrect form or other problems, or is it just the muscles getting sore from get used?
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Should your back be sore the next day?
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I started out doing 100kg deadlifts and last time I lifted I could do it for a good 10 reps for the first set at least. I’m fairly strong naturally, but would it be advised to do lower weight for a few weeks to work out weaknesses in the chain, or does it not work like that?
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Would back squats be any safer, and what are there any major tradeoffs for doing them instead of deadlift?
- You shouldn’t feel pain if you’re doing the lift right
- If you lift heavy, sure, for the first few weeks until the muscles get used to the stimulus
- Try doing the lift with 135lbs for 5 sets of 5 until you get solid with your form. If that feels to light, at like 15-20 lbs each workout until you can’t keep perfect form.
- Probably not any safer. Squats past parallel will hit you quads in ways that a deadlift won’t.
Also, in general increasing your squat will bring your deadlift up, but not the other way around. Deadlifts tend to be a better overall posterior chain builder then squats, but really you should probably be doing both.
[quote]ninjaboy wrote:
but really you should probably be doing both.[/quote]
Currently I my workout is split into 3 weekly sessions of chest/shoulders + triceps, back + bicep, legs + some isolation. Can I do squats and deadlifts in one day or is that overkill? If so could you suggest the best days to do each one on, or perhaps help me come up with a better weekly workout scheme?
If you’re relatively new to training, you shouldn’t have a problem doing both on your leg day. I’m currently squatting 3x a week, and I add deads to the end of every other workout. If you’re really going heavy, you could do squats on leg day and make deads your first big lift on back day.
Honestly, if you’re just starting out, it might make more sense to do 3 total body workouts a week. I can’t tell from your first post if you’ve been lifting for 8 weeks, or if you’ve got some experience and are now focusing primarily on size.
If the later, you might get better results from a 4 day split instead of just 3 times a week. If you’re just starting to lift, I’d recommend doing a strength program 3 days a week for a little while. It will add a lot of muscle to your frame overall, and you’ll be able to move more weight later on when you start to focus more on isolation work.
I’ve been training for about 8 months total, although until about 8 weeks ago I wasn’t doing it very seriously, usually twice a week and not really thinking much about what muscles I was using. Usually did a barbell bench press each time, DB shoulder press, incline or decline bench press, bicep curls with DB, lat pulls down (so the bar comes down in front of me) as well as occasionally some leg press, curls and extensions.
8 weeks ago I started training a bit more seriously, going 3 times per week and trying to not leave as many muscles out. From week 1-6 I was doing some barbell bench up to 80kg, but I was feeling it in my shoulders a lot, so now I’ve got up to 27kg DB press which has worked quite well. I’ve only been doing shoulder rotation work properly for 2 weeks so they are pretty weak, although my press is a bit better at 18kg DB. I do close grip rows at 65kg. My front lat pull down has progressed quite nicely and is now at 60kg for 4x8. My wide grip chinups are rubbish, I can feel it a lot in my arms and shoulders and I’ll be lucky to do 5. Do you think I should do behind the neck lat pull downs?
As for my leg work, last time I did leg press I did 230kg for 10 reps on the last set. My last squat was 100kg for 14 reps, and my last DL was 100kg for an average of 4x7.
Height: 6’3"
Weight: 83kg
Body fat: I can’t see any 