Do Squats and Deadlifts Cause Back Injuries?

(Photo by StrengthBox on Flickr)
No they don’t. But you can injure your back in a multitude of ways — so this is kind of a loaded question in the first place.

The myth I want to challenge today comes from what is otherwise a sensible piece of advice: “lift with your legs, not your back.” You’ve probably heard this one a million times, and if you aren’t someone who works out regularly in a gym, you’d be well to take the advice — it’s almost always offered when you need to move a desk or lift something extremely heavy, and if you’re bending over at the waist and putting what can be hundreds of pounds of pressure on your under-worked and under-developed back muscles, you’d damn better well be lifting with your legs.

Age-Old Wisdom Extended (Wrongly) To The Gym

Have you ever seen what a deadlift looks like? When people spot it for the first time (it involves picking a barbell up off the ground in order to strengthen your back — a great exercise), they immediately start thinking about “putting your back out” or those typical back injuries that come with lifting things in a bad way.

These are exactly the injuries a deadlift will help prevent. It’s a beautiful way to strengthen your back muscles, and it’s a phenomenal and challenging compound lift that does wonders for multiple muscles — spot training, this is not.

What Not To Do

Obviously, you don’t want to start deadlifting heavy weights right away. These exercises aren’t for beginners — like squats and virtually anything involving a barbell, you need to know where to place your legs, what muscles to contract, when to breathe — basically, a whole series of things that you can’t learn without some guidance.

And yeah — if you do a heavy deadlift with weights that you shouldn’t be lifting right off the bat, you’re going to injure your back. The back muscles are absolutely crucial in developing your strength, no matter what fitness level you’re at, and it’s for that exact reason that you need to strengthen them correctly.

Don’t Be Afraid to Ask Questions

Talk to a trainer at the gym. Watch a bunch of videos online, like the workout videos I’ve got on my site, and take it slowly at first. These aren’t as easy as using a simple leg press machine — there’s a reason these things work multiple muscles at once, and it’s because they’re not beginner’s exercises.

But put the worries about old-fashioned back injuries on hold, and start viewing squats and deadlifts for what they are — ways to prevent these injuries in the future, and some of the best exercises you can possibly start doing.