Back Pain After Deadlifting And What To Do About It

Deadlifting is easily one of the best functional compound lifts that you can perform, but there is plenty of room for error if performing the exercise with too much weight or with poor form. We have all heard of someone who ‘blew out’ their back while picking up something heavy, and this common injury often scares people away from deadlifting when we should actually be doing the opposite.

This short article will give you the basics of what to do if you have hurt your back lifting something or deadlifting, and why you should, in due time, return to that activity.

Types of Back Injuries During Deadlifting

All tissues in the body have a certain threshold of stress and load which they can take before deforming and then rupturing Injuries that occur to the low to mid back when deadlifting is often due to poor form, too much weight, or sometimes just being unlucky which cause that damage to occur. Deadlifting injuries often occur to the muscles, tendons, or ligaments in the spine. Sometimes the intervertebral disc can be injured, and even more rarely you can fracture one of the bones in your spine.

Seeking Professional Care for Back Injuries

If you have injured your back while lifting, there is a very good chance it is not severe and you will heal with proper treatment, rest, and time. The best course of action would be to seek care from your local physical therapist, chiropractor, or primary care physician to ensure that what injury you have sustained is not serious enough to warrant a more intensive treatment over conservative care. 

It can be very important to seek care from a local physical therapist who understands your goals, current limitations, and lifestyle and can guide you through your recovery.  As movement experts, they will be able to assess and refine your lifting techniques. In the meantime though, it is going to be vital that you avoid aggravating activities. Basically, if it hurts, don’t do it. You’ll want to make sure that you are resting properly and prioritizing proper deep sleep, healthy nutrition, and adequate hydration. Treat your body like a temple for this little while.

The Importance of Strength Training in Injury Prevention

Injuring your back while lifting is very common but it can also be very traumatizing, often scaring you away from ever lifting heavy again, but here’s why that is the opposite of what you should do. The reason tissues fail is that they are not strong enough to handle the load put on them, and when we input a load during a deadlift that is above that threshold, they will fail.

The one proven method of strengthening tissues is strength training. This will cause the tissue to build itself up to manage the stresses put on it. This is done through progressive overload over time, starting with a weight you can manage well, and slowly building yourself back up. It is imperative that you eventually move back into deadlifting slowly but surely, working with lighter weight (at first, gradually increasing load week by week as tolerable) and proper form, to ensure you are working on strengthening the tissues which were originally damaged.

Different exercises will build up different tissues, but going back to the movement which originally caused your pain can help ensure it never happens again by strengthening that same tissue. You are much more likely to re-injure your back if you never properly load and train it in the future.

Returning to Deadlifting After Back Injury with Proper Care and Treatment

Reach out to your local physical therapist or chiropractor if you ever end up injuring your back while lifting, or even before you ever injure it to ensure that your form is proper and you are lifting appropriately. Injuring your back can be very scary and frustrating, but it is an injury you will very likely heal from and exceed your previous ability level with proper care and treatment!

To schedule an appointment with a top-rated back pain specialist in Knoxville, please call our office at (885) 337-5574.