Good question.

Barbell Deadlift

Why aren’t you?

When working with clients or working out myself, I’ve often been asked the question, “Doesn’t that hurt your back”, in reference to the deadlift.  It’s not a wonder why most people will shy away from such a visually intimidating lift.

Indeed, there’s quite a tremendous amount going on with this lift.  That’s what makes it such a crucial exercise that just about everyone needs to learn and practice.  But to practice it, one first needs to learn proper form.  Without correct posture and muscle activation the deadlift can carry with it an increased injury risk factor.

The exercise itself is a compound movement, meaning it works a whole host of muscles synergistically.  It would be a mistake to begin to list all of the muscles that are activated with this lift because every muscle in the body has a job to perform during the deadlift exercise.

Essentially the deadlift is a movement pattern exercise.  This means that the deadlift, when performed correctly, trains the body to move inherently.  For this reason, I go back to the statement that most people need to learn and practice this exercise regularly.

In the last post, I mentioned the importance of proprioception and showed a photo of the single leg reaching deadlift.  So this means that not only is the deadlift exercise a pattern builder, it also stimulates proprioception.

In addition to pattern building and proprioception, the deadlift is considered the truest test of raw strength.  There are many different versions of the deadlift and regardless of the version one thing is for certain, posture is key to performing this lift safely and correctly.

As a knee pain sufferer, the deadlift is one exercise that needs to be performed often.  This single exercise has helped countless individuals conquer their knee pain for good.  Besides the reasons mentioned above, the deadlift stretches and strengthens the back of the body from head to toe like no other.  Strengthening and stretching the erector spinae, the gluteus maximus, adductor magnus, hamstrings, quadriceps, and the soleus is key when battling knee pain.

This exercise can be performed with body weight,  kettlebells, dumbbells or a barbell, with one leg or two and with one arm or two.  Which ever lift you choose, posture must be ideal to fully realize the benefits of the lift and remain safe in the process.

Setting up the posture:

• Get tall in the spine by reaching your head to the ceiling.  Hold that position at all times.
• Pull the shoulders back and down toward your butt (shoulder packing).  Hold that position at all times.
• Take a deep breath through the nose down into the belly and hold it. Refer back to crocodile breathing.
• Push the hips back and begin descending by flexing at the hip joint, weight the heels and keep the big toes on the ground.
• Once the bottom position is reached, drive the feet through the ground and return to the starting position.

I can’t tell you how important it is to maintain the arch in the lower back and support that arch with the deep breath that is inhaled just before the descent.  This position places the spine in the safest and most inherent structural position which obviously greatly reduces the risk of potential injury.

To be sure you understand how the back should be positioned and maintained, perform this exercise first:

• Lie on the ground face down with hands behind your head, elbows pulled back.
• Lift the chest off the ground as high as possible and hold it.
• Squeeze the glutes and slowly lift the legs.  Hold momentarily to feel the contraction in the back.

If being in this position is uncomfortable, you need to spend some time stretching your glutes, hips, quads, hipflexors and hamstrings.  Refer back to the free video at www.kneepainworkout.com which shows you every exercise and stretch you need to perform the deadlift and all other exercises efficiently and effectively.

It’s time for you to add this dynamic exercise to your arsenal.  Get busy practicing and leave me your comments, trials and errors below.  I look forward to hearing about your progress.

Get strong and stay strong,

Rochelle Gravance

That’s an interesting question in itself.  Maybe the answer and application would be easier to understand if the question was posed differently.

Maybe something like this:

Do your joints talk to each and other and if so, how?

Yes, the joints and also the muscles and tendons have a form of communication.  Whether or not they speak directly to one another may be a bit of a gray area.  I would suspect that as wonderfully complex as the body/mind system is, most likely they do communicate with each other on some level.  One thing we do know is the joints, muscles and tendons communicate with the big boss…the brain.

Via the central nervous system, the brain plans the strategy for movement.  Messages are sent from the brain to the joints, muscles and tendons to perform a task or movement.  The joints, muscles and tendons perform the movement and report back to the brain the details of the movement.  The brain then decides if the way the task was carried out was efficient and productive.

If the movement was carried out  in a sound, efficient and productive manner with a no to low risk factor, then the task can be repeated again.  As the body and brain continue to work synergistically and get comfortable with reproducing a certain movement pattern, the pattern begins to move from the conscious mind to the unconscious mind.

However, if the movement was a struggle or challenging, the brain begins a strategic process of determining better ways to perform the movement based on the information received back from the muscles, joints and tendons.  With continued practice and communication, eventually the pattern or task is worked out in the most advantageous way for all parties involved.

This form of body-mind communication is known as proprioception.  One way to think about proprioception can be defined as one’s own awareness of the relative position of each body part to the others.  This information is important to understand because your body, particularly your joints, need to be placed in the most inherent, safe and productive position to carry out any movement pattern.

Since we, as a society, have become more and more sedentary and look toward exercise as a way of “making up” for our lack of daily movement, we tend to become stuck in certain exercise routines and movements.  Usually these are the exercises and movements we know and feel comfortable performing.  As a byproduct, one of the most crucial elements we leave out of our attempts to create movement through regimented exercise is proprioception.  Leaving this element out of your training places your joints and connective tissue at a higher risk for injury.

To strengthen the joint’s, muscle’s and tendon’s ability to react and position themselves in a safe operating position, one needs to add proprioceptive work into their workout regimens.  This can be done is several ways.  One of the easiest is to exercise in bare feet.  Barefoot training allows the joints and connective tissue to be stimulated to respond to movement without the restriction of foot wear.  This will allow for more enhanced joint positioning.

Another helpful stimulus is performing single leg exercises, preferably in bare feet.  When performed correctly, single leg exercises will stimulate the entire body’s joint and muscle system to respond and position themselves in the most inherent, advantageous position.

Proprioception training is a necessary and crucial element to include in your workout regimen to promote healthy joints and reduce the risk of joint overtaxing which eventually leads to joint injury.

Sign up for your free video at the top of this page which includes several proprioception exercises to help keep your joints healthy while stimulating your muscles and connective tissue to get stronger.  Practice those movements and come right back here to report your progress in the comments section below.

Get strong and stay strong

Rochelle Gravance

PS- I’d love to hear about your progress so please leave me your thoughts, concerns and revelations in the comments section below.  Look forward to hearing from you.