That Deadlift Hurt My Back!

True story … a guy walked into his doctor’s office and the doctor asked, “What brings you here?”

“I hurt my back, doc,” he said.

“How’d that happen?” the doctor asked.

“Well, I was at the gym doing my usual Wednesday workout,” he said. “Some push-ups and rows and deadlifts. Nothing too crazy. Everything felt fine … and I wasn’t anywhere near a personal record for the deadlift weight. Then, on that very last rep, I felt something pop in my lower back. And now, I’m having trouble standing up straight and I’m in a lot of pain.”

Care to guess what 99 percent of doctors would say?

“Try a heating pad and some ibuprofen and stop doing deadlifts.”

And that’s the wrong answer!

This patient’s circumstances are crying out for a deeper conversation about what conditions existed leading up to the injury … but unfortunately, most doctors haven’t been trained to think like coaches.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying coaches are qualified to be doctors. But sometimes, the best way to help someone is to coach them. And that requires asking questions.

You see, every human being has a capacity for how much stress or “load” their system can endure in a given day before something bad (like injury or illness) happens.

That line is your capacity. Stay beneath it, and you’re good to go. Exceed it, and you’re playing with fire.

I would ask this patient about their activities leading up to the gym workout. 

How many hours did they sleep the night before?

How much water did they drink?

How many meals included protein and vegetables. 

On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being the worst), how would they rate their work stress level and relationship stress level.

Do they have a history of back injuries?

Depending on the answers to these questions, you might find this patient had one big giant box of stress after another.

And as you keep stacking these boxes on top of each other, by the time he got to that last set of deadlifts, he was over capacity!

So it wasn’t the deadlift that hurt his back … it was all the factors that led him to that point.

Remember that the goal each day should not be to feel crushed by your workout. It should feel awesome when you’ve finished your workout and you should still be below your capacity.

If you’ve ever been injured doing a workout, chances are it wasn’t that last deadlift or kettlebell swing that did it … it was everything leading up to it that pushed you over the edge.