Low Back Pain Doesn’t Mean You Have to Stop Lifting Heavy
If you lift weights and have experienced low back pain, you’ve probably heard some version of:
“Stop deadlifting.”
Or maybe:
“Never lift heavy with back pain.”
But the research doesn’t support such a simple rule.
For some people with mechanical low back pain, progressively loading the back through exercises such as the deadlift can actually be part of building strength, improving function, and getting back to the activities they enjoy. That doesn’t mean you should ignore pain and keep adding weight.
It means we need to understand the difference between appropriately challenging your body and asking it to do more than it’s currently prepared to handle.
Heavy Lifting Isn’t Automatically Bad for Your Back
Your spine is designed to move and tolerate load. Deadlifts place significant demands on the muscles of the back, hips, and legs, while requiring your trunk to stabilize the spine as you move the weight.
Research has found that deadlift-based exercise programs can improve pain and function in some people with mechanical low back pain. However, deadlifts aren’t necessarily better than every other form of exercise, and not everyone responds to them the same way. (PubMed)
In one randomized trial, people with recurrent mechanical low back pain participated in an 8-week program involving high-load lifting. Both high-load lifting and lower-load motor-control exercise improved outcomes, rather than one approach clearly outperforming the other. (PubMed)
Another study found that people who started with lower pain, less disability, and better hip and back extensor endurance were more likely to benefit from deadlift training. (PubMed)
So the question isn’t necessarily:
“Are deadlifts bad for my back?”
A better question is:
“Is my back currently prepared for the amount of load I’m asking it to handle?”
That’s a very different question.
When Should You Get Checked Before Lifting Heavy?
If you’ve had a significant back injury, don’t assume you need to either completely stop exercising or immediately get back under a heavy barbell.
Get evaluated by an appropriate healthcare professional before returning to heavy lifting if you’ve had a recent injury, significant flare-up, or symptoms that suggest something more than typical exercise-related soreness.
That includes symptoms such as:
Numbness or tingling
Weakness
Pain traveling into the buttock or leg
Significant or worsening pain
Symptoms that are interfering with normal activities
Other concerning or unusual symptoms
A healthcare provider can help determine what’s actually going on and whether heavy loading is appropriate for you right now.
The goal isn’t to avoid loading your back forever. The goal is to determine what your back can safely tolerate right now and build from there.
So, What Makes a Deadlift “Good” or “Bad” for Your Back?
A deadlift isn’t inherently good or bad.
The same exercise can be completely appropriate for one person and completely inappropriate for another depending on:
Current pain and symptoms
Previous injury
Strength and endurance
Training history
Technique
Amount of weight
Training volume
Recovery
How quickly the workload is being increased
Your body doesn’t suddenly become fragile because you experience low back pain. But your current capacity may not match the demands you’re placing on it. That’s where progression becomes important.
Technique Matters—but Don’t Chase Perfect
You’ve probably heard that you need to keep your back perfectly straight when you deadlift. There’s some truth behind the idea of controlling your spinal position, but modern research gives us a more nuanced picture.
Trained lifters don’t all move identically. Some degree of lumbar movement can occur during lifting, and the presence of spinal flexion by itself doesn’t automatically mean you’ve injured something.
Current evidence increasingly points toward managing the total training load and progressing gradually rather than assuming that one specific spinal position is the only thing separating a healthy back from an injured one. (PubMed)
That doesn’t mean technique doesn’t matter. —> It does.
It means we’re looking for controlled, repeatable movement that you can tolerate, rather than trying to force every person into one perfect-looking position.
A few important deadlift fundamentals:
Keep the bar close.
The farther the bar moves away from your body, the more demand is placed on the muscles and structures responsible for controlling your trunk. Keeping the bar close to your body helps keep the movement mechanically efficient.
Use your hips.
A deadlift is a hip-dominant movement. You want to be able to hinge through your hips while maintaining control of your trunk rather than turning every repetition into a squat or allowing your back to collapse as you lift.
Create tension before you pull.
Don’t simply grab the bar and yank it off the floor.
Set your position, create tension throughout your body, brace your trunk, and then initiate the lift.
Don’t let fatigue make your decisions for you.
Your technique can change as you get tired. Research on lifting biomechanics shows that increasing intensity and fatigue can change movement patterns and bar velocity. (PubMed)
That’s one reason why doing endless repetitions with increasingly poor technique isn’t necessarily the best way to build strength.
Your Core Isn’t Just Your Six-Pack
One of the biggest misconceptions about “core activation” is that you need to suck your stomach in as hard as possible. Your core has a much bigger job than that.
During a deadlift, your trunk muscles work together to create stability while your hips and legs generate force.
Your erector spinae, abdominal muscles, obliques, glutes, hamstrings, and other trunk and hip muscles all contribute to the movement.
One of the strategies that can help with this is abdominal bracing.
Instead of just thinking:
“Pull my belly button toward my spine.”
Think:
“Create pressure around my entire trunk.”
“Wrap my core .”
Research comparing abdominal bracing and abdominal hollowing has found that bracing produces greater increases in intra-abdominal pressure and can create greater trunk stiffness and stability. (PubMed)
Try this:
Before you lift:
Take a breath into your abdomen and sides—not just your chest.
Expand your trunk in all directions.
Tighten your abdominal wall as if you’re preparing to take a light punch to the stomach.
Maintain that tension as you begin the lift.
Drive through the floor and extend your hips.
You’re not trying to suck your stomach in. You’re trying to create a strong, stable cylinder around your spine.
And there’s an important nuance here: bracing isn’t magic. It can increase spinal stiffness and stability, but it also changes the forces acting on the spine. The goal isn’t to brace as hard as humanly possible during every single movement. The goal is to use the amount of tension appropriate for the task. (PubMed)
How Do You Know When You’re Doing Too Much?
This is arguably the most important part.
Because some discomfort after lifting doesn’t automatically mean you’ve done damage.
Your muscles may feel tired.
You may be sore the next day.
You may feel like you’ve worked hard.
That’s different from your body telling you that the current load isn’t agreeing with you.
Normal training soreness may look like:
A dull or achy feeling in the muscles
Soreness that appears later rather than suddenly during the lift
Symptoms that gradually improve over the next few days
Soreness that doesn’t significantly change how you move
Being able to continue your normal daily activities
More concerning symptoms include:
Sharp or catching pain during the lift
Pain that progressively worsens as you continue your workout
Pain that becomes worse from one training session to the next
Pain traveling into your buttock or leg
Numbness, tingling, or weakness
Significant changes in your lifting mechanics because you’re trying to avoid pain
Symptoms that interfere with walking, sitting, sleeping, or other normal activities
A noticeable decline in your ability to tolerate weights that were previously manageable
If your body is consistently telling you “this is too much,” adding more weight isn’t necessarily the answer.
Sometimes the answer is to reduce the load.
Sometimes it’s reducing volume.
Sometimes it’s changing the exercise.
Sometimes you need more recovery.
And sometimes you need someone to evaluate what’s going on.
Don’t Confuse “I Can” With “I’m Ready”
This is especially important for people who are strong. You might technically be able to deadlift 300 pounds. That doesn’t necessarily mean your body is ready to perform 300 pounds for five sets of ten. Your strength capacity, tissue capacity, recovery, training volume, and current symptoms all matter.
Think about it like this:
Your body has a current workload tolerance.
If you suddenly jump far beyond that tolerance, you’re asking your body to adapt faster than it may be able to. That’s why progressive loading matters.
Instead of going from:
“My back hurts” → “I’m going to test my max.”
Think:
“My back hurts” → “Let’s figure out what I can currently tolerate → build capacity → gradually increase the demand.”
That’s how you build resilience.
What Should You Do If Deadlifting Hurts?
Don’t automatically assume you need to quit deadlifting forever. But don’t automatically push through it either. Instead, look at the entire picture.
Ask yourself:
Is the weight appropriate for where I am right now?
Does my technique change when I get tired?
Am I doing too much volume?
Have I increased my training load too quickly?
Am I recovering between sessions?
Is the pain improving, staying the same, or progressively getting worse?
Are there symptoms outside of the muscles I’m training?
Those questions can tell you much more than simply asking whether deadlifts are “good” or “bad” for your back.
The Takeaway
Having low back pain doesn’t automatically mean you need to avoid heavy lifting. It also doesn’t mean you should ignore pain and keep adding weight. The goal is to match the load to your current capacity and gradually build that capacity over time.
For some people, deadlifting can be a valuable part of that process. For others, a lower-load exercise or a different movement may be the better starting point.
The research supports exercise and progressive loading for people with mechanical low back pain, but it also shows that individuals respond differently and that deadlift training isn’t universally superior to other exercise approaches. (PubMed)
So don’t be afraid of the barbell.
But don’t let your ego decide how much weight your body should handle, either.
Train where you are. Build your capacity. Progress gradually. Pay attention to your symptoms. And if you’ve had an injury or you’re experiencing concerning symptoms, get evaluated before jumping back into heavy lifting.
A strong back isn’t built by avoiding every load.
It’s built by learning how to tolerate load, adapt to load, and progressively handle more of it.
If you need support and help with recovery chiropractic is a great option to help your spine maintain proper mobility and also learn to activate muscles properly. At BlackSphere Chiropractic, we care about your goals and want to help you reach them. Book your appointment now!
