Deadlifting Is Back On The Menu

THERE'S a new lifter at my gym; young fella, long and wiry. He was deadlifting last weekend and, by the looks of things, he was planning on having a lower back injury in his near future; his starting position was way too high - practically stiff-legged - and his spine was convex. Not cool.

He had maybe 130 on the bar when I walked past him and saw this going on, and I tried to give him some advice. He told me he could already lift 170 pretty well, and I replied that he was going to have to stop thinking about the big numbers, get his starting position much lower and concentrate on developing his form.

I stood back and watched his next set, and again he was starting way too high. I tried to describe for him the position, but he just didn't seem to be able to bend deep enough at the knees. He asked me to show him, so I walked up to the bar, placed my feet and dropped down nice and low (very low - perhaps even a little too low - but hyperbole works in situations like this; people are never as low down as they think they are). I asked him to check my depth and try it out himself.

So then the new kid asks me to lift it so he could watch. I was not supposed to do that, but I did it anyway. And it felt strong as hell. No twinges or instability. Like I could have put another hundred on there and repped it out.

On the road to recovery and back to (relative) strength, it was this moment I decided deadlifts were finally back on the menu. My strongest lift - and something I have been unable to do since about September last year - I can finally do again. Pretty happy.