Why Most People Can Lift Heavy On The Dead-lifts But Throw Their Back Out When Picking Up Something Way Lighter.

You may have been wondering how is it that you could lift 100lbs on the dead-lifts (over exaggerating a bit) but pick something way lighter up and throw your back out?

The ANSWER...

FORM!!! The reason is form. Form is key. We take lighter weights for a granite and lift them with poor form, likely you're not mentally thinking about the form as it's lighter. You don't brace or engage your core when you loft a light weight. Also, you don't have the center of gravity that you do when dead-lifting a bar so your arms are creating a fulcrum that is further in front of you and puts more stress on your lower back.

Stretching and form goes hand in hand. The one day I didn't stretch well enough before PT and we run the dead-lift, release push-up, SDC, ball throw as circuit 3 times, I ended up tearing my quad and hamstring in q few places. That hurt like hell.

The fact is... center of gravity is different as opposed to where on a barbell is evenly distributed whereas a box items in it e.t.c can move and sometimes they are awkward to hold and in the gym mental focus is shifted so you have your own  mental queues to prepare your body/form. In work, we're not really thinking about that, we just autopilot.

However, it might be the twisting motion when you pickup something also.

Well, sounds like you lifted heavy and it was already close to going our and the little thing was just the strew that broke your back. I did it putting my bag at the back of the car seat once....I just twisted my body weird. Nothing you can do about it. When you are lifting weights you're going slow and steady, and using form. Like I said before, focusing more on core might help, but at the end of the day it's usually something weird you didn't train for it to happen. You pickup an off shaped piece of wood and BOOM!!!, you are out. It was just a shape of something you don't usually grab and BOOM!!!

Unfortunately age can also be a factor. If you are over 40, you can get injure more frequently from sleeping and from picking up something than you do anything else. However, this happen also in early 30's as well. You could get an MRI on the areas of the facet joints, must be impinging on nerves or past injuries perhaps. The issue is muscular, and not structural. Sleeping wrong could cause spasms for days and you could make things worse by doing an adjustment before getting the muscles to release.

If you experience this more frequently, you need to go to a chiropractor so to be sure it is not something more serious.

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