Blew my back out and injured myself for life doing deadlifts in high school at the ripe age of 15. 1 time is all it took. 1 ruptured disk and 2 partially ruptured disks, with degenerative disc disease to follow the rest of my life. At my best, I was 6’2”, 215lb. and could do 10 rep sets of my core lifts equaling at least my own body weight (squat (435) bench(215), and clean and jerk(225). But I never experienced the overall strength I should have had due to my back injury. I spent a lot of time committed to the gym in high school, and liked it quite alot. I played football and was recruited for college ball my freshman-junior years until I tore my rotator cuff and separated the same shoulder in a 7 week period. After all of the that, the letters stopped coming. Anyway, there are safer ways to build overall body strength and such. Clean and jerk is a really good overall physical fitness lift, and it’s much safer for you when trying to preserve your body from injury. Just my 2 cents. I wish I were able to do 1 rep of squat at 415 now, much less 10, and the same for the other lifts.
Time has a way of forcing us to be honest with ourselves. It cuts away all of the fat from the romantic memories of our youth and reminds us that from dust we came and dust we shall return.
Cheers, to all of you who defiantly push the hands of time backwards with all of your might! Your spirit will never die!
My story is actually the flipside of yours.
Even at my peak when I was younger, I neglected deadlifts, because I didn't like how they felt.
I knew I was supposed to do them, because they were one of the core lifts, but because I didn't like how they felt, I never worked on my form to push myself with deadlifts. I'd just do 10 reps at 205lbs (because it was easier to slide a 35lb plate on the end, than a 2nd 45) for 3 sets and call it good.
A little over a decade ago, I'd just returned from a trip, and as I went to set my bag where I normally would, there was something in the way. Instead of setting the ~50lb bag down, and moving the object, I made the stupid move of leaning over it, to put the bag down, which I had to lean sideways to do. Felt the pop and knew I'd messed up. Gave myself a slipped disc (fortunately didn't rupture it).
That slipped disc progressively got worse over the years, to the point it would literally slip out of place multiple times every single day.
I was fortunate that when it slipped out, it slipped out backwards, away from the spinal cord, so I didn't have the pain and numbness some people experience when a slipped disc impinges on the spinal cord.
I was also always able to manipulate the disc back into place with 100% success. It usually took anywhere from 30 to 90 seconds of careful manipulation, but I could always get it back in.
Even while it was out of place, because it didn't impinge on the nerves/spinal cord, I could still walk, and even run if I had to. It just stiffened my lower back (and it could not just be felt, it was a clearly visible bump when it was out of place).
I would also instinctively round my lower back when I felt it slip out of place, knowing that arching my back with the disc out of place, risked pinching it, resulting in a herniated/ruptured disc.
I also knew that rounding my lower back put the spinal erectors in a vulnerable state, where they could be strained much more easily.
That wound up happening in 2020, while I was doing goblet squats wearing the 140lb weighted vest and holding an 80lb dumbbell.
I felt the disc slip out at the bottom of the 4th rep, and knew I was in trouble. I carefully put the dumbbell down, but at the bottom of the squat, my thighs covered the wasitbelt, so I couldn't even try to remove the weighted vest. I also didn't dare to try something like falling backward, with that disc out of place.
Simply standing back up with the 140lb vest, ended up straining my back with the disc out of place.
I decided at that point, that I needed to see if it was possible to rehab and strengthen my back enough, to at least reduce the frequency of that disc slipping out.
I realized if it slipped out again at an inopportune time, that it could very well result in a serious injury.
I'd been avoiding deadlifts and anything that stressed my lower back ever since the injury, but obviously that wasn't working, so I figured I needed to work on strengthening it, and deadlifts are one of the most common lifts for that.
When my back finally recovered from being strained, I decided to begin. Loaded one 45lb plate on each end, reasoning that I'd been doing goblet squats with 220lbs, so deadlifts with 135lbs should be fine. Nope.
I slowly eased into the lift, and before it ever left the ground, my back was already telling me, "Hey dumbass. Keep pulling and you're going to win a ride in an ambulance".
I had to start from the ground up, doing back raises laying on the ground, and beginning with bodyweight ass-to-grass squats to work on hip flexibility to allow me to get low while keeping my back straight.
Then I measured the handles of the Powerblock Pro dumbbells and went to the home improvement store, measuring everything from cinder blocks, to patio blocks, and wood, until I found wood blocks that would place the dumbbell handles at the same height as a barbell with 45lb plates.
Began doing deadlifts with 10lb dumbbells, then 20lbs, then 30lbs. When I could do 5 reps with a pair of 70lb dumbbells, I figured, "OK, that's 140lbs. I should be able to switch to the barbell".
Tried ONE rep at 135lbs with the barbell. Nope. Having the bar in front of my shins put a lot more stress on the lower back vs beside my legs where I'd been starting with the dumbbells.
Back to the dumbbells, until I could do 5 reps with 80lb dumbbells. When I tried the 135lb barbell this time, I managed to get all 5 reps.
From there, I kept at it. When I got to 215lbsx5, I actually laughed, because it was literally a PR for me, since I'd never done more than 205lbs before.
By the time I was doing 5 reps at 225lbs, the disc was only slipping out maybe twice a week, vs several times every day.
Between 275lbsx5, and 295lbsx5, I realized the disc hadn't slipped out in months.
Got up to 375lbsx5 @ 180lbs bodyweight, when the abdominal hernia happened in February, not from lifting, but from coughing and choking while drinking a glass of water too quickly.
Haven't really pushed the deadlifts since, but I did 335lbsx5 pretty easily a few weeks ago. (I realized that even though I haven't regularly been doing deadlifts specifically, the last couple months, I still do 4 sets of dumbbell shrugs every week, and realized that simply picking up the 150lb dumbbells from the floor, meant I was doing deficit deadlifts with 300lbs and a 4" deficit. The dumbbell handles are centered about 5" from the ground).
Surgery scheduled next week, and the restrictions are not to lift anything more than 15lbs for 6 weeks (yes, I've been continuing to lift and push with the hernia
Abdominal hernias aren't as bad as inguinal/testicular).
I'll see where I am after the recovery, and take it from there. The disc hasn't slipped out in a couple years, now, and deadlifts have allowed me to rehab my back injury.
