Our Favorite Deadlifting Cue

Lower back pain is the most common musculoskeletal injury for a physical therapist to treat in general. It's also pretty common for people to injure their back in the gym. Deadlifting with poor form can often be the culprit. This can result in unwanted shifting in the spine during the lift creating a shear force across the intervertebral disks resulting in a disk bulge or herniation and sometimes pressure on the nerves in the lower back. Straining a muscle is pretty common but getting this kind of back injury can be serious depending on the severity. You will definitely want to maintain good form and avoid this sort of back injury.

Our favorite cue for avoiding this and maintaining a neutral spine during a deadlift is to “ENGAGE YOUR LATS.” The latissimus dorsi is a big muscle that start at your armpit and wrap around your back all the way down to the base of your spine. The latissimus dorsi is a powerful shoulder internal rotator and synergistic back extensor. The cue to engage your lats automatically engages the rest of the spinal extensors and maintains a neutral spine throughout the lift. We like simple cues that result in the desired movement patterns. If you've had good coaching along the way then you’ve probably heard this cue. If you haven't and you're having some back pain then we have some fixes for that also.

Below is a video to help you visualize the position you are looking for.