[CosmicWizard]

I was into heavy powerlifting my senior year in HS and the following year. I always warmed up with lighter weights before attempting the heavier lifts, and never had any injuries. Then one time a former olympic lifter was giving a demonstrtaion at the local outdoor pool, which drew quite a crowd. As part of the demo he asked for volunteers who thought they could lift a certain weight on the bench press. I don't recall the actual weight, but I remember that it was 10 to 15 lbs more than my personl best at the time. Having a wonderful opportunity to show off a bit, I volunteered to give it go. With the adrenaline boost from the crowd, I did it. I broke my persoanl bench press record....cold turkey, without any warmups. Then I went ahead and broke my dead lift record...cold turkey without warming up.

My success was the worst thing that could have happened to this stupid 19 yr old kid with a big ego and an even bigger need to show off. My success, inflated my ego even more, reasoning that I could cut back on my warmups, get to the heay stuff sooner, and spend more time on the heavy lifts. In less than a month, my new and improved routine led to a back injury ( while doing a heavy dead lift without an adequate warm up ) that has flared up now and again for the past 40 years.

Even light weight squats aggravate my back, but fortunately I can still handle fairly heavy weights ( 5 - 45s on each side for 16 reps ) on the 45 degree leg press machine, but the 70 degree sleds and the 90 sleds are too aggravating to my back.

Dead lifts have not been a part of my routine for many years. After reading this thread a few days ago, I did an easy, light weight set of stiff leg deadlifts with a 20 lb dumbell in each hand. Even that brought on some soreness in my hamstrings, but didn't seem to have a negative impact on my back. I plan to keep doing dead-lifts, but I'm gonna take it real slow. I have no desire to get back into the 500 lb lifts I was doing back in the day. Just the thought of a 500 lb lift makes my back ache!

Based on my personal experience, I'd say that the dead lift is a great exercise that just about everyone could benefit from. If you are going to add the dead lift to your routine, get someone who knows what they are doing to show you the proper technique, ALWAYS warm up with lighter weights before attempting heavy weights, and park your ego at the entrance to the gym.