6/15 Myth Busting Monday

Picking up something heavy off the floor is a functional human movement.

​Myth: Squats and Deadlifts are bad for your back and don't strengthen your core. 

If I had a dollar for every time....yada...yada...yada. 
There is a reason we train squats and deadlifts, there are exceptional for strengthening the muscles that stabilize your spin and a stable spine is essential for a healthy back.  
One of my favorite Coaches, Mark Rippetoe, addresses this myth in the video below. Coach Rip is an old school strength and conditioning coach who quite literally wrote the book on strength training. 
We get injured when we squat and deadlift when our spine MOVES under load. This happens when we move a load heavier than we should or when we move a lighter load without paying attention to our mechanics. Both of these things can happen to anyone. Today we will me moving a load deliberately and with much attention paid to our mechanics. 
Deadlifts get such a bad reputation. Deadlifts are not deadly or have anything to do with death. They are called deadlifts because the lift starts with the bar at a dead stop. 
If deadlifts are uncomfortable because of flexibility then you can Sumo, or you can do Romanian, or you can do rack pulls, or you can do good mornings. There are many, many training variations of the deadlift that you can do to re-hab or pre-hab a prior injury, or just to do something different. 
When your friends or family tell you that deadlifting is bad for your back, ask them how they move furniture. How do they pick up a heavy object and put in on the ground without dropping it? Yes, that's what I thought. You have been taught by a strength coach on how to do this correctly. You are stronger and harder to kill. That's a quote I ripped off of Coach Rip:-) 

Click Here for The WOD