[tomsthumb]

rfz is quite likely right.

compound lifts (and even more so the olympic lifts) are _quite_ complicated. chronic compensations and movement issues get ignored in everyday life because they don't cause "problems", but they can manifest into injury when lifting. adding strength to dysfunction is a problem.

i've also never heard a fellow lifter at the gym say "my form was perfect and i still got injured", it is _always_ "yea i messed up my from a little and it bit me". despite listening to dozens of hours of coaches and physical therapists talk about this stuff none of them have ever said "some people do it right and just get injured". this paragraph is contextual in the sense that we're talking about people lifting less than 500 pounds. the guys on TV deadlifting 900pounds (400 kilos) are doing something different to their body than the guy at the corner gym lifting 225 pounds.

the problem has a lot of facets. most people don't know what their body should feel like. unless they record themselves many people have only a vague idea of what they are doing, and certainly not a good idea of what they might be doing wrong. toss in the fact that you can build enough strength to hurt yourself fairly badly in a couple of months a lot of doctors (general physicians) who don't know what they are talking about will say things like "that's bad for you" because they're helping you avoid injury they best way they know how, which is not to do it.

[sundvor]

Very true. I almost included in my post above that I went about learning deadlifts multiple ways. First, I read Rippetoe's Starting Strength book and watched countless videos. Then, I would take selfie videos of my form that I'd look at myself and share with a few close friends further along in their training than myself to get their feedback.

Finally, I also would seek out PTs who looked like they knew their lifts and just book them for single sessions to correct my technique. I would do this several times, as form tends to slide. Well at least for me. Most PTs would offer a free session however I insisted on paying for it as I only wanted the technique check, and not someone to hold my hand every time I needed to go to gym. I think I got respect from them for that. (If I could afford it I'd have their assistance a lot more, alas I couldn't justify it.)

Having said that, I still managed to do my back in after a deadlift session last year. Not during the session, but after - as I went to lift my son the same night who suddenly decided to make himself heavy. It hurt a bit but then was ok, however the next morning I completely locked my back up getting out of bed. Lost out on 4-5 months of training thanks to that. Lesson learned: I was probably going too heavy, too soon. Also, to listen to my body and drop the ego 100%. If something doesn't feel right, just stop, let it recover, and save the energy for the next session.

About to start the 5x5 Powerlifting program now, with the Android app - am looking forward to seeing the results. The reset will include dropping weights a lot, but also locking in 3 sessions per week - a big increase from my previous 1-2.