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Is rounding your back during deadlifts bad?

Before I get into explaining all the anatomy/mechanics stuff, I first want to make a point about the question itself.

This is one of the most contentious questions in all of lifting…and yet we still haven’t created consensus around the answer. Why?

Because no one is acknowledging that the question itself is a non-starter.

And as a matter of fact, any question that asks “is xyz bad/good” without any context is, too.

“Good” and “bad” are relative terms, which means that they can only be discussed with usefulness and application if they’re used in relationship to a specific scenario.

For example…

If I were to ask you “is the color blue good?” or “are chairs bad?” you’d probably give me a justified look of confusion.

But we don’t recognize the flaw in using “good” and “bad” in questions like “is rounding your back bad?” because we’ve been led to believe that the truth can be simple.

But it can’t.

Let’s talk about why now, in the context of exercise.

Good and Bad Exercises

In the same way that colors or chairs can’t be “good” or “bad” without a particular context, exercises work the same way.

For example…

Is the deadlift a good exercise?

Well, that depends on why you’re doing that exercise to begin with.

Is the deadlift a good exercise for training your triceps? Definitely not - and most people would identify this as a ridiculous question to ask.

Is the deadlift a good exercise for training the glutes, hamstrings, and erectors? For most people - in many instances - it can be.

But for others, it might not be.

For example…does it make sense to program sets of heavy, 3-rep deadlifts to my 90 year-old grandmother that’s never lifted weights before?

Most likely not, especially not without supervision or some kind of professional help.

But does it make sense for the 18-year-old football player that’s short on time and needs to pick exercises that challenge a lot of different muscle groups simultaneously, under the supervision of a professional coach that’s trained to coach the deadlift?

More than likely, the deadlift would be a sensible option in this case.

But take that same 18-year-old and imagine they just had a hip replacement surgery. Does the deadlift make sense now, as a primary option for training muscles around that individual’s now asymmetrical situation?

Hopefully my point here is clear. It doesn’t make sense to ask questions about an exercise - or any technique within an exercise - that use the words good and bad… at least, not in absolute.

Without context, these questions are non-starters. You need more information to begin to answer these questions, and they aren’t possible to answer accurately in any general sense.

So..Is Rounding your Back Bad?

Rounding your spine by itself isn’t bad, much like bending your elbow and raising your arm above your head aren’t inherently bad.

Rounding your spine is simply a motion that occurs as a consequence of the joints in your spine moving in relationship to one another.

On its own, rounding your back can neither be good nor bad - it’s just something that occurs when you ask your body to move in a specific direction.

Where the words “good” and “bad” become more concrete is in relationship to a given context, goal, and individual.

If I am performing a deadlift specifically to train my glutes, hamstrings, and adductors, it doesn’t make sense for me to round my back as I perform the motion - why?

Because all of the muscles that sit on the back side of the hip joint (the muscles listed above) move the hip, not the spine.

When the glutes, adductors and hamstrings contract, they change the relationship between the femur (the thigh bone) and the pelvis (the hip bones). This motion looks like this:

Notice that, when the hip extensors contract, they do not directly change the relationship between segments of the spine (I am leaving out discussion of the knee for simplicity’s sake).

When muscles that cross the joints of our spine contract, they bend and straighten the spine (flexion and extension), like this:

Note the distinction between the this image and the one above.

In the first image, the leg moves from being in front of the body to moving backward behind the body.

In the second image, the leg doesn’t move at all, because the hip extensors are not contracting substantially - the muscles that cross the back side of the spine (the spinal extensors) are controlling this motion.

So, if we’re performing deadlifts for the sake of training muscles that directly control the hip joint - the glutes, adductors, and hamstrings - does it make sense to maximize motion of the spine, which those muscle control?

Or does it make sense to keep the spine rigid and straighter, so that we can just focus on motion of the hip?

The principle takeaway from this question is this: whenever you’re performing an exercise, you need to identify what muscles you’re trying to train.

Then, you need to identify what motions those muscles create when they contract and maximize for motion of those joints alone.

If you are moving joints that are not related to the action of the muscles you’re trying to train, you’re accomplishing something you’re not trying to.

This doesn’t mean that your spinal extensors won’t be involved if you keep your spine rigid - they will be!

But the relative amount of involvement of the spine muscles will directly depend on how much you’re moving your spine versus how much you’re moving your hips.

The greater the spine movement, the more your spine muscles will be involved, and the same is true in the context of moving the hips and training hip muscles.

So, if your spine rounds a good amount, but your hips and knees also move a lot, it’s likely you’ll receive a stimulus that’s a blend of both hip and spine muscles, but with a particular emphasis on spinal extensors (given the resistance direction of a deadlift).

In the context of hip mechanics - and training the glutes, adductors, and hamstrings - the more your spine moves during a deadlift, the less your hip muscles will be involved.

Now imagine that your goal with the deadlift was purely to train the muscles around your spine.

Would it be good or bad to maximize motion through the spine with a load that was appropriate for you to handle?

In the context of this goal, it now makes perfect sense to maximize for spine motion, while minimizing for motion through the hip.

In other words: it makes much more sense to round your spine in this context, given that your primary goal is to train the muscles that move the spine.

But now we have to ask an important question…

Does it make sense to do a deadlift if your goals are purely to train the spine muscles?

Training “The Spine”

Training the spine and its muscles, much like training any other joints (or group of joints, in this case) is all about maximizing for motion within those segments and limiting motion elsewhere.

If my goals are purely to train spine muscles, I wouldn’t pick a deadlift to begin with. Why?

Because a deadlift inherently will involve all kinds of lower body muscles that have nothing to do directly with muscles that cross the spine.

Again, a traditional deadlift done with a rigid spine will train a blend of the spinal extensors and hip extensors.

This means that if your goals are to pick a motion that trains all of the tissues on the back side of the body, a deadlift is likely a sensible option in many cases.

But if your goals are more specific than this, and you just want to train muscles around the spine, it makes more sense to isolate motion of the spine while fixing the rest of the body.

Here’s an example of an exercise that accomplishes that goal:

Will there be involvement from the hip extensors (hamstrings, glutes, adductors) in this exercise? Absolutely! But will they be involved to the degree where they will fatigue before the spinal extensors? Most likely not.

What’s the Point?

Some of you may have noticed that at no point in this article did I label an exercise or a joint action as “good” or “bad” without context.

I also didn’t demonize any exercise and claim that rounding your back on a deadlift was inherently bad. We have no ability nor any reason to be able to conclude this about any exercise, not just rounded deadlifts.

We also won’t EVER have an ability to make this claim, regardless of the research that may suggest an exercise is better or worse in general - you can’t do that!

So what do I base these analyses on?

The outcome.

If you don’t have a clearly identified goal, then you can’t go about labeling different qualities as “good” and “bad”.

“Good” and “bad” always need to be context-defined, and making claims about anything (not just exercise) being good or bad without context is a clear sign of ignorance or lack of a clearly defined outcome.

The takeaway here:

• If your primary goal is to train your hip muscles - minimize spine motion in the deadlift, and keep your spine relatively “neutral” (or pick a different motion that’s more specific to the hips).

• If your primary goal is to train your spine muscles - maximize spine motion, whether in a deadlift or other exercise, and minimize hip motion.

• If your goal is to train a blend of spine and hips, you can be more liberal amount moving the spine in a deadlift, but make sure you’re getting a lot of hip motion, too.

  • My bias here is to not pick “blended” exercises but to pick 2 different motions that are more specific to each group. I personally find this to be a more efficient way to target what you’re trying to.

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