When you do deads, is your lower back supposed to be exhausted or is this a sign of bad form? I'm guessing it's normal (that's the point!) but in case I'm wrong...

I've read the proper techniques and I make sure to concentrate on getting everything right before starting deads - I do NOT want to develop back problems.

The reason I ask...I'm just getting started lifting (less than 2 full weeks) and last night I cranked up the weight on my deads a bit - I started with a weight I knew was a bit "too light" to help me get started/conditioned. (Specifically, a couple of weeks ago I started ridiculously low, and pulled 7-8 successively higher weights until I pulled 255. While I wasn't grunting and fighting for the rep, I knew my max wouldn't be _that_ much higher and I didn't want to push it. Based on that, I started doing sets at 135 and the second workout I went to 145. Last night (after a couple of workouts at 145) I went to 160).

I feel the weight was about right for me at this stage - I completed 2 sets of 10 but I probably should've skipped the last rep (form started to slip slightly).

The only "problem" is that my back was thoroughly enough burned that even after doing a non-back exercise in between, my lower back was still sufficiently fried that I really couldn't do my bent-over rows that I wanted to do. Just general low-back muscle burn - no sharp pains or signs of pulls, etc. In fact, my energy in general was pretty well sapped by that point (halfway through my full body workout). Given that I hadn't slept well the night before, I decided to end the workout rather than risk injury.

I was pretty much back to normal after my shower, and this morning there's no unexpected soreness - I know I've worked out, but nothing I'd complain about.

As details...my routine with deads is to stand in position, visualize the lift with proper form, drop down and get in position (shoulders back, head up, inhale, clench the gut and pull, driving from the heels.) I rep by dropping down low enough to tap the weight on my mat. I only actually "stop" if my grip starts to go (I am using double overhand at this point and only had to stop during a set once - overhand is more comfortable than split for me)

Any thoughts/opinions?

Read this article on T-Nation regarding the deadlift:

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1588392

It has videos and it has helped me out immensely. You'd have to describe what you mean by your lower back being "fried." If the pain was sharp, you might want to back off a bit and work on your form a bit.

No, no sharp pain, nothing stabbing, nothing feeling pulled....

Just feels like that tired-sore-lower-back you get from helping a friend move or something. General muscle fatigue.

I've had my back so sore/sharp it couldn't move before (not from weights) and this is nothing like that.

It's just when I bent over and picked up the bar to do the rows, I was giving up due to a fatigued back (and general exhaustion)...

The difference was the fatigued feeling lasted longer than usual.

I don't THINK I did anything wrong - just wanted to make sure that was indeed where I should be "feeling" my deads and that I wasn't doing rapid damage.

Thx

Tom

For a better critique as it were, could you get a picture or video so we can have a look at your form?

I'll see if I can post a vid net time I lift. Mebbe go down long enough to do a few pulls tonight, but otherwise tonight's not a lift night. Got to get back into the cardio habit. I've slacked off a bit for a week or so on the cardio while getting up to speed on the weights (which are, after all, more important...)