Stop doing deadlifts. I used to be one of their biggest fans: one of our first videos to go viral back in the Six Pack Shortcuts days was me deadlifting, and as a company we told everyone to do heavy compound lifts. At 40, I’ve cut deadlifts out of my routine completely.
The short version: deadlifts are the fastest way to pack on muscle, but for guys my age the risk is not worth the reward. Other exercises give you nearly the same results with almost none of the risk. Here is why I changed my mind, and exactly what I do instead.
What a deadlift is
If you’re new to working out: you load a barbell with weight, set it on the floor, and lift it up to your waist. It mainly works your back, and it’s also a workout for your legs.
For years, deadlifts were the core of my routine, and they were what I recommended to everybody. My logic was simple. Deadlifts are hands down the fastest way to pack on muscle, I wanted to pack on muscle, so I deadlifted. That’s the logic most guys use. The problem is that I was only looking at the benefits in the best-case scenario. I wasn’t looking at the risks.
Drawback 1: more injuries than every other lift combined
Deadlifts are the most common way people get injured in the gym. Looking back at my own training history, I’ve gotten more injuries from deadlifts than from every other lift in the gym combined. Think about that: more than everything else put together.
Most of them were minor. A back strain from putting too much weight on the bar. Some pain in my forearms. But a few were major, and they took me out of the gym and out of intense workouts for weeks.
To be fair, there was usually another factor. Early on, before I learned good form, my form contributed to some of those injuries. Later, after I had good form, I’d sometimes take a few weeks off, come back, and try to deadlift the same weight as before. So I wasn’t doing everything perfectly. Even so, it says a lot that one lift caused more injuries than all the others combined.
Why injuries set you back more than you think
If you’re younger, you might be thinking: so what, I’ll survive a few injuries, I just care about building muscle. Here’s what you’re missing.
A minor injury makes your next few workouts less effective, which means less muscle. A major injury that keeps you out of the gym for weeks sets you back even more, because when you come back you have to spend workouts building back up to where you were.
And if the injury is bad enough, you might never come back at all. That’s how most people end up quitting. It’s not that they woke up one day and decided they didn’t want to be in shape. They got hurt, took a couple of weeks off to recover, tried to go back, couldn’t, and ended up taking the rest of their life off from working out.
Why it matters even more over 40
Avoiding injuries matters at any age. Once you’re over 40, it becomes critical:
- You’re more vulnerable to injury than a younger guy.
- You take longer to heal when you do get hurt.
- Most importantly, your odds of quitting altogether after a major injury are far higher.
So if you’re over 40, you can’t afford to get injured, and that means doing safer exercises. Safer exercises might build a little less muscle in the short term. But if you stay injury free, you’ll build more muscle in the long term than you would deadlifting, getting hurt, and getting set back over and over.
Drawback 2: the powerlifter look
Injury risk is the biggest problem, but there’s also an aesthetic one. Deadlifts build a thick, powerlifter-style physique. If that’s what you want, deadlift away. Most of us want something different: an aesthetic physique like a fitness model, lean, with visible six-pack abs. Not just strong with no definition.
You can reduce the effect. A narrow grip builds a lot of thickness and pushes you toward that powerlifter build, while a wider grip builds more width. A standard grip instead of an alternating grip helps, and straps make it easier. But the fact remains: deadlifts aren’t ideal for your aesthetics. If you want to look good with your shirt off, you don’t need them.
What I do instead: 4 exercises
This is what I personally do now.
- T-bar rows or barbell rows. On the T-bar machine, load it up and row it back. With a barbell, stand in the bent-over row position and row. Both carry far less injury risk than deadlifts, and the machine lets you go very wide safely. Wide builds width across your back instead of thickness, and width is what looks good.
- Lat pulldowns. These build the “wings” that come out from your back and create the V-taper look, which deadlifts don’t build as efficiently. Use a slow, controlled motion and take the widest grip. Wide grip builds width; narrow grip builds powerlifter thickness.
- Leg press. Deadlifts are also powerful for your legs, but I’ve found you can build nearly as much leg muscle, and more over the long term, with leg presses. Load the machine, set the safety stop so you can’t go down too far, lower to the stop, and push back up through your heels like a squat. It usually takes a gym membership, but it’s the safest way to train your legs.
- Rear delt fly. Use the machine at the gym, or dumbbells in the bent-over row position. Don’t just row backwards: move in an arc and contract your back. The cue that helps me is to imagine a pencil between your shoulder blades and squeeze it on every rep. It builds your rear delts, helps your posture, and it’s nearly impossible to hurt yourself doing it.
Stay injury free on these for a couple of years straight and you’ll end up with more muscle, and a better-looking back, than you would chasing deadlifts and getting set back. If you want an ab exercise to pair with them, here’s my ab wheel workout.
See where this can take you
If you want to get started on the body you want, try Abs By AI free for 7 days. It makes an AI image of your future self with six-pack abs, and seeing how good you could look is what keeps you eating right and training consistently. The app also has an AI personal trainer, an AI nutritionist and an AI macro tracker.
This is general fitness information, not medical advice. Some images in the video are AI-generated visualizations, and they’re labeled.
