[better health3]

Hi,

Last night I tried to do squats on the Smith machine. Before, I had an exercise of bending down and moving a weighted plate. I couldn't bend down far enough for the squat and my knees really hurt. I was in total shock because I could do them with no knee problems several years ago. I really hope I didn't mess up my knees due to the weight. It makes me really sad.

Does deadlifts make anyone elses back hurt? Are there alternatives?

I am really upset. I want to do squats with weights. Frustrating. I'll try it on a different day to see if I have the same thing happen. Another consequence of carrying too much weight on my frame. Geez.

[Azure]

I think you might want to check your form. Deadlifts do work the lower back, but they shouldn't hurt your lower back. I do deadlifts with a weighted bar and I do back squats with a weighted bar, and if my form is on-point, my back definitely doesn't hurt. If you can't see yourself in a mirror while you're doing it, try having a trainer at the gym check your form for you while you do it.

[Sheila53]

If you find that your knees bother you too much, you can try building up the muscles around the knee by doing other forms of squats. I do a wall squat using a stability ball at my back and a ball that I squeeze between my knees. I also do the leg press, which works the quads nicely. Yeah, it's not the same thing, but it can help you build up to doing weighted squats again.

[Lifeguard]

My back is sometimes muscle sore after deadlifting - but that is appropriate as those are the muscles being worked with the exercise (along with your butt & hamstrings).

For your squats try using a bar & the squat box instead of the smith machine. The smith machine creates an unnatural range of motion & can really mess up form. Only go as deep as you can before you feel pain & as you get stronger you should be able to improve your range of motion.

I would definitely recommend having a personal trainer look at your form on both these exercises.