Hi,
Every publication i have read till today focus on those two exercises as being some of the best, why come as someone that goes 3 times a week to the gym, I rarely see anyone doing these exercises...
I never saw anyone making deadlifts, squats rarely. Everyone I have talked too say they are bad for your back, still i think i am getting decent results, mostly on my legs from these exercises..
However, on the second and third day I can "feel" my lower back almost as much as I can feel my leg muscles... Is this normal? It's not pain, it's just the feeling that you worked that muscle group.
I really try to do the exercises with good form... and I think I do (don't wear a belt) but still that intrigues me, most people i know never do those two exercises, still everyone say I should stop doing them when I ask about there opinion... Can anyone shed some light in to this matter?
For squats I use around 150 pounds total weight (not with bar) on a rack, and 120 for deadlifts.

Having had a number of back injuries I can speak with a little bit of authority on this.

The one thing that has to be stressed is FORM. With proper form you will greatly reduce your chance of injury!

Squats are probably one of the most important lifts out there because of how many muscle groups it affects. Why is no one doing them ... cause they suck. I HATE squats, but it is something that I have started to force myself to do. Start light and focus on form. With proper form the weight will come naturally. My knees are not in great shape which is part of the reason I am not fond of squats, thus starting light and slowly looking to build resistance.

Deadlifts can be one of the best exercises for your back provided your being spot on with your form. A former coworker used this exercise to slowly rebuild his strength after a serious back injury.

With either of these lifts it is probably worth paying for a personal training session to ensure your form is proper.

I'll second what Jeremiah said about form on these exercises. You can seriously injure yourself doing them incorrectly and should always start with smaller weights and work up from there.

I often see guys at the gym doing deadlifts with more weight than they can handle, practicing a kind of "clean and jerk" movement that is virtually certain to cause back injuries.

Even with proper form, it's perfectly natural to feel some tiredness in the lower back after the deadlift, as this exercise makes more use of the lower back muscles than squats do. But you really ought to look into getting a belt. People debate their utility, but to my mind, anything that offers me even the possibility that losing my concentration or my balance isn't going to inflict permanent harm on my spinal cord is a worthwhile investment! Plus, the belt helps force you to use proper form.

And as to why people don't do these exercises more often, I think Jeremiah nailed it. They suck. They require flexibility and strength and use many muscle groups at the same time. People who exercise regularly and don't stretch and warm up first often have surprisingly stiff and inflexible muscles. Doing even ten squats without weight can be a challenge.

These are two of the best exercises you can do. Period. They both activate a huge amount of muscle tissue with each repitition. You can certainly be injured if you don't perform these exercises properly. I reccomend using dumbells for these exercises at first. Use light ones at first, and go heavier as your form improves. Do them in front of a mirror, or have a trainer critque your form until you get it right. I will go out on a limb and say that there is no more beneficial exercise than a properly done back squat. When doing these to form you will activate 85% of your body's muscle tissue with every lift. Along with the squat and deadlift is the lunge. This is a very difficult exercise to do correctly, but has incredible muscle building benefits if done correctly. You can see videos of these exercises being done properly at www.bodybuilding.com. Good Luck!

Mark

Thank you so much for the link!

Yep, I do those too, Lunges, for me those are the worst. I don't like to wear a belt mostly because I am keeping good for, I check myself in the mirror once in a while, besides I want to strenghten my middle section too, wearing a belt defeats that purpuse (I used it in the beginning, but it didn't felt right). I have checked the videos, that website has very good resources, just a little "too focused" on bodybuilding in my opinion.

I use the machines (as opposed to free weights) for squats. I never have a spotter available and it is much easier to keep proper form (in my opinion) and have the benefit of the safety bar to catch the weight if something happens.

You aren't carrying as much as the load as the weight suggests (I think I read that the mechanics of the machine help left about 10% of the weight), but you can always lift more.

There are some guys with awesome upper bodies at my gym that are walking around on sticks.

It could be just the time when I lift (5:30 a.m.), but I've never seen anybody use the squat rack except me, though I did see one lady doing squats on the smith machine. I'm the only one doing deads.

I have a love/hate relationship with squats. The main problem I have right now is that my gym has a rack, but not a full cage. I'm worried that if I have to bail, that bar may come after me. I've been chasing my white whale for the past couple of months. Last week, I decided to go for it and threw 300 on. I managed 5 reps, but on the last one, I got a little too far forward and strained something in my back getting myself back under it. If I had been in a cage, I could have continued forward and the pins would have caught it for me. Today, I loaded up 300, got it on my back and then chickened out, re-racked and went down to 275. I'm not sure just how to get past this. I want to see 3 plates hanging on each end of that bar by the end of Oct and 4 plates by the first of the year.