A Recent Conversation on a Forum. “I did a hernia deadlifting a few weeks back. I’ve had a hernia in the same place before so it classes as a recurrent hernia. I’ve been referred to a keyhole surgeon.

I think I know why I have a hernia – I always wear a weightbelt when deadlifting. I did a bit of Google searching of “hernia” and “deadlift” and a few stories similar to mine came up.

The pressure inside your abdominal cavity raises when you deadlift and that is exacerbated when you wear a belt. The downside for the extra back support is that you risk popping your ab wall open, lo and behold a hernia.”

Deadlifts & Hernia. Let’s be clear about this. A correctly executed deadlift will not cause a hernia. The pressure inside your abdominal cavity increases when doing deadlifts or squats or any other stressful physical activity like pushing your car. There’s nothing wrong with the increased pressure: it happens naturally.

If you’ve got a hernia from deadlifts, you are:

• Bending your lower back.
• Hyperextending your lower back.
• Pulling the weight with your back, not with your glutes.

Start by keeping your spine neutral during the whole lift. Next check your pelvis alignement using a side mirror:

• Is your lower back hyperextended?
• Pelvis tilt forward?

If you sit alot, you’ll notice a forward tilt of your pelvis. This is called Lordosis.

Treating Lordosis. I had a beginning stage of hernia back in the days. When looking back, it was caused by deadlifting with a wrong technique & lordosis. Took me some months to get rid of both. What I did:

• Quit deadlifting & any sort of heavy pulling from the floor
• Light Squats
• Lots of glute activation work
• Postural realignement for the pelvis
• Abdominal work
• Relearned to deadlift with correct technique

About Surgery. You can treat the symptoms & effects as much as you want using medication/surgery/… but if you don’t treat the causes, you haven’t change a thing. It will come back. If your hernia is caused by:

• Lordosis
• Weak Glutes
• Decreased hip mobility

You’ll get lower back and/or knee problems after the surgery. If your doctor says you need surgery, and it’s your opinion you need it too. Then do it. But be sure to look at the other factors too, or it will come back.