[Rmtt]

I will be 45 this year...in fact next week. I still dead-lift regularly. I believe it's like anything else, put in the time learning the proper form and prep yourself for it, and you can be injury free. I do all the major lifts and use what I think is quite a fair bit of weight. But it took me years to get to that point.

Now if you have an old injury, I think that changes the dynamics of everything as they can easily be inflamed....so I wouldn't chance it.

I also use foam rolling pretty extensively. And I see a PT once a month who works on all my trigger points, and is pretty aggressive with stuff such as scraping, deep tissue, etc. I also do a lot to protect my shoulder girdle such as rotations, pro-nations, stretching, etc.

Honestly though, I think the biggest problem I see in the gym is people using too much weight with bad form. That is a recipe for disaster.

I was fortunate enough to train with people when I first started that were professionals in their sports..some even world champions. I feel that was instrumental in my longevity in this activity as you can't learn this stuff from a book. There are so many little cues to look for even when doing the simplest exercises.

Plus everybody is built differently. Muscle insertion points are different, length and leverage...it all plays a role in it. Some people are made for a certain exercise while others aren't. And if you are the latter, you scrap the exercise and move to something that works.