According to UFC doctors, relayed by promotion president Dana White, former light heavyweight champion Jiri Prochazka “suffered the worst shoulder injury ever seen.” So imagine everyone’s shock when “Denisa” started piling on the plates just eight months after his fight-canceling mishap.
I guess Prochazka isn’t the only athletic “super freak” on the current roster.
But not everyone was standing and cheering for his decision to crank out a round of dangerous deadlifts, sans back brace. UFC fans clamoring for an Alex Pereira title fight cautioned Prochazka to lay off the “ego lifting” in favor of exercises that would help expedite his return to the cage.
Here’s a sample:
You’ve had enough injuries witjout adding heavy deadlifts to your workouts. We want to see you fight.
L5 s1 herniated disc in 3 …2….1…..
Bruh boutta f*ck around and injure himself again smh
Bro please don’t re-injure yourself (wear a lifting belt and drop the weight) this is ego lifting and not necessary.
Bro that much weight is so unnecessary
Switch grip is really not good for you. Much more likely to tear a bicep… type bicep tear compilation into YouTube and see what you notice.
It’s also worth pointing out that not everyone is sold on deadlifts.
“I went from football to strongman, and in football we never did deadlifts,” professional strongman Robert Oberst told Joe Rogan. “It was all hang cleans and power cleans, which by the way, just quick little tip: if you’re deadlifting to be a better deadlifter, fine. If you’re not doing that for deadlift’s sake, then don’t f*****g do it. The risk to reward ratio is a joke for deadlifts. A lot of people aren’t going to like that I’m saying that. If you go to any NFL gym, any Division-1 college football gym, any athletics where people are actually getting paid and it matters what they’re doing, they’re not deadlifting. They’re hang cleaning and power cleaning. It’s so hard to be a great deadlifter and to not risk your lower back, and to be using your upper back properly, there’s so many little chances for you to get hurt.”
Getting hurt is practically a daily occurrence for the UFC elite.
Experts insist most deadlifting injuries come from either bad form by pulling from the floor (as opposed to an elevated trap bar) and/or lifting too heavy. Just don’t tell that to the gym rats who cheer for Jon Jones every time the swollen UFC heavyweight champion gets vertical in the weight room.
Prochazka is currently in talks to face Pereira for the vacant light heavyweight strap, surrendered last month when Jamahal Hill ruptured his achilles tendon playing basketball. The promotion has yet to make the fight official or suggest a potential date, but with “Poatan” just a few days removed from his 205-pound debut, expect that battle to take place toward the end of the year.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
