Hello,

I am a very inexperienced weight lifter and I have not been to the gym for a few years.

Towards the end of my previous stint, I was starting to get in to squatting and dead lifts. I knew their importance, however I was discouraged from doing them in the beginning because the gym I was a member of did not have a lot in the area of free weights beyond dumbbells. However, I was stuck there because I signed up for 2 years.

Anyways, like I said I have two questions.

By the way: I am 5 foot 9 and I currently weight about 165, down from about 170 a month and a half ago...when I am in better shape I weigh about 155...I am not very strong but I had been living a very sedentary lifestyle since about halfway through high school, aside from the 1 year period I was active in the gym. I intend to start playing baseball again once I feel I am in good enough shape.

#1: I have TERRIBLE balance, and often times when I would squat I would lost my balance and start to fall backwards. I tried to do some research and watch some youtube videos to study the proper form better but I could not figure out for certain what I was doing wrong. I was just wondering if this is something you folks see often and if you knew any simple ways to correct it other than practice more and with less weight? This was occurring at about a 180 pound squat. Like I said, not very strong, especially with these exercises.

#2: I was discouraged from doing dead lifts because the first few times I did them I experienced lower back pain after doing them, even after being certain I was doing them correctly. I cannot remember how much weight I was using, I think it was between 200 and 250 pounds. I really enjoyed doing the exercise but I was just scared that I would hurt my back and I wasn't doing those with a partner and/or someone who knew what they were doing so I just stopped.

Thank you in advance for your help.