Sure listen to them you will make someone happy by keeping a bench or rack empty and also give relegate your gains to them

>everyone is telling me
That's the problem
Go lift if you're healthy enough to do those exercises, who gives a FUCK what influencers and anons say. Just lift, holy shit.

>the risk of injury just seems too high
You're thinking about it wrong. No movement just has a standing risk of injury, like, every time you bench at any weight you throw some dice over whether you do it fine or destroy your shoulders. It's all determined by load progression and adaptation. Meaning, yes, if you decide you can bench 3pl8 but you're built like a twig then you're going to snap city, but if you build up to that same weight over time and let your tissues adapt (both muscles and tendons) then you're fine.
The same principle applies with every movement people claim will cause injuries, including the much-fearmongered loaded spinal flexion. Progress and manage load in a way you can recover from and you're fine, do stupid shit because of your ego and you're at risk. Simple as.
t. 4pl8 rounded back deadlift enjoyer

Being nuanced is something people lack these days. I do believe the squat bench and deadlift are largely outdated and not worth doing from a hypertrophy standpoint (they still have a ton of athletic carryover).

Imo they're high risk movements because of the type of injuries they cause. Back injuries in particular are debilitating. You screw up a disc, and you're going to have sciatica, pain, and potential numbness etc.... but the thing is, it's to a level where it affects your everyday life and all of your training.

If you follow a well written program, and actually rest when you're supposed to, and have your nutrition dialed in you should be okay, but they're still higher risk than movements that accomplish the same thing.

In my experiences as a powerlifter, most disc injuries come during a cut (the body is less hydrated which effects the disc and joints) and just recovers slower in general.

If you just care about looking good... 100% avoid them. Ain't no one that likes your physique even has the question "how much do you squat / deadlift" outside of a gym setting

>>77277685
I forgot to add, the barbell squats just sucks in general as far as legs are concerned. That's why you shouldn't squat. You're limited by your core and back strength way more than you think. Way more people mess up their backs squatting than their legs despite it being a lef exercise.

>>77277662
>ex-BB and powerlifters, amateur and pro.
There's your problem. Anyone who competes as a bodybuilder or powerlifter has a mental illness, and it's driven by pride. Lift for strength, not pride, and you won't have a problem.

>>77277696
Squat isn't predominantly a leg exercise, as you said. It's a full body compound lift that hits hip flexors and lower back. If you only want stronger legs, there are options for that that aren't squats. That said, squats are extremely efficient for building whole-body strength, so they should be done up to a point. It just depends on what a person's goal is.

If it's body building, you don't need to squat heavy.
If it's being strong as fuck, squatting heavy is part of that.

>>77277662
Every movement, even unloaded, "risks injury." That's a meaningless statement. Follow a sensible program, take your recovery seriously, and don't ego lift. You'll be fine. The problem comes when you're trying to ego lift 2/3/4/5 on no sleep and shit nutrition five days in a row.

>>77277662
>use less weight to do strict perfect form kind of work
>wide grip and incline is common to hurt shoulders so especially make sure not to push super hard when all the way down and it's close to 1 rep left
>instead of destroying form to complete a rep, only push hard using safer form and fail instead
>keep your elbows inside of your wrists and flared in
>don't lock out your elbows and practice failing by sliding off plates and rolling it down to your legs and sitting up
As a noob bench 3x a week and do just as much rows, ohp, and pullups. Add whatever else to your upper body routine. Legs do 2x/wk and 1x/wk when you need more energy and you're running 2-3x/wk between 2 presses plus everything else its basically 5 separate sessions a week.

>>77277662
I think the main source of squat injuries are from not breathing/bracing properly, dropping down too quickly instead of a controlled descent. and rushing to add weight before they are able to do the first two things. Also, some people's body proportions make squatting very difficult

If you can't do those three without hurting yourself you got a bad problem on your hands. All of the forces you are putting on your body are well known beforehand, nothing should be a surprise. Many people have little self-awareness and throw themselves into an exercise until they "randomly" get hurt. You can't bend over and pick it up and put it down? It does not get much easier than that. Snatch and clean and jerk and not much harder by the way. Many people are seemingly nearly incapable of learning any movement with their body without fucking themselves up.

>>77277662
Do RDL instead of deadlift, do machine chest press and pec deck instead of bench press do hacksquats instead of squats it's literally the same shit. As long as you progress them with the same intensity and seriousness as a classic barbell compound. Take it to failure, or 1rir push yourself hard as fuck go to the depths of your soul and you'll be just as big if not bigger because the restricted motion paths of machines force you to target the right muscle and forces you to have strict techniques the barbell lifts might not be for you if u don't have the limbs for it and who cares you don't need to do them except for vibes

>bench pressing
Incline/decline/DB variants are also available
>squat
I’ve always preferred the variants of squat as opposed to conventional barbell squatting but if it works for you keep at it
>deadlift
Thankfully I think it’s on its way out because I rarely see them done anymore, even at a serious gym. Ten years ago everyone was spamming them. Reddit exercise

>>77277745
>Every movement, even unloaded, "risks injury."
Yes but some are way worse than others.
Like yeah I might injure myself doing rows or get shin splits from running but it doesn't compare to the sort of injury you might get from a bad deadlift or squat
It's like anyone getting injured doing them always seems to get injured really, really bad AND injury seems more like a "when" than a "if" if your doing them consistently

>>77279748
Injury from weightlifting, even including all the stupid egolifters, is far, far less than any other sports' injuries.

People don't "just" get injured eventually, they injure themselves ego lifting, keep lifting on the injury, and THEN, after a long time, push it too far and fail catastrophically. Weightlifting is kind of too much fun, too addicting like that.

Following a proper program and not being stupid solves 99% of problems, the rest is genetics. I mean the lifts are designed to be failable.
>squat
Drop the bar, or go down onto safeties
>deadlift
Drop the bar, controlled if you cant otherwise just bend forward.
>bench
Set the weight down on the safeties. Make sure they're high enough you don't smash the bar into your chest anyway.

Now if you want fearporn go look up injuries from skiing, football, basketball, the other football, whatever's popular in your area. All of them per-capita-mog weightlifting.

>>77279767
What about spinal/disc compression?
That shit is cumulative and you don't feel it until the disc is proper compressed

>>77277673
4pl8 rounded back deadlift isn't much, and you won't get to 5pl8 with bad technique

>>77280523
Spinal compression is fearmongering by people who don't know how to squat/deadlift, if you don't know how to then don't.

It's riskier if you round your back forward or over-arch it backwards which puts more pressure on one side instead of evenly distributing it. Properly engaging your core helps your ribs, that attach to your spine, distribute a good amount of weight to your chest and abs. People load on more weight before they can properly handle the weight, get injured and then blame the exercise because they're scared to be seen with less than 100 lbs on the barbell