I've been lifting free weight for about 14 months now, the last 6 of which have been barbell, previously used dumbbells as that was all I had access to. The *only* lift I avoided was DL, it is/was just a confidence thing. For some reason I was petrified of doing it. After some prompting I've spent a lot of time working on form without the barbell, and then with (unloaded) and moved over on Monday to having a go with some weight.

I did 25kg (I'm only 98lb myself) 1 set of 5 reps and felt really good at the time. Managed to hold my form although I was tiring rapidly by rep 5. Next day, holly wow! Serious DOMS in the quads and glutes and some in hamstrings. I felt like I my muscles were SO full of water that I was waddling! Skipped doing DL's on Wednesday and I was planning on doing another set tomorrow with my third lift day of the week.

My back has been totally fine (and it's my weak spot), so I'm assuming from the location of the DOMS that my form really is okay when actually lifting weight? Should I drop back a bit on the weight? Go for the same weight again? Somehow I never had any appreciation for how differently DL uses your quads and glutes compared to squatting! Hoping the DL improves my (rather poor) squat!