Then you did the exercises in bad form. Years ago my fitness condition was like the article described: little-girl weak. My back and my neck ached a lot after coding sessions. Fast-forward until now doing squats, dead lifts, presses three times a week for 3 months I am much stronger, can run 2x longer and the pain has completely gone away.

At first i followed Stronglift 5x5's advice: start with the bar only, concentrate on proper form for at least 2 weeks and increase the load slightly for each workout. I'm also lucky that there are sport students working as tutors at my university gym. They are taught proper (olympic) weight lifting so I asked them to correct my form if I did the exercises wrong. After that it's like riding a bicycle, once learned you will never forget how to ride.

See, but I had done it before - 3/4 years ago I was squatting 315 for 10 reps, so either my form was fine back then and degraded somehow or it was never good and I just got away with it because I was young and in shape.

Either way, the article completely glosses over the "oh, by the way if you do this wrong you will ruin your shit" aspect of squats and deadlifts, which is a pretty compelling argument for machines in my book.

This.

My personal experience (which includes a lovely meniscus blowout during squats) is that even given perfect form, once you get up to heavy weights (2x-3x bodyweight for deads and squats) you are starting to push the limits of your body and need to realize that occasional injury is part of the total picture.

That said, I still stay away from machines. I feel even if you're working with light weights, the balance factor of free weights adds so much more to the workout.

That is why all the training programs tell you to start out lifting light (even just the bar by itself) and gradually add weight over time as your technique improves. If you use common sense and follow the guides you won't get hurt.

That's because your form stinks. Squats and deads don't hurt you unless you do them incorrectly.

Both are too easy to hurt yourself. This is why, for example, why deadlifts are generally not recommended for professional athletes. For example, notice Kobe doesn't do deadlifts: http://www.nbaplayerworkouts.com/kobe-bryant

The delta in benefit is not worth a back injury.

That article says Kobe does power cleans, which are riskier than deadlifts for back injury.

I tend to find them a lot safer. The weight used is a lot less and is much more forgiving of improper back posture. With that said, for beginners, I do think that the Power Clean is more dangerous. More places to make a mistake. But for an ahlete with strength training background, deadlift is more dangerous, I think largely due to the weight. I've seen too many people with what looked like perfect form hurt their back.

I have a back injury from weightlifting in high school, so I view deads (and the entire "olympic lifts for desk jockeys" meme) with suspicion. However, I think people mainly get in trouble because they try to do too much weight, too soon.