What is a Romanian deadlift?
It’s a softly bent knee DL that starts at the top that really engages your hamstrings and glutes. Great exercise for your drive muscles in the back.
The Romanian deadlift (RDL) is a strength training exercise primarily targeting the hamstrings, glutes, and lower back. It’s similar to a traditional deadlift but focuses more on the eccentric (lowering) phase of the lift.
How to Perform a Romanian Deadlift:
- Starting Position: Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding a barbell or dumbbells in front of your thighs. Your grip should be just outside your legs.
- Set Your Posture: Keep your chest up, shoulders back, and core engaged. Maintain a neutral spine throughout the movement.
- Lower the Weight: Hinge at the hips, pushing your butt back while allowing your knees to bend slightly. Lower the weights along your legs until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings. The weights should stay close to your body.
- Return to Starting Position: Drive through your heels to return to the starting position by extending your hips and standing tall.
Key Points:
- Focus on Hips: The movement should come from the hips, not the knees.
- Keep the Back Straight: Avoid rounding your back to prevent injury.
- Control the Motion: Use a slow, controlled movement to maximize muscle engagement.
The Romanian deadlift is effective for building strength and muscle in the posterior chain, making it a popular exercise in many training programs.
What is a Romanian deadlift?
All forms of deadlifts using a barbell are terrific full-body strengthening movements. The conventional Deadlifts are an excellent choice to impact your entire body from top to bottom, utilizing all your muscle groups. In my world, a Romanian Deadlift is an assistant exercise, complementing the conventional, snatch-grip and other forms of deadlifts.
RDLs if done right can impact/strengthen/emphasis your hamstrings/hips/legs and buttocks a bit more than traditional deadlifts. You can “RDL” from a deficit standing on one or two weight plate for even better hamstring strengthening. A precision form and technique is essential to prevent injuries to lower back and hamstring or any other body parts.
Its a variation of deadlift where legs and back are kept straight to activate your hamstrings and glutes muscles. It also effects your lower back a little more.
What’s the difference between romanian deadlifts and regular deadlifts?
RDL, the Romanian deadlift training is a staple part of Olympic Weightlifting routines. Both Conventional deadlifts and Romanian deadlift used to develop Absolute pulling strength. The mechanics are slightly different. I recommend training with Clean grip, Snatch Grip, RDL, Sumo, Stiff Leg and deadlift from a deficit and or pull from the rack.
RDL, Clean Grip Romanian Deadlift.
Conventional Powerlifting style deadlift.
Execution of RDL from Olympic Weightlifting and Powerlifting perspective:
First of all, RDL is a great tool to strengthen your hamstrings, hips, and buttocks. A reliable method of execution (form) is necessary for safety. Deadlift training demands precision with the programming of routines., nutritional guidelines and recovery methods.
With your feet in the pulling position and holding the bar with a clean deadlift grip, bend your knees slightly with your trunk vertical – this is the start position, and it is also the position you’ll return to at the end of each repetition of RDL. Keeping the same slight bend in the knees, set your back in a tight arch and hinge at the hips as far as you can without losing any arch on your back.
Once you reach the lowest point, return to standing while maintaining the same slight bend in the knees. I recommend using lifting straps (intermediate trainers) for heavier RDL, but you can do without straps with light sets and repetitions. In Olympic weightlifting, the RDL and the stiff-legged deadlift often considered the same exercise, but with the stiff-legged deadlift, the knees start fully extended and unlock slightly as part of the forward hinge rather than remaining bent throughout the entire movement.
I have noticed the Romanian deadlift strengthens the back arch along with the glutes and hamstrings, RDLs also strengthens the lats and shoulders because of the effort to keep the bar close to the legs with the Shoulders in front of the bar. Snatch Grip RDLs impact the upper traps.
The Romanian deadlift trained with either a snatch grip and with more bend in the knees to be able to handle more weight for increased back arch strengthening. You can train with RDLs without lifting straps for more grip strength work. I prefer training the RDLs without straps.
The conventional deadlifts are different in the execution of the lifts. For the beginners, I recommend training with the Powerlifting style of conventional deadlifts to develop a baseline strength with deadlifting from the floor.
Mansour’s disclaimer:
I am not your weightlifting coach. Don’t do anything stupid and get hurt lifting big ass weights after reading some of my answers. This would make us both quite unhappy. Consult a Medical Doctor, a Strength Training coach and common-sense specialist before doing anything you may read in some of my answers.
What’s the difference between conventional deadlift and Romanian deadlift?
The main difference to note is that the conventional deadlift will start with the bar from the floor, and typically has no true eccentric (lowering) moment, preceding the concentric (lifting). The conventional deadlift is intended to be a true dead lift, meaning it starts from a dead stop on the floor with no advantage of a stretch reflex to help rebound into the next repetition.
The Romanian deadlift, on the other hand, is a top down movement, meaning that the starting position is in the upright position, and then the eccentric motion which leads to a loaded stretch in the hamstrings and allows for a slight rebound into the concentric. Additionally, in the Romanian deadlift, the weight should never come to a rest on the floor and should reverse in motion at just below the knees.
Additionally, the Romanian deadlift is a great lift for bringing up hamstrings, glute and low back strength, to help build the conventional deadlift. The conventional deadlift, on the other hand, is not a great hypertrophy movement, but is great for developing starting strength and total body tension.
You should probably utilize both in your training program, and start your workout with the conventional deadlift, and use the Romanian deadlift as a supplemental movement.
What’s the difference between romanian deadlifts and regular deadlifts?
The main difference between these two lifts is where they start from.
The conventional deadlift starts from the floor (hence the term dead-lift; i.e. you start from a dead stop) and must ‘clear the knee,’ so-to-speak.
The Romanian Deadlift (RDL) starts from the top down and never touches the ground, placing more eccentric stress on the posterior chain muscles (spinal erectors, glutes, hamstrings and calves mostly…) and more stress on grip-strength by comparison to the deadlift which is frequently dropped back to the floor.
However, the Romanian Deadlift should not be confused with the ‘Stiff-Legged’ Deadlift, which I’ve personally found to be a fairly useless exercise on a whole as it severely limits the safe range of motion for the majority of people and these people will also mostly execute it with atrocious technique.
I’ve seen very few people (the ones who can are mostly women) with the the hamstring flexibility required (and usually it’s not in conjunction with the pelvic stability required as a result) to execute the stiff legged deadlift with good technique through a good range of motion. For most people the stiff-legged deadlift places a tremendous amount of shear stress on the lumbar spine disks of untrained individuals and poses a very high risk of damage if that part of the spine is allowed to flex (which is more often the case with this lift than other kinds of deadlifting).
The Romanian Deadlift permits what most trainers might call a ‘soft-knee’ while the stiff-legged deadlift attempts to maintain a locked knee. This allows the pelvis to rotate back more appropriately and maintain a more neutral spine position, limiting the amount of shear force on the lumbar spine.
For the RDL you don’t try to keep your knee locked out during it’s execution, you let it softly bend as you shoot your hips back. The knee only bends because the hip is allowed to move behind the knees. The shin or lower leg remains nearly vertical through the entire movement so it doesn’t turn into a squat (or knee-dominant/quad-dominant lift) and one will typically feel a very strong stretch on the hamstrings.
The barbell won’t touch the floor in the RDL either, it’s basically just the range of motion after someone clears the knees in the traditional deadlift (or the upper portion of the lift in the traditional deadlift). The hips will typically stay a bit higher and you will not be able to lift as much weight with the RDL as you would or could with the conventional deadlift.
I often start by teaching the RDL before getting to a conventional deadlift from the floor, because it requires more control, less flexibility and teaches the correct upper portion of the deadlift at the same time. A rack pull or cable pull-through is a good way to lead into the RDL too.
Note: Many people do not have the mobility required to lift a conventional deadlift from the floor properly (neutral spine position). Be safe, work within your limits and develop the appropriate mobility.
How do you know if you’re doing a Romanian deadlift correctly?
First off, the name Deadlift implies that you lift “dead weights”. Dead weight is referred to weight that has no momentum. with this being said, EVERY rep is lifted from the ground. Therefore your starting and endpoint is from the ground when executing the traditional deadlift. When doing so you primarily use your quads and glutes. Whereas the Romanian Deadlift is performed from the standing position with somewhat of a straight leg approach (soft knees) therefore engaging your hamstrings, lower back and glutes.
Be aware of your starting point because you can being doing a traditional deadlift and not the RDL. Now to perform the Romanian deadlift, stand with your feet hip-width apart and hold a barbell in front of your thighs, using an overhand shoulder-width grip. Bend your knees slightly and then keep them rigid throughout your set. Push your butt back, hinge forward from your hips and lower the bar down the front of your legs as far as your flexibility allows. Push your hips forward and stand back up.
Also always keep these 4 tips in mind:
• Keep your arms straight, elbows locked.
• Keep your chest up, and shoulders back as you lift the weight.
• Drive up through your heels.
• Extend your hips until you feel your glues contract.
Conclusion
Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes (clapping fingers like Mr. Burns). As a Stoic, only a few selected things can make the Potato Man cry, I cried when my daughter was born when I saw the sunrise far in the sea in the edge of a cliff mesmerized by the sheer beauty of God’s creation, when Clapton hits the strings of his guitar in memory of his late child, full of emotion, full of meaning, and when I see someone execute a deadlift with beautiful form.
I shed a lonely tear just by thinking about it.
Wait, I also cry watching every single Disney-Pixar movie, and on weddings, and when I’m drunk, and when someone yells at me. LOL.
Wait, I cry a lot now that I think about it, forget that stoic shit, BE BRAVE, SHED A TEAR YOU FUCKING BASTARD!
Wait, what was the question? Ahh right, do deadlifts build muscle, the simple answer is FUCK YEAH, TONS OF IT, not slow overall thickness like a brother suggested earlier, TONS OF IT, just deadlifts will completely transform a slob sedentary man into a muscular individual, not CRAZY MUSCULAR, not a bodybuilder, not body dysmorphia posting pictures on IG, but muscular, more than regular.
And it’s pretty simple actually, you gotta learn how to DEADLIFT LIKE A BODYBUILDER, it’s STUPID SIMPLE but you have gotta have a little experience to execute it properly.
So first let me revise the basics of DEADLIFTING, I’ll first explain BRACING, because it’s THAT IMPORTANT and then we’ll learn some cues to improve your necromancy, and the last cue is what will separate the powerlifter from the bodybuilder, and what will REALLY make your back get massive.
Quick hint, it’s all in the lats.
- BRACING.
Imagine a closed bag of Doritos, put a coin on top of it, the bag will be pushed slightly but the air inside it will prevent the bag from being smushed by the coin.
If the air has ways of escaping the bag, it gets smushed by the coin, since it’s heavier than the bag.
Alright, bracing is just that, filling your lungs full of air so it creates pressure in your torso so it maintains your spine in a neutral position, preventing your discs from hitting each other generating damage, pain, hernias.
Inhaling air is an ACTIVE MOTION, your diaphragm contracts and pulls air in.
Exhaling air is PASSIVE, meaning the air simply escapes your body, it doesn’t require your diaphragm to do shit.
But EXHALING FORCEFULLY is an ACTIVE MOTION, requires your diaphragm to contract and expel the air from your body.
To properly brace, you inhale as much air as possible, and then you EXHALE FORCEFULLY activating your diaphragm BUT, you don’t let the air get out, you trap it inside you.
That’s it, nobody ever explained it so elegantly right?
Bonus tip: when you get good at this, using your diaphragm to control the rate at which air escapes your body, is how you hold a pitch when singing.
Alright, now you know how to brace, you know how to sing, you’re safe to start DEADLIFTING LIKE A BODYBUILDER.
- Feet right under the bar at shoulder length.
- Shins touching the bar.
- Brace.
- With arms fully extended, biceps facing forwards grab the bar.
- Sit back to load your glutes and hamstrings, you do so by shifting your weight to the balls of your feet and bringing your butt away from the bar while bending your knees until your shoulders are slightly behind the bar, you can even let your toes go up, just don’t fall like a dufus.
- Pack your lats by contracting your shoulder blades together, think of bringing your rear delts behind your ears.
- Lift the weight with arms fully locked imagining you’re doing a LEG PRESS.
- Keep the bar in contact with your body the entire time.
And here’s the trick, it’s ALL IN THE LOCKOUT, right when you pass your knees, if your goal is maximum strength you should focus on applying maximum force in your glutes and humping the bar with your hip maintaining a stable back contraction with minimal movement.
But if you want to FRY YOUR BACK, at the end of the range of motion you bring your elbows slightly to the side of your body, giving a big squeeze to your entire back at the peak of the contraction.
Super simple, it’s a slight adjustment, and the thing is, all that crap about how a bodybuilder deadlifts and how a powerlifter deadlift, is just nonsense to catch your attention, some people are stronger and stimulate more muscle growth when they implement this strategy of locking out with the upper back and lats, other people does so by locking out humping the bar, the thing is, everybody has different Biomechanics, and it’s all about experimenting.
For instance, Cailer Woolam, one of the greatest deadlifters of our generation, if not of all time, likes to introduce a little shrug at the end of the lockout when training with submaximal weights, to me, that doesn’t work at all, so learn proper form, brace yourself and experiment!
One thing is 4sure, DEADLIFTING IS FUCKING AWESOME, and will build you a BIGASS MASSIVE BACK!
Here’s a quote from the LEGEND Jón Pál Sigmarssun.
THERE’S NO REASON TO BE ALIVE IF YOU CAN’T DO DEADLIFT!
VIKING POWER!
LET’S GO!
Big KISS,
What is a Romanian deadlift?