Deadlift (Romanian) deadlift: correct technique

Should it be used in training?

To create a beautiful leg relief, isolated training of the muscles of the back of the thigh and buttocks is necessary. Various squats primarily involve the quadriceps, which takes the lion's share of the load.

And special exercise machines cannot be found in all gyms. Therefore, the Romanian (dead) lift is considered as a basic exercise when working on the leg muscles.

This is one of the main exercises in bodybuilding. It is similar to the deadlift, but differs in that it requires you to keep your legs straight or only slightly bend them as the weight is lowered down.

The exercise works well on the buttocks and back of the thighs. It also works your back, arms and shoulders. Thus, the deadlift is basic, unlike, for example, leg curls in a lying hamstring machine.

What muscles work?

When performing the exercise, the back of the thigh, buttocks and back are involved:

In different versions of the exercise, the main work falls either on the back or on the legs.

Deadlift: anatomy of muscle work

As I said above, when performing a deadlift, a large number of muscles are involved in the work.

Namely:

• Gluteal muscles and hamstrings. These muscles tense in concentration! The main burden falls on them. This is a plus, because... The biceps of the thigh tend to lag behind in athletes.
• Rhomboids, trapezius, serratus.
• The core muscles (abs, spinal extensors) experience constant static tension during the exercise.
• Rotator muscles of the wrists, forearms, biceps and triceps of the arms, shoulders.
• The muscles are stabilizers of the lumbar region, which are responsible for keeping the back in a level position.

When performing a deadlift, most of the body is indirectly tensed, but you need to concentrate specifically on the gluteal muscles and the back of the thigh, therefore, in fact, you need to understand the technique of performing this exercise.

Execution options

Deadlifts can be performed:

In almost all gyms, this exercise is performed on two legs, but there is also an option to perform it on one leg: you need to take a barbell, lift one leg, bending it at the knee at an angle close to 90 degrees. While bending forward, move your raised leg back, straightening it at the knee to maintain balance. You can try doing it with weights - this will make it easier to retract your shoulder blades.

Grip options

There are three grip options when performing this exercise:

1. Straight.
2. Back.
3. Multidirectional, or multi-grip.

The latter assumes that one hand is placed with a direct grip, and the other with a reverse grip. Which of these options to prefer is mostly a matter of taste. Every athlete has a favorite grip that is familiar to him.

You can do deadlifts by standing with your toes on two plates. This allows you to maximally load the gluteal muscles and hamstrings. Typically this option is used when performing deadlifts with dumbbells.

Deadlift for girls

Lately, deadlifting on straight legs has become extremely popular among women. Many performing athletes and fitness bikinists include Romanian deadlifts in their programs, their methods are adopted by amateurs, and so on. The effectiveness and benefits of this exercise for girls is confirmed by the excellent forms of female bodybuilders who use the Romanian deadlift.

As practice shows, from a technical point of view, girls have a narrower leg position. So women, leaning forward, better feel the target gluteal muscle and load the butt to the maximum. Girls can experiment with turning their feet to the sides, parallel, or slightly inward, this is individual.

It is not entirely necessary to lower the bar very low, beyond knee level. You yourself will feel the tension and trembling in the biceps of the thighs - this will be enough to determine the lowest point of the amplitude.

As for the technique of performing deadlifts for girls, it is identical to that for men and there are simply no differences. In Priora, it so happened that girls have a greater desire to increase the muscle size of their buttocks, which is why they bend over on straight legs more often in the gym. For guys, this indicator is not so important and critical. You can see how to properly perform deadlifts on straight legs in this video/

Deadlift for girls video

Execution technique

Let's look at the technique of performing the exercise using a barbell as a weight:

• Starting position – gaze directed ahead, shoulder blades retracted, lower back arched. The arms with the barbell are straightened. The palms rest on the apparatus with an overhand grip shoulder-width apart. Legs are straight or slightly bent at the knees, shoulder-width apart, feet pointing forward. To increase the load, you can reduce the distance between your legs.
• The bar goes down smoothly at a minimum distance from the body (the projectile should literally touch the clothing). In this case, the pelvis moves back and the torso lowers, but the legs remain straight. The bar should go beyond the line of the knee joints or, if stretching allows, reach the middle of the shins.
• Without stopping, you should start moving upward, straightening your body and bringing your pelvis forward. You need to push the barbell to the starting position with your feet, resting your heels on the floor, and not with the efforts of your arms or back.

When lowering the barbell, the bar should almost slide over your legs

Dumbbell rows are performed in a similar manner. Your chest and shoulders should be straight while performing the exercise. Only slight bending of the legs at the knees is permissible, otherwise it will no longer be a deadlift, but a deadlift - a similar exercise, which, however, has significant differences.

Tip: You can use a belt to perform this exercise to avoid unnecessary stress on your back and reduce the likelihood of injury.

Recommendations

1. To prepare your lower back for the Romanian deadlift, you can perform 10-15 reps of hyperextension. This will warm up your back and help fix the correct body position.
2. The muscles of the back of the thigh should tire much faster than the muscles of the back and arms. If this is not the case, then the technique of performing the exercise was violated.
3. After training, you should spend at least 10 minutes stretching your leg muscles. This will significantly accelerate the growth of the hamstrings and buttock muscles.
4. Shoes for Romanian deadlifts should have flat soles.
5. The number of approaches does not exceed three, the number of repetitions varies from 6 to 15. This is enough to load the muscles of the back of the thigh.

Common mistakes

What not to do?

1. Do not lower your head down - most often this contributes to the rounding of the back, but we do not need this. Look straight ahead. It is better to perform this exercise in front of a mirror, then you can, looking at your reflection, independently monitor your technique.
2. Don't bend your knees. If you are doing deadlifts rather than classic deadlifts or Romanian deadlifts, your legs should remain straight.
3. Don't try to lift too much weight. If you've done deadlifts before, don't expect to lift the same amount of weight with deadlifts. The deadlift is designed to handle heavy weights, but using the same weight to perform a deadlift puts you at risk of injury. If the lower back cannot cope with the weight of the barbell, other back muscles come to its aid, the back is rounded, and the spine receives excessive load.
4. Don't skip this exercise if you are a man. Deadlifts are a very effective exercise that are equally beneficial for both women and men.
5. Don't move the bar too far, let it slide along your legs, otherwise you will lose your balance and the bar will begin to pull you forward.
6. Start with a minimal weight or even perform the exercise with an empty bar until you perfect the technique.
7. Don't deadlift if you have lower back pain; let it recover first to avoid injury.
8. Don't jerk the barbell up, don't rush. Try to perform the exercise smoothly and slowly.
9. When working with “pancakes”, always put special locking locks on the bar so that the “pancakes” do not come off.
10. When performing the exercise, avoid sweating your hands; use magnesium or special gloves for this. It is also advisable to use a special belt.

Interesting Facts

Follow the correct technique, do not chase heavy working weights

The Romanian deadlift became known to the general public relatively recently. In 1990, an athlete from Romania, Niculae Vlad, was training in San Francisco.

When working the muscles of the back and legs, the athlete used a modified deadlift, in which the knees did not bend, and the bar was brought only to the upper third of the shin.

Although the exercise was not invented by Vlad Niculae himself and was not the development of his coaches, it became associated with Romanian weightlifters, which gave this type of deadlift its name.

The deadlift can be used to assess an athlete's strength - one way or another it involves all muscle groups. But in powerlifting competitions, the deadlift is used instead: it allows you to lift more weight, and is less likely to cause injury.

The leg muscles make up approximately half of the muscle mass. They need to pay a lot of attention during training. On the one hand, this will make the body proportional, on the other hand, it will contribute to the growth of the muscles of the upper body.

At the same time, many people forget about the back of the thighs and buttocks, focusing on the calves and quadriceps, but in fact, the hamstrings and gluteal muscles need to be given enough time.

No other exercise has such an effect on the development of these muscles as the deadlift.

Theory is no match for practice

Even in the case of a detailed, fairly deep and long-term study of the theory of performing the “deadlift”, it is impossible to master it without the help of a clear example. In the case of this basic powerlifting exercise, professional assistance is required. Only a trainer who has an impeccable command of the deadlift technique will be able to demonstrate to you how to do it correctly. Also, the powerlifting coach performs the function of monitoring the athlete’s actions. He will be able not only to point out the mistakes of an athlete performing a strength exercise, but also to correctly correct each movement to achieve an ideal result.

Theory remains just information. Only in practice can you realize your sports dream - mastering complex “power” deadlifts is absolutely safe for health, and in a fairly short time (in express mode). Attention! Training on your own can lead to injury and will also take up too much time. In addition to all this, self-training for athletes is a big risk. That is why professional help is the best way to harmoniously master the “deadlift” technique.

We include it in our training

Introducing a simple and effective lower body workout program that includes the Romanian deadlift. Before any workout, remember to thoroughly warm up your muscles. You can modify it according to your preferences:

Stretching

If you include deadlifts in your program, you should perform the following stretches after your workout.

Hamstring stretch

There are several options for stretching the hamstrings. Let's look at two of them: with an elastic band and using a barbell.

1. Sit on the floor, straighten your knees and reach for your toes with your back straight. It is convenient to perform this exercise with a rubber band, but you can do without it: just reach your toes with your hands without bending your knees.

Hamstring stretch with rubber band

2. Another good option is to stretch with your leg on an elevated platform, such as on a barbell. Place your foot on the bar, straighten both knees and your back. If there is not enough load, try to tilt your body straight towards your leg.

Hamstring stretch on the bar

Gluteal stretch

When you stretch your hamstrings, your gluteal muscles also stretch. But you can do additional exercises to enhance the effect.

Here are two options for stretching the gluteal muscles: lying down and sitting. Try to pull your shin as close to you as possible, keeping it parallel to the floor.

Gluteal stretch

That's all. If you have your own tips and comments about the deadlift technique, please share them in the comments.

Errors during execution

Due to the similarity with other deadlift variations, performing a deadlift is accompanied by a number of common mistakes:

Legs bend at the knees. This shouldn't happen. The movement is carried out exclusively by the body - try to stretch as much as possible so that your back does not round. The head tilts or falls. The gaze should always be directed only forward. Working with excessive weight is accompanied by rounding of the back. This can lead to spinal problems and back injuries. Insufficient warming up of muscles and ligaments before this exercise cost many athletes their health. Violation of execution technique. If your back and arms get tired faster than the backs of your legs, you're doing something wrong.

Main mistakes

• We are not doing a Romanian lift, so our legs are straight. Stretch to perform the exercise correctly and deeply. You can pre-train on a hyperextension machine. Try to make the deepest possible movements in it with a straight back. We find this to be a very effective preparation for stiff-legged deadlifts combined with stretching.
• Don't put your head down. Let's look ahead. It is advisable to stand in front of a mirror.
• When you take on a lot of weight, you begin to round your back. Because the weight is pulled not by the lower back, which lacks strength, but by the entire back. This is where all the injuries begin. It is enough to round your lower back and your entire back will follow suit.
• Shrugs should not be done together with deadlifts. Initially, fix your shoulders so that they are in a normal straightened position, and not raised up. We are pumping not the trapezius, but the lower back.

First of all, the bent leg deadlift is designed to increase mass and strength, and this is the base. The Romanian get-up (aka Romanian deadlift) and straight-legged deadlift are designed to work isolatedly on the buttocks and hamstrings, which is extremely important for girls. They don't put as much stress on the spine, but can lead to injury if you forget how to do the exercises correctly.

Before doing a classic deadlift, you need to work with simpler exercises to strengthen your back. And before them is a month of hyperextension and stretching.

So, when your stretching for some reason does not want to progress, you can stop at the Romanian deadlift. And if you can stretch enough, then do deadlifts with straight legs.

What to replace it with?

If it hurts to do deadlifts, then for the back of the thighs and lower back, try the following:

• Pulling your legs back with weights.
• Reverse hyperextension.
• Leg extension in the simulator.
• Leg press on the back of the thigh.
• Regular hyperextension.

Strengthen your lower back and leg muscles with these exercises, then try deadlifts. You can use an orthopedic belt if you have one. Or your doctor will prescribe it for you. A rigid athletic belt is not effective in this case.

Mistakes occur due to poor preparation, poor stretching and inattention when performing deadlifts. That is why the warm-up needs to be done as thoroughly as possible. During the exercise, you need to carefully listen to which muscles are tense in order to regulate the position of the body.

The most common mistakes:

• Bend your knees. On the one hand, you don’t need to straighten your knees all the way, but on the other hand, they need to be left in a straight position in order to perform deadlifts, and not variations on the Romanian theme. To straighten you need a good stretch. It is optimal to prepare for performing exercises on a hyperextension machine.
• Lowering the head. You have to look straight ahead. It is convenient to practice in front of a mirror, so mistakes will be obvious.
• Arching, rounding of the lower back. As soon as you let go of your lower back, your entire back begins to round. This may cause injury. The weight is lifted by the entire back, not just the lower back, so you need to pay attention to the position of the lower back.
• Incorrect shoulder position. Deadlifts cannot be combined with shrugs; the shoulders must be straightened from the starting position. Try to fix them at the beginning of the exercise and not move them, as this interferes with the pumping of the necessary muscles and can also cause injury.

Using large weights. This error is the most common. Most often it is allowed by beginners. The thing is that everyone wants to achieve results quickly. And the first thing that comes to mind is to lift the barbell harder. As a result, we get incorrect execution technique, overload of the back muscles and injury in the lumbar region.

Excessive range of motion. I have already said that the depth of lowering the apparatus depends on the level of stretching of the athlete. Therefore, everyone will have their own limit. But the longer you do this exercise, the greater the amplitude you will have.

Lifting the barbell using the lower back muscles. This error follows from the first one. The athlete takes on too much weight that he cannot handle with the strength of the muscles in the back of the thigh. And in order to lift the weight up, he has to connect his back muscles to the movement. What to do is strictly prohibited! Because you can injure your lower back.

Without control execution. That is, the athlete does not concentrate on stretching and contracting the target muscles. He just bends over and straightens up with the barbell. But if your goal is to pump up muscles, and not just to tick off the fact that you were in the gym. Then you need to change your approach. In bodybuilding, the main task is to feel the muscles that we are trying to influence.

Try not to make these mistakes, and then the straight-legged deadlift will become an indispensable exercise for you in developing the back of the thigh.