The Romanian Deadlift is a traditional barbell lift that establishes the strength of the posterior chain muscles, such as the gluteus maximus, adductors, erector spinae, and hamstrings. When performed correctly, it is an effective exercise that strengthens both the core and the lower body with one exercise.

1. Romanian Deadlift: How to,
Benefits, Tips, and Variations

3. What Is a Romanian Deadlift (RDL)?
• The Romanian Deadlift is a traditional barbell
lift that establishes the strength of the
posterior chain muscles, such as the gluteus
maximus, adductors, erector spinae, and
hamstrings. When performed correctly, it is an
effective exercise that strengthens both the
core and the lower body with one exercise.

4. Romanian Deadlift Muscles Worked
• Hamstrings.
• Erector Spinae (Lower Back).
• Middle and Upper Back.
• Glutes.
• Forearms.
• Trapezius.

5. How to Do Romanian Deadlift: Step-
by-Step Guide
• With a pronated (palm-down) grip hold the barbell tightly
with your hands apart approximately at your shoulder-
width. Keep a slight bend in your knees, while keeping your
feet apart at hip width, and let the bar rest along the front
of your thighs. You can also use dumbbells instead of a
barbell; all you have to do is to adjust the directions to
reflect the holding of one dumbbell in one hand.
• Raise your chest and pull your shoulder blades down
towards the back pockets to keep your spine extended
before pushing your tailbone to the posterior part to hinge
at your hips. Keep your chin tucked into your neck as if you
were holding an egg. This will enable the cervical spine to
maintain a safe position during the activity.

6. • Let the weight be lowered towards the ground
while retaining the length of the spine. Do not
round your back or extend your knees when
lowering the weight.
• Lower the weight until you feel the tension in the
back of your thighs—probably when the bar gets
around to the height of your knees or, if you have
more flexibility in your hamstrings, around the
mid-shin. Look towards the floor, as looking in a
mirror can generate strain on the cervical spine. If
necessary, move away from the mirror so that
you can focus on the exercise and get Romanian
deadlift form right without messing up.

7. • Push both heels to the ground, press your hips
forward and pull back on your knees while
retaining the long spine to return to the
standing position. Let the barbell return to the
front of your thighs. Pulling back on your
knees will trigger distal attachments of your
hamstring and adductor muscles, which, as a
result, will help to extend the knee when your
foot is in a closed-chain position.
• Keep your spine long, and the knees slightly
bent throughout the exercise to get the
Romanian deadlift technique right.

8. • For maximum performance, use a squat rack
to rest the barbell at thigh to waist height
when beginning, as opposed to attempting to
lift the weight up off the ground. Starting with
the weight at the correct height can help you
to start with a decent starting position.

9. Romanian Deadlift Benefits
• Enhanced Pulling Strength:
Enhanced pulling strength is one of the benefits
of this exercise. A lot of power and strength
athletes perform heavier RDLs instead of
traditional deadlifts to increase back, glute, and
hamstring strength while not restricting loading
to the lower back because of lower loading
potentials and increased glute and hamstring
isolation.

10. • Increased Athletic Performance:
• You can increase your athletic performance
with RDLs. It works the posterior chain, which
is significant for incremented power
application, overall leg strength, and running
performance.

11. • More Hamstring Mass:
RDL works the hamstrings that help to increase
the muscle mass (hypertrophy). Enhanced
hamstring hypertrophy can result in increased
muscle size, sports performance, power
application, and strength.

12. Romanian Deadlift Variations
• Kettlebell Romanian Deadlift:
• Kettlebell RDL is an amazing deadlift variation
for beginners. Plus, it is super easy for people
who do not have a lot of gym equipment.
Here’s how you can do this exercise:
• Stand with your feet apart at hip-width, and
your knees slightly bent. Grasp your kettlebell
by its handle with both hands in the front of
your thighs.

13. • Hinge at your hips, hunching slightly to your
knees. Push your hips back and keep your
back completely flat.
• Your torso is supposed to be almost parallel to
the ground. Touch the bottom of the kettlebell
to the ground.
• Keep your core taut, push your heels to stand
upright. Hold your kettlebell close to the body
as you pull it

14. • Take a break at the top and squeeze your hips.
This will be 1 rep.

15. • Single Leg Romanian Deadlift:
While you lift lighter loads in a single-leg deadlift
as compared to a traditional one, a single leg
deadlift challenges your muscles in totally
different ways. For one, the core and hip
muscles have to really fire themselves to keep
the body stable and maintain balance on a
single leg. When performing single-leg RDLs,
using two dumbbells can be easier for your
balance instead of using one or simply use the .
Here’s how to nail it like a pro.

16. • Stand with your feet together, and hold a
dumbbell/barbell in each hand in front of your
legs. This will be your starting position.
• Move your weight to your right leg, and whilst
maintaining a slight curve in your right knee, lift
your left leg straight behind your body, and bend
your hips to keep your torso parallel to the
ground, and lower the weight to the ground.
• Keep your back completely flat. When you get to
the bottom of the exercise, make sure that your
torso and left leg are almost parallel to the
ground, with the weight a few inches above the
ground.

17. Tips for Perfecting a Romanian
Deadlift
• Signalling yourself to 'feel the floor' with your
feet:
You want to make sure that your body weight is
distributed on your heels, so that you can feel
balanced while your hips push behind you.
• Squeezing your glutes hard when going up:
At the bottom of the range, your hips are going to
be quite far behind you, and you will have to
engage your glutes to elevate your hips back to the
position where you started.

18. Romanian Deadlift Alternatives
• You may find it difficult to incorporate such an
awesome exercise into your training program
sometimes. This can be because of a lack of
control, flexibility limitations, or poor hinging
mechanics. But you can do some alternative
exercises to elicit the same benefits. We have
compiled a list of all the important
alternatives that you can try:

19. • Good Mornings.
• Barbell Hip Thrust.
• Weighted 45-Degree Back Extension.
• Floor-Lying Glute Ham Raise.
• Walking Lunge.
• Seated Hamstring Curls.
• Back Extensions/Glute Hamstring Developers.
• Standing Cable Pull Through.

20. • Keep your core taut, push through your right
heel to stand upright and pull the weight to
your starting position. Bring your left leg back
down to meet your right leg, but try to keep
most of the weight in your right foot when
doing so.
• Stop there and squeeze your hips. This will be
1 rep.