Have you ever wondered why they call it the Romanian deadlift? It looks similar to the straight-leg deadlift but with a better name. Well, here’s why. It’s called the Romanian deadlift, or RDL for short, because it’s named after the Romanian weightlifter Nicu Vlad, an Olympic medalist in the ’80s and ’90s.
Vlad performed this deadlift variation as an accessory exercise to improve his Olympic lifting performance, which obviously worked. The beauty of the RDL is that it provides constant tension because the barbell never leaves your hands or touches the ground.
What does that mean for you?
Juicy hamstring, glute, and grip strength gains, but only if you avoid these four common mistakes. Here we’ll remind you of good RDL form and four common Romanian deadlift mistakes to avoid.
How to Do The Romanian Deadlift
Set up the barbell in the squat at around hip height.
Grip the barbell with an overhand grip, walk back three steps, and stand tall with your feet hip-distance apart.
With your shoulders down, chest up, and core and glutes engaged, take a deep breath and hinge until the barbell is around the mid-shin level.
Depth depends on your hip mobility and maintaining a neutral spine. Ensure you keep the barbell close to your body.
Pause, breathe out, and use your hamstrings and glutes to pull you back to the starting position.
What’s Needed For Good Romanian Deadlift Form
There are various grips, foot positions, and RDL variations with slight form variations, but we are not worried about that. The following is the 10,000 ft. view of what’s needed for good RDL form.
If you lack the ability or understanding between hinging at the hips or rounding the lower back, you have no business with any deadlift variation.
An engaged upper back and anterior core are needed to keep a neutral spine.
As the barbell locks you into a specific range of motion, don’t be a hero if joint pain is present. There are other variations, like the dumbbell or band RDL variations, that are easier on the joints.
Keeping the barbell close to the legs at all times.
4 Common Romanian Deadlift Form Mistakes
Have you got it? Good, because here are four mistakes stopping you from soaking in all those juicy glute and hamstring gains.
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Don’t Let It Get Away From You
Genetic outliers can break all the form rules in the book, get significant gains, and remain injury-free. You’re probably not one of those, so keeping the barbell close to your legs is imperative to your lower back and is the shortest point from A to B. Bottom line is don’t let the barbell get away from you.
Fix it: Keeping your shoulders down, chest up, and consciously squeezing your armpits the entire set should stop this from happening.
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Control Is The Name Of The Game
The regular barbell deadlift from the floor is predominately a concentric movement with little or no eccentric contraction. But the RDL is all about eccentric contraction, so controlling the descent of the barbell is essential for good form. What’s your hurry anyway?
Fix it: If you’re unable to keep the barbell close and control the eccentric portion, lighten the weight, focus on tension, and not load. Lowering to a count of three will help slow your roll.
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Don’t Finish With Your Lower Back
Some lifters lean, extend the lower back at lockout, and do not finish with the glutes. There are a few reasons for this. Some don’t know the difference between hip extension and lower back hyperextension, and two; it can happen when a lifter is tired at the end of their set.
Fix it: Flexing your quads at lockout will encourage you to squeeze your glutes and lockout and not your lower back. Doing a few reps side on to the mirror or your lifting partner observing you to see if this is happening will help too.
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Keep It Tight, Or Else
When there is rounding of the lower or upper back, the main culprit is a lack of tension in the upper back and lats—this lack of tension results in the bar drifting away from the body, which is a no-no.
Fix it: If you have trouble feeling your upper back and the bar drifting away, feed the dysfunction with the horizontal band-resisted Romanian deadlifts. With this excellent variation, you’ll have no issues feeling your upper back or the barbell drifting away from you.
