Barbell Romanian Deadlift

Execution

1. Pull your shoulder blades down and squeeze your lats as if pinning the bar to your thighs.
2. Put a soft bend in the knees and hold exactly that bend for the whole set.
3. Inhale, brace your belly, then push your hips back so the bar slides down along your thighs.
4. Lower until the bar passes your knees and you feel a clear stretch behind the thighs, with the back still flat.
5. Exhale and drive the hips forward to stand tall, squeezing the glutes for one beat at the top.
6. At the end of the set put the bar back in the rack, or bend the hips and knees together to set it on the floor.
7. The rep where the back rounds ends the set; do not grind out the number you planned.

Quick cues

• Pin the bar with your lats.
• Soft knees, hips back.
• Keep your back flat, stop higher.
• Stand tall, squeeze your glutes.
• Imagine wrapping the bar around your legs.

Common faults

• Fault: Letting the bar swing out away from the body

  Fix: Engage the lats to hold the bar against your legs, and lower the load until the bar path stays straight.

• Fault: Trying to touch the floor with the bar on every rep

  Fix: Stop at the deepest point of the hamstring stretch, usually mid-shin, instead of using the floor as the target.

• Fault: Dipping the knees so it becomes a floor deadlift

  Fix: Lock the knee angle, run a dowel down your back as a check, and move only at the hips.

• Fault: Leaning back at the top to prove the rep is finished

  Fix: Stop at standing and squeeze the glutes, because the extra lean only loads the discs.