Regardless of your fitness goals, targeting your lower body in your workouts is incredibly important. As the largest muscles in your body, the muscles that cover your butt and legs are responsible for everything from keeping your metabolism high to maintaining your mobility as you age. There are tons of workouts and exercises that strengthen the lower body, but one of the best is Romanian deadlifts, or RDLs. Here is everything you need to know about this fantastic exercise.
Muscles Worked in Romanian Deadlifts
Romanian deadlifts are such a powerful exercise because they are working almost the entire posterior chain, or the muscles that cover the back of the body, in one single movement. Here’s how.
Calves
The lower you get in an RDL, the more you engage the calves, the muscles on the back of the lower leg. Since you barely bend your knees during an RDL, the calves are engaged to help keep your knees steady and heels pressed into the floor.
Hamstrings
The hamstrings, the muscles on the back of the thigh, are one of the two primary movers in an RDL. The first half of the exercise stretches the hamstrings, while the second half squeezes them to pull the body back up.
Glutes
The butt muscles are the second big mover in an RDL. Along with the hamstrings, they are responsible for pulling your body back to an upright position.
Lower Back
Your back remains straight and steady throughout the entirety of an RDL, which means the erector spinae and transverse abdominis are engaged to keep it from rounding or arching.
Bonus: Hands
RDLs are typically completed while holding either a barbell or dumbbells. At the bottom of the exercise, all that weight is hanging in your hands, providing an opportunity to improve your grip strength.
How to Do Romanian Deadlifts
This exercise can feel a little awkward at first, especially if you’re used to traditional deadlifts and/or you have tighter hamstrings. We recommend perfecting the movement first before you start using weights—doing RDLs with just your bodyweight is an excellent way to warm up the glutes and hamstrings before a lower body workout. Follow these steps to complete a perfect Romanian deadlift.
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Set Your Stance. Begin with your feet hip-width apart and your back tall. Your knees should be bent ever-so-slightly. Then extend your arms long in front of your thighs with your palms facing toward you. Form Tip: To make sure you’re not bending your knees too much, lock out your knees then let them naturally bend again. That’s how much of a bend you should have.
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Lower Down. Send your butt back and hinge at the hips, keeping your back flat, to lower your torso without moving your legs. Your knees should stay stacked over your heels and the weight or weights should stay as close to your legs as possible. Lower until your hands slide below your knees or until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings. Form Tip: Imagine that you are shutting a door with your butt as you hinge. Instead of thinking about moving the weights toward the ground, keep your arms loose and let the weights pull your hands down.
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Squeeze Back Up. To return to your starting position, squeeze your glutes and hamstrings and press your hips forward, letting your torso rise back up as a result. Form Tip: Do not think of this as lifting your upper body up. Think of it as a squeeze and press of the butt and hips, after which your upper body just naturally lifts.
How Much Weight Should You Use?
Once you have your form down, it’s time to add weight. There are two primary factors to consider when choosing your weight:
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Can you hold it in your hands? As we mentioned earlier, RDLs seriously train your grip strength, especially at the bottom of the movement. The last thing you want to do is drop your weights on your toes, so make sure that you can comfortably hold them in your hands before you begin the exercise.
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Are you rounding your back? In order to properly engage your posterior chain, your back needs to stay straight and steady throughout the movement. If you’re using too much weight it can force you to round your back, leading to improper engagement through the lower back and glutes that will keep you from getting the most out of the exercise.
Keeping these two questions in mind, we recommend starting with a medium weight, whatever that means for you. Then you can build from there.
3 Other Deadlift Variations to Try
Romanian deadlifts are a fantastic lower body exercise, but once you have them down you can consider incorporating other deadlift variations into your workouts. Here are three others to try.
Single-Leg RDLs
This trickier, more targeted variation of an RDL also challenges your balance, engaging the muscles of your core to keep you from toppling over.
How to do it: Set up the same way you would a regular RDL. You can hold two weights or just one, holding it in either hand (each hand will engage your core slightly differently). Shift all your weight to one foot and place the other foot behind you in a kickstand with your toes gently resting on the floor. As you lower down, you can keep the back foot down for balance or let it float up off the floor. You aren’t lifting your back leg; instead, think of your body like a lever, maintaining a straight line from your head to your back heel and letting your leg float up as you tip forward, then lower back down as you squeeze back up.
Traditional Deadlifts
Traditional deadlifts are typically completed with more weight than RDLs, so if you’re primarily working out at home this exercise may not be part of your regular repertoire. Even so, traditional deadlifts are an excellent way to strengthen your lower body.
How to do it: Set a heavy barbell on the ground and walk your shins up to nearly touch it, with your feet shoulder-width apart. Bend your knees and send your butt back until you are grasping the bar outside your knees, keeping your chest lifted, back flat, and shoulders over the bar. With a rigid, flat back, press your feet into the floor and your hips forward to come to standing, then lower back down.
Sumo Deadlifts
This final variation engages all the muscles of the thighs, including the quads and inner and outer thighs, a bit more than a traditional deadlift or an RDL.
How to do it: Set a heavy barbell on the ground. Separate your legs wider than your shoulders and walk your shins up to it. Bend your knees and send your butt back until you are grasping the bar between your legs, keeping your chest lifted, back flat, and shoulders over the bar. With a rigid, flat back, press your feet into the floor and your hips forward to come to standing, then lower back down.
Let’s Get Stronger!
Incorporating RDLs into your exercise regimen is going to shape, tone and strengthen your lower body. But as important as a strong lower body is, your workout routine must be well-rounded. One easy way to do this is with the amp fitness device, which offers hundreds of personalized workouts to tone and strengthen your entire body.