Deficit Romanian Deadlift
Trains the Hamstrings.
- Equipment
- A barbell and either a box or a weight plate
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Pull
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Stand on a low platform or a stack of plates, one to three inches high.
- Hold a barbell in front of your thighs with an overhand grip about shoulder-width apart.
- Set your back flat, your chest up and your knees slightly bent.
- Push your hips back and lower the bar down the front of your legs, keeping it in contact or close.
- Go down until you feel the hamstrings reach their end of range with the back still flat — the platform is what makes that further than usual.
- Drive the hips forward to stand back up, finishing tall rather than leaning back.
Common mistakes
- Standing on a platform high enough that the back rounds. The deficit exists to add range the hamstrings can use; the moment the spine has to round to reach it, the extra height is being paid for by the wrong tissue.
- Bending the knees more to get lower. The knee angle is set at the start and held — bending it turns the exercise into a deadlift and hands the range back to the quadriceps.
- Keeping the same weight as a standing Romanian deadlift. A longer range at the hardest part of the movement means less load, and the bar has further to travel before it reaches the floor if something goes wrong.
- Leaning back at the top. Standing tall is the finish; leaning past upright loads the lower back at the one point in the movement where the hamstrings have nothing left to do.