Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift
Trains the Hamstrings.
- Equipment
- Dumbbells
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Pull
- Level
- Beginner
How to do it
- Stand tall holding a dumbbell in each hand in front of your thighs, palms facing you, feet hip-width apart.
- Unlock the knees into a soft bend, and keep that same bend for the whole set.
- Push your hips back and let the dumbbells slide down the front of your thighs, keeping your back flat.
- Keep the dumbbells close enough to brush your legs on the way down and on the way up.
- Lower until you feel a strong stretch through the backs of the thighs, usually around the knees or just below them.
- Drive your hips forward to stand tall, squeezing your glutes at the top without leaning back.
Common mistakes
- Bending the knees further as you go down. The extra bend turns the hinge into a squat-shaped deadlift and takes the stretch off the hamstrings; set the bend at the start and keep it.
- Letting the dumbbells hang away from the legs. Every inch they drift forward is load the lower back has to hold instead of the hips moving it.
- Reaching for the floor. The bottom is where the hamstrings stop the hips folding, and going lower than that means the back is rounding to get there.
- Locking the knees straight. A dead-straight knee makes it the stiff-legged deadlift, a different exercise with a shorter and harder range; the soft bend is what makes this one Romanian.