Stiff-Legged Deadlift
Trains the Hamstrings.
- Equipment
- Barbell
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Pull
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Set a barbell on the floor or on low blocks and stand with your feet hip-width apart, bar over the middle of your feet.
- Hinge at the hips and take an overhand grip just outside your legs, keeping the knees almost straight.
- Set your back flat and pull your shoulder blades down, squeezing the lats to keep the bar close.
- Take a breath, brace, and stand up by driving your hips forward, keeping the legs nearly straight.
- Finish standing tall without leaning back.
- Lower by pushing your hips back and letting the bar travel down your legs, keeping the knees almost locked, until it reaches the floor or your hamstrings stop the movement.
Common mistakes
- Confusing it with a Romanian deadlift. A Romanian deadlift starts at the top and stops at the stretch; a stiff-legged deadlift starts and finishes on the floor with straighter knees. They overlap, and the difference is where each begins and ends.
- Rounding the back to reach the floor. If the bar cannot reach the floor with a flat back, use blocks — the flat back is not negotiable and the range is.
- Loading it like a conventional deadlift. Straightening the legs removes the quadriceps and shortens what the hamstrings will allow.
- Bouncing the bar off the floor between repetitions.