Exercise Technique Tips: The Romanian Dead-Lift

Here are some simple tips to perform this quite technical exercise that helps strengthen the back of your legs, the muscles of your bum and the lower back.

This is a great exercise if you also want to tone up the back of the legs, a weak area for blokes and troublesome area for a lot of females because of cellulite.

Here is HD Group client Jon performing the exercise for the first time. His flexibility will get better as he improves. Jon has also lost 6kg's so far and is doing great in his training.

Tips:

1. Notice how straight his back is. No rounding at all. Do not increase your range of motion unless you can keep your back straight. Your flexibility will increase as you practice the exercise.
   
2. Try not to lift the bar with your arms. Your hips are doing the lifting so keep you arms straight. Keep a slight bend in your knees throughout the exercise and push your bum backwards to stretch out the hamstrings and work the bum muscles.
   
3. Your hamstrings bring your foot to your bum but the also help to straighten up through the hips therefore it is good to do leg curls and exercises like this.
   
4. If you are a female looking to tone up the back of your legs and butt - this is a great exercise for you.
   
5. If you want to dead-lift eventually, this is a great pre deadlift exercise to learn how to lift with your hips and make your lower back strong.
   
6. Notice how he has lifted his chest and kept his shoulders down at the top. Most people will shrug their shoulders at the top because they are trying to lift the bar with their arms. Keep your shoulders down and chest up.
   
7. Lastly - you should feel a stretch on the back of your legs when you do this exercise. If not - then you are bending your legs too much and this is not the training effect you are after.