What muscles does the Romanian deadlift work?

The hamstrings do the work. The glutes assist at the top of the hinge, and the lower back holds your position without shortening. Measured directly, the hamstrings show more activity than the lower back on this lift, which is the point of choosing it.

How low should you go on a Romanian deadlift?

To the point your back stops being flat, and no lower. For most people that lands somewhere between the knee and mid-shin. The bar does not need to touch the floor and it does not need to reach any particular height. Depth past your hamstring length comes from your spine.

Should your legs be straight on an RDL?

No, a soft bend, and the same bend the whole way down. Locked-out knees make it a stiff-leg deadlift. Knees that keep bending as the bar drops make it a squat and take the hamstrings out of it.

Why do I feel Romanian deadlifts in my lower back?

Usually because you are going lower than your hamstrings allow, so the last part of the range is coming from the spine folding. Stop where the flat back stops. If something hurts and keeps hurting, that is a question for a physiotherapist.

Is the Romanian deadlift the same as a stiff-leg deadlift?

No. The stiff-leg version starts with near-straight knees and returns the bar to the floor. The Romanian version holds a soft knee bend and stops at shin height. The names get swapped constantly, so check the knees rather than the label.

Back to the library

Barbell · intermediate · upper legs

Barbell romanian deadlift

Also called RDL, Romanian deadlift, Barbell RDL.

The short answer

The Romanian deadlift starts standing, not on the floor. You keep a soft bend in the knees, push your hips backward and let the bar travel down your legs until your hamstrings run out of length, then drive the hips forward to stand. Your hamstrings are what stop the bar going down and what bring you back up. This is the one hinge where a study has reported the hamstrings out-working the lower back, which is not what most people assume, though it is a single result inside a review whose overall reading of the deadlift family runs the other way.

How to do it

Step oneStand with feet hip-width apart holding a barbell in front of your thighs with an overhand grip.
Step twoKeep a soft bend in your knees and your back flat throughout the movement.
Step threeHinge at the hips and push them back as you lower the bar along your legs.
Step fourContinue lowering until you feel a deep stretch in your hamstrings.
Step fiveDrive your hips forward to return to the upright position.

What usually goes wrong

Each starts with what you would notice.

Your back rounds near the bottom, or you feel it in your lower back rather than the back of your legs.

WhyYou are reaching for a depth your hamstrings cannot give you, so the last few inches come from the spine folding instead of the hips hinging.

FixStop the descent at the point your back stops being flat, wherever that is on your leg. There is no height the bar has to reach. On this lift the bottom is set by your hamstrings, not by the floor.

It feels like a squat and the back of your legs never gets a stretch.

WhyThe knees are bending as the bar comes down. Once the knee bends, the hamstring shortens at one end as fast as it lengthens at the other, so it never gets loaded.

FixSet a soft knee bend at the start and hold that exact angle the whole way down. The knees should look the same at the bottom as they did at the top. Only the hips move.

Your legs straighten first on the way up and then your hips catch up.

WhyThe knees are extending before the hips do, so the hinge finishes as two separate movements instead of one.

FixThink about pushing the hips forward into the bar rather than standing up. The knee angle you set at the start is still the angle you finish with.

You lean back and squeeze at the top of every rep.

WhyTreating the top as somewhere to keep going rather than somewhere to stand.

FixThe rep ends standing tall. Anything past upright is extra range taken by the lower back at the one moment the hamstrings have nothing left to do.

The bar scrapes down your thighs and your grip gives out before your legs do.

WhyThe bar is being pulled hard into the legs rather than kept close to them.

FixKeep it in light contact and let your hips move away from it. The bar drifting forward is the fault worth fixing; pinning it to your skin is the overcorrection.

Romanian deadlift or conventional deadlift

A conventional deadlift starts on the floor with the knees bent and stands the whole load up. A Romanian deadlift starts at the top with the knees nearly fixed and lowers under control. One is a pull, the other is a loaded lengthening.

That changes which muscle you are asking for. Across the EMG literature the Romanian deadlift shows less lower back involvement relative to the hamstrings than the conventional pull does. It is the more direct hamstring exercise, and you will use noticeably less weight on it.

What it is not is the better glute exercise. When the two were compared head to head, the conventional deadlift produced more glute activity, not less. If glutes are what you want, that is an argument for the conventional pull or a hip thrust rather than for lowering the bar more slowly.

Romanian or stiff-leg deadlift

They get used as the same name and they are not the same lift. A stiff-leg deadlift starts with the knees close to straight and takes the bar all the way back to the floor each rep. A Romanian deadlift keeps a soft knee bend and stops somewhere around shin height.

The practical difference is where the rep ends. The stiff-leg version uses a longer range and asks more of your hamstring length to get there. The Romanian version stops where your position stops.

If you are not sure which you are doing, look at your knees at the bottom. Soft bend, bar at the shins, back flat: that is a Romanian deadlift.

The safe deadlift, held horizontal under load

The RDL gets sold as the safe deadlift, the posture fixer, and the movement that keeps your hamstrings from tearing. None of that is established, and the first one is worth pushing back on hardest. A lift with your spine held horizontal under load is not inherently gentler than one that starts on the floor; it is a different demand, held for longer.

What it does do is load a hamstring through length, which is hard to arrange with anything else you can put a barbell on. That is a real and specific job and it is enough.

It is also not a competition lift and there is no number you are supposed to hit on it. It is an accessory to the pull, not a smaller version of it.

What it is for

The barbell Romanian deadlift is a hip hinge exercise targeting the hamstrings and glutes. By maintaining a soft knee bend and hinging at the hips, it stretches and loads the posterior chain through a long range of motion.

Questions people ask

What muscles does the Romanian deadlift work?: The hamstrings do the work. The glutes assist at the top of the hinge, and the lower back holds your position without shortening. Measured directly, the hamstrings show more activity than the lower back on this lift, which is the point of choosing it.
How low should you go on a Romanian deadlift?: To the point your back stops being flat, and no lower. For most people that lands somewhere between the knee and mid-shin. The bar does not need to touch the floor and it does not need to reach any particular height. Depth past your hamstring length comes from your spine.
Should your legs be straight on an RDL?: No, a soft bend, and the same bend the whole way down. Locked-out knees make it a stiff-leg deadlift. Knees that keep bending as the bar drops make it a squat and take the hamstrings out of it.
Romanian deadlift or conventional deadlift?: They answer different questions. The conventional pull moves more weight and works more of you at once. The Romanian deadlift is the more direct hamstring exercise and is easier to add to a session without wrecking the rest of it.
Why do I feel Romanian deadlifts in my lower back?: Usually because you are going lower than your hamstrings allow, so the last part of the range is coming from the spine folding. Stop where the flat back stops. If something hurts and keeps hurting, that is a question for a physiotherapist.
Is the Romanian deadlift the same as a stiff-leg deadlift?: No. The stiff-leg version starts with near-straight knees and returns the bar to the floor. The Romanian version holds a soft knee bend and stops at shin height. The names get swapped constantly, so check the knees rather than the label.