Stop F*cking Up RDL’s (PROPER FORM!)

Do you know how to do an RDL? If not, you’re in luck. In this video, I am going to show you exactly how to perform RDL’s so that you can perform the exercise every time without making a single mistake. Remember, it’s not just what exercise you do, but how you do them that matters the most and I want

The Romanian Deadlift, or RDL, one of the best  Lotus stretch exercises that you can do for your hamstrings, glutes, and posterior chain. That is, if you’re not fucking it up. And there’s plenty of places to screw this  exercise up. But it’s my job to help you make sure that you don t, and it starts right  here with the grip. How wide do you want to be?

Because if you’re too wide, you’re going to  lose the ability to contract your lats, which is key for helping that bar stay in the right place  as you’ll see in a moment. If we go too narrow, your hands are simply going to get in the way of,  well, other things. And let’s just say it’s going to mess up the mechanics of the lift. So, what you  want to be is just outside of shoulder width here, so you got that good lat engagement like  you would on a Straight Arm Pushdown. At this point we’re going to get in position  and deadlift the bar up to the top.

But here you’re never going to think about lifting  ever again. Because this exercise is not about going up and down with a barbell, this exercise  is about going forward and backward with your pelvis. But before we even move a muscle, there’s  three things you have to think about your feet, your chest, and your glutes. With your feet,  you want to think about gripping the ground with your toes to ensure that you’re getting the full  contact of your foot on the ground, because as you perform the exercise, you might feel as if you’re  falling backwards, so gripping the ground with those toes is key to maintaining your balance. Next, we have to set the proper position of the spine, and we can do that from two different  angles.

The first is with your chest, and don’t just think about pulling your  shoulders back to broaden it but think about lifting your collarbones up so that you  actually get a correction of the thoracic spine, prevent that over flexion. The second thing is  your glutes. If you squeeze them in this position here, you’re not only getting it to position,  you’re going to be in at the end of every rep, but you’re actually neutralizing the spine from  below. But make sure you don’t just do one and not the other, they need to be done together. If you just fixed the hips and not the chest, you’re going to put yourself in a posterior tilt  and ruin yourself from below.

If you just fix the chest and not the pelvis, the bar will drift a  little bit in front of your body and actually set you up to do the exercise incorrectly. You have to  do both together in order to get this right. But now you’re ready to rock and roll unless  you don’t know how to hinge. Let me explain. Remember I said the exercise was not about  lifting the barbell straight up and down, but rather moving your pelvis back and forth.

That’s only achieved through a proper hinge. For those that have a hard time understanding what  this is, take your hands and put them along this inguinal crease right here. And what your job is,  is just try to hide your pinkies. In other words, bend backwards until they get folded in between  your lower abdomen and your upper thigh. And if you feel that contact from both sides, you  know you’re hinging properly at the hips.

The other way you can do this if you don’t know  how to feel it, is to get in front of a drawer and try to close it with your butt. Now, as you  hinge, there’s two things you want to focus on, one the position of your pelvis, and two the bar  path. Regarding your pelvis, you want to fight for anterior tilt as you lower the bar down. And what  that is is a tilting or almost a pouring of the pitcher of water. If you imagine your pelvis as a  pitcher of water, you want to pour it out in front of you.

And the reason why we want to do that is  twofold. Number one, as we lower down, fighting for that position is going to prevent that flexion  of the lumbar spine. So, keeping your spine in a safer position. That said, it also importantly  will maximize the stretch on the hamstrings on the exercise. Remember this is a stretch tension  hypertrophy-based exercise for the glutes and hamstrings.

If you allow it to start drifting  here into posterior tilt, you’re going to take away a predominant amount of that stretch that’s  being applied to them in the first place. Now, as far as the bar path, you want it to be  moving straight up and straight down. And the only way for this to happen is for you to let  the bar ride your thighs on the way down and have it ride your thighs on the way back up. You see, allowing it to drift out in front of you causes a completely different bar path that  doesn’t just straighten the line, but it’s likely going to unstraighten your posture when your low  back blows out from doing it incorrectly. Now, how far down do you go?

Well, that’s  determined by your degree of hamstring flexibility. Remember only determined by that  ability to maintain that slight anterior pelvic tilt at the bottom. Because even if I do this  correctly and I get to this position here, but to go a little bit lower, I allow that spine of mine,  the lumbar spine, to bend underneath. Well, that’s the second biggest mistake, because at any point  if you allow that to happen, you’re compromising the safety of the exercise and again losing the  stretch in the process. So go it’s far back as your butt will go once it can’t go anymore without  compromising that pelvic position.

You’ve gone far enough. So now you’re almost there. How do you get  it from the bottom back up to the top? Remember, you’re not lifting this bar up, no pulling. You’re  pushing the bar back up to the top with your hips.

When you do this, and only when you do this  will your glutes and hamstrings be the driver of the exercise rather than your low back. Jesse: Jeff, I couldn’t help but notice that if you want me to stop fucking up  the RDL, I should fuck the bar up during the RDL. Jeff: Can’t you see him in the middle of a video? Jesse: Guys, feel free to use that as a cue if you want. It really helped me out.

Jeff: And now some will. Jeff, what do I do if I want to use dumbbells on the exercise, because it  is a great alternative. You got to make sure that you place them in the right place. If you hold  them out in front of your body, the tendency will be to allow yourself to drift a little bit too  far. Again, putting that strain on the low back.

If you hold them directly at your sides, you’re  going to find that it’s awkward to maintain their position as you go up and down through the  lip. The best position is to angle them at about 45 degrees and simply place your hands  in contact with your thighs like this. You’ll find it gives you the most normal motion up and  down and simulates the bar most accurately. If you want to know how to do a great anterior  chain exercise, the Bulgarian Split Squat properly, you’re going to want to watch this how  to video here. And also if you want to know how to do Face Pulls you got to know how to do Face  Pulls, you re gonna want to watch this video here.

I hope you found the video helpful guys. Remember  to subscribe and turn on your Notifications so you never miss a video when we put one  out. All right guys, see you soon.