RDL Form Check

How does my RDL form look? From what I’ve read the key is softening but not over-bending the knees, pushing the hips back, keep the bar close and finish with the glutes.

How does it feel when you do it? Its assistance work, how it looks isn’t terribly important compared to if it is working or not.

Definitely feel it in the hamstrings and lower glutes. Yeah, I guess it’s more important to have that mind-muscle connection than to make sure it “looks” correct.

Im no expert, but if I was you I would try to keep the bar closer to your body as you lift up and down, so the bar is touching you at all times.

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Right on, thanks for the input!

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
How does it feel when you do it? Its assistance work, how it looks isn’t terribly important compared to if it is working or not.[/quote]

Agreed.

that’s more of a stiff leg than a rdl

It should feel like your torso is completely rigid as you’re hinging about your hips. Your chest, lats, erectors and abs should be tight to provide the most carryover to the main lifts.

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
How does it feel when you do it? Its assistance work, how it looks isn’t terribly important compared to if it is working or not.[/quote]

This is a Golden Rule of Training right here. Wish someone had smacked me on the head and told me this when I was young…

RDL is a “made-up” exercise anyway -a long time ago, some dude (presumably Romanian) decided he wanted to do the deadlift exercise, but w/o the touching the floor part. As a warm up for OLs or something I think, not sure of the exact story so don’t sue me if I’m wrong.

I will third what Th3Pwnisher and punnyguy said about “feel”.

I’ve done my RDL’s a bit differently over my training career. I’ve done them with heavy weight before, as heavy as I could manage. That was before I understood the concept of assistance work.

Lately I have been using low-ish weight and really going for the hamstring stretch and then exploding up with a hip thrust. I really feel it in my hamstrings and glutes, unlike when I was grinding out heavy reps. I wasn’t sure where I was feeling it then, I was just doing what I thought was an RDL with as much weight as I could manage.

My form may or may not be good. I’ve never sought an opinion on my RDLs, nor have I taken video of myself doing them. I can say, with absolute certainty, that the risk of injuring myself doing one with the weight I’m handling now is as close to zero as any lift I do.

RDL is a great assistance lift!

Thanks for the responses. Better to focus on feeling the correct muscles working than trying to add weight to the bar each week on a lift that is purely assistance.