Romanian DL Help

I supersetted RDL’s with back squats today. When I did the RDL’s, I felt NOTHING in my hamstrings, but had A LOT of lactic acid buildup in my lower back. The burning sensation was most likely exacerbated by supersetting the RDL’s with squats, but nevertheless, is this normal to experience the vast majority of muscle stimulation in the lower back when doing RDL’s? I am sure I have correct for with the RDL’s, but what could I be doing wrong? Anyone else ever experience this?

Thanks.

I’ve never supersetted with RDL’s but I when doing them I try to imagine myself pulling with my hamstrings rather then my lower back.

I do bodypart split training and trained quads and hams together when I first started lifting. I’d always hit quads first with 110% intensity so my hamstring workouts always lagged and I was always fatigued by the time I even got to them.

Now I train quads by themselves in my A.M workout and the difference is night and day. The only other muscles I’d train with quads are small upperbody like biceps or triceps. The reason you feel it in your back is because it already took a pounding from squats and is much more fatigued than you hamstrings so it gives out first. I’d recommending putting 3-4 days in between your quad and ham workouts. When you do train hamstrings by themselves you’ll be sore for several days after.

Your form could be off. Try initiating the movement by trying to put your butt back as far as possible rather than trying to move the bar downwards and don’t let the bar get too far away from your body. A good drill to get your form down is to stand a few inches away from a wall with just the bar and try to push your ass back to the wall while digging your heels into the ground and keeping your chest up. Do a few reps like this and keep moving your feet away until the bar is a little bit below your knees when your ass is against the wall.

Sometimes it helps to drop the weight down and go higher reps until you get your form down. I know this is the case with me for good mornings. My form is getting better but it still breaks down when I go real heavy with them so I let RDL’s (which my form is much better on) be my heavy supplemental lift.

Thanks for the help fellas.

I definitely don’t like supersetting squats with RDL’s, but I am doing Thibadeau’s Superhero program which prescribes this pairing. I will try to improve my form with the wall drill, though.

Also, what is better to use, dumbbells or barbells? I first started with a barbell, but it didn’t feel right, so I switched over to dumbells and felt a little better.

Dan John’s ebook has an excellent write up on RDL technique. You are defintely doing them wrong. Just about everyone does them wrong to start. It’s on pages 28 to 31.
Tim