Exercise library / Back
Romanian deadlift (barbell)
Back · Barbell
The Romanian deadlift starts where the conventional deadlift ends. You take the bar from a rack or from the top of a deadlift, and go down only until the hamstrings say stop.
Because you skip the hardest part off the floor, it costs less in recovery than a deadlift. That makes it the lift you can run twice a week without the rest of the programme suffering.
Sets, reps and RIR
A heavy multi-joint lift with free weights. Keep a rep or two in reserve on most sets so technique holds.
RIR means reps in reserve: how many you could still have done when you racked it. RIR 2 is two short of failure.
How to do it
- Stand with feet hip width and hold the bar at shoulder width against your thighs.
- Put a soft bend in the knees and keep that angle for the whole set. This is not a squat.
- Send the hips back and let the bar scrape down your thighs.
- Descend until you feel a stretch in the back of the thigh, usually somewhere between the knee and mid-shin.
- Stop the moment your back wants to round. That point is yours, not the floor's.
- Drive the hips forward and squeeze the glutes at the top, without leaning back.
Common mistakes
- Rounding the back to go lower
- Depth is not the point, the stretch is. Go lower than your hamstrings allow and the rest comes from your lower back.
- Bending the knees further on the way down
- It has become a deadlift. Lock the knee angle early and let the hips do the work.
- Bar drifting away from the thigh
- Every centimetre out is extra leverage against your lower back. Keep the bar in contact with your leg.
- Leaning back at the top
- Hip extension is finished when the hip is straight. Anything past that is spine, not glutes.
How it differs from the neighbouring variants
The conventional deadlift starts from the floor and uses the legs far more. It moves more weight and costs more. The Romanian trains the posterior chain harder per kilo.
The dumbbell Romanian deadlift lets each hand find its own path and is kinder on the lower back at higher reps. The single-leg version exposes side-to-side differences and demands balance, but the load ceiling is low. The good morning is similar but puts the bar on your back, which lengthens the lever against your lower back and makes the same weight harder.
What it suits
The Romanian deadlift fits after squats on a leg day, or as the main posterior chain lift on a back day. It is also the safest place to start if you want to learn the hip hinge before pulling from the floor.
Muscles worked
Primary: Hamstrings, Glutes.
Secondary: Lower back, Lats, Forearms.
Estimate your one-rep max
Epley's formula, from a set you have actually done. It is an estimate, and it drifts above eight reps, so keep the input between one and twelve.
Enter a set to see the estimate.
What it is called elsewhere
- Norsk Markløft rumensk (stang)
- Svenska Rumänsk marklyft (skivstång)
- Dansk Rumænsk dødløft (vægtstang)
- Deutsch Rumänisches Kreuzheben (Langhantel)
- Español Peso muerto rumano (barra)
- Italiano Stacco rumeno (bilanciere)
- Português Levantamento terra romeno (barra)
- Русский Румынская тяга со штангой
- Français Soulevé de terre roumain (barre)
Related back exercises
- Single-arm dumbbell row
- Chest-supported dumbbell row
- DB pullover
- Shrugs (dumbbells)
- Romanian deadlift (dumbbells)
- Seal row
athlate logs this exercise, keeps the numbers, and tells you what you lifted last time.