Romanian Dead-lift...(RDL's)

[Greg Crook]

I did these today but not sure if they were right or not? I did them sumo, do I just lower myself down like my comp pull and stop just below the knee and come back up or keep my legs fairly straight and push my hips back and really exaggerate bring my hips through kinda like a GM with the bar hanging from my hands? I felt them everywhere so I don't think it was a waste but every set was different. Thanks in advance..Greg C.

[gopostal42]

as long as you brought it out away from your body like that it sounds right. did you bring it down as far as you could until you felt a pull/stretch in your hamstrings? bringing it away from your body similar to a SLDL is the american style RDL but the bulgarians use a different technique. they use a similar hip movement but push the bar into their legs using their lats while keeping their upper back super tight. i did these with my OL coach with just 135 and i was so lit up the next day it was unreal. heres something close
www.midwestbarbell.com/videos/romdl.wmv
take that but really overexaggerate keeping a tight back (practically arching up like on bench and holding it) and pressing the bar into your legs.

[Greg Crook]

I may have been closer to the Bulgarian style, when I stood up with the weight I arched my back hard as I could and desended down pushing my hips back and knees out Then shoved my hips through on the way back up. I don't think I went quite far enough judging by what you said because I didn't feel a tremendous stretch in the hams just a little tight then I came on up. I did that on most of the sets but when I started thinking thats when I got all mixed up. Thanks for the help bro.

[gopostal42]

the exaggerated arching is a very good thing. a lot of people do them standing on something to get more of a ROM for the stretch. oddly enough when people do the correct form with the tight back they catch that stretch a lot sooner in the lift. scratch the thinking it never does anyone much good!