“Dude, I squat 500 lbs,” that was how he first addressed me. “Dude” and then the statement that he squats a weight that not many people on the earth can imagine. FIVE hundred pounds, ¼ of a ton.
Most people would actually crap themselves under that amount of weight. I don’t think this guy, or most others are much different. My immediate response to the monster squatter was this, “Okay, but how low.”
I imagine it would be the response of anyone that spends much time in the weight room.
If you hang around the right people you know that not squatting to full depth is for low level bodybuilders, guys who “exercise,” and any other form of low life that walk into the local gym. Full range of motion on everything
“Talk is cheap, squat deep”
Right?
I want to establish this first, I love full reps. Hell I love reps from a deficit. I have my weight room credentials and have seen enough lifts to know to always squat deep, do push ups to a full range of motion, and I always do chin ups until my sternum touches the bar.
In short, I do not cheat in the weight room. Lets get that idea off the table, because I am about to break all the rules and tell you that sometimes you need to cheat.
You probably need to cheat when you are doing the opposite of the squat: the hinge.
I do partial Romanian deadlifts (RDL) all the time and I coach my athletes to do partial RDL’s.
Want to see what I mean? Here is a partial RDL.
The hinge
The hinge is our lower body pull. It can come in a lot of forms, deadlifts, trap bar deadlifts, etc. Those require a lot of coaching to be really “hinge-worthy” but definitely have some aspect of hinging involved in them.
Outside of a swing the RDL is the purest form of hinging one can do.
Basically, if you value the hinge and want your hinge to be strong, not just well conditioned, you need to do the RDL in some form.
Got a problem, the hinge can be your answer.
Need more power? Hinge, it’s how jumping starts.
Need more speed? Hinge, it’ll improve your backside mechanics.
Back pain? Hinge, it’ll turn on your glutes.
Good hinges sometimes do not require a full “range of motion”
Why a partial rep?
There are 3 strategies to moving a bar down your legs when you are standing.
The first is a knee bend. Eventually you will run out of ankle mobility and the strict knee bend strategy will go out the window.
The second strategy is the back bend, I think we all are smart enough at this point to realize that a strict back bending strategy with weight in your hands is a pretty bad movement. If you don’t realize this you might want to get back to your coloring books.
Lastly we have the hinge. It involves only moving your hips forward and back. Move the hips back and the load moves down, move the hips forward and the load comes up. With just a slight knee bend this works much better.
So here is where the reasoning for a partial hip hinge/RDL comes into play. When an athlete is hinging, the moment at which their hips quit moving horizontally in space, is the same moment this movement quit being a hinge.
It is worth saying again; If the bar keeps moving and the hips are not moving backwards, athletes are no longer doing a hinge.
Check out this video to see what I mean.
As soon as the hips stop moving there must be a substitute someplace to keep the bar moving down. Add in some knee bend and take the bar to the ground and you have a pretty good looking deadlift.
Add in some back bend and keep the bar moving towards the ground and you have a pretty nice disc herniation, There might not be a worse position in the weight room than an RDL that has gone too far.
The fact is most athletes and clients cannot hinge to the ground. In our other primary hinge movement, the swing, we do not ask athletes to hinge that far.
Look at the swing. Slight bend in the knees, keep the kettlebell above the knees, and let it move through the legs. There isn’t a pre-req about getting your torso parallel to the floor or anything like that.
The RDL should mimic a good looking swing, but be a lot heavier and a lot less dynamic.
Conclusion
A lot more has been written, and a lot more in depth than I have decided to write, about the hinge. It is an absolutely essential movement to the success of your clients and athletes. Don’t get wrapped up in the distance of the movement, get wrapped up in the quality of the movement.
The saying isn’t “Talk is cheap, RDL deep.”
Right?
Good post. However I don’t see the back bending when you do a back parallel to the floor RDL. What am I missing? My eyes must be going bad.
Rufus-
That’s the point, it is a hidden error. If your hips stop moving it has to be your lumbar spine that is doing the work. If you have someone do it, put your hands on their lower back and when the hips stop you will feel the fascia start to stretch.
Amazing! This makes so much sense. This will hopefully increase my Hip extension Power ( and explain the soreness I sometimes get in my lower back) . Thanks once again for a great Post.
Wil,
Is it okay to go deeper as long as the arch in the back is maintained? I like doing both versions. When the weight is light I go deeper and naturally shorten the movement as the bar gets heavier. Right now, the RDL is my go to supplemental lower back movement as I don’t have a back extension machine in my home gym. I feel I NEED to do a supplemental lower back move, not just to improve my Olympic lifts but for overall lower back health.
Mike-
Back arch isn’t the thing to look at. Look at the hips. If the hips can move in the sagittal plane then you are good to go. As soon as they quit moving the movement has become a back-bend. Definitely set the core/abs/low back with a brace (or whatever strategy you like) and then pay attention to what the hips are doing.
Definitely something to be said about the strength and health of the low back through RDL’s but this is an isometric not a concentric movement of the erectors.
“That’s the point, it is a hidden error.” Love this! We need to make sure that we are looking at the whole chain like you mentioned and not focus too much on a single area. Good post! The hip hinge is one of the hardest movements to get clients to grasp due to physiological limitations caused by our “modern” lifestyles. A good “test” that I’ve found to limit the back bend in an RDL is to literally pinch the skin at the low back right next to the spine with your thumb and index finger. Grab it at the lockout position when they have full extension. Next, as they descend into the hinge you will be able to hold onto the skin with zero pull or tension, where you are grabbing, as long as they maintain a neutral spine. When you feel any pull what so ever then there is movement in the lumber spine. Do it with someone who can do the movement perfectly and then do it with someone less experienced and you’ll see what I mean. It’s also a good way for you so see exactly how far someone can descend in order to try to achieve full ROM without the stress on the low back. Just a heads up, with very overweight clients it can be hard to grab skin due to extra fat in this area plus they may feel self-conscious. Be professional and explain to them what your trying to accomplish with this move before you start grabbing back fat or skin. I like the “watch the hips part”. Something much easier to implement in a group setting or as a progression to the hand on the back or pinching.
@Mike, for low back health, listen to Wil. Doing the exercises like he mentioned, builds stability through the back with anti-flexion and turns on the glutes with the hip extension. Supplement by stretching the hip flexors and turn on the abs with anti-rotation, anti-lateral flexion, and anti-extension exercises. Mobilize the T-spine and hips. So much more to be said here, but this is will build a foundation plus that’s another topic.
Jason-
Thanks for the comment! That is some good stuff. I like the pinch cue, it can definitely help the coach and the client see the big picture.
Wil
i get what you are are saying, but shouldn’t a partial RDL be a RDL ??? i was always taught an RDL goes till the hips stop… are they not one in the same?
I agree. It is to the full ROM that the athlete can do with the correct pattern.
Thanks for the article Wil.
You make a very interesting point. I have not read this any other place. I am very glad to have come across this article but I have to spend some time thinking about it.
I just did an experiment; seeing how far I could stand away from a wall, hinge back (torso to parallel) and contact the wall. Then repeated controlling my torso angle. I found I could contact the wall when my torso was mid way between upright and the horizontal position. That is a much higher position than I aim for; or see as demonstrated as correct.
What does that extra ROM achieve? You are saying it is dangerous?
I don’t do RDLs but I do sometimes use the goodmorning and I do a lot of kettlebell swings. You have really given me a lot to think about but I don’t have enough knowledge. I know Dr Stuart McGill did a study on the low back and the swing. I looked at that but didn’t understand it. If I can find it I will take another look.
All the best
Anthony
If the extra ROM comes from lumbar flexion then it can be dangerous. Thanks for the post and let me know if you need anything else!
Interesting that you call that a partial RDL. That is the only kind I coach and is what I consider a full RDL.
Glad we are on the same page! If I write RDL for an athlete they are to go to the greatest depth they can without any lumbar flexion, the body type, and flexibility of their posterior chain will determine the depth, but I have found that most athletes are in the area you and I are coaching.
I’ve seen olympic lifters taking the same approach with good-mornings. They are shallow (in bend depth) in comparison with what powerlifters do, but they make more sense as the motion is closer to the second pull. Or am I wrong?
You are absolutely correct, This connection is easier to make on good mornings because the feeling of shearing force is easier to determine when the lumbar spine gets out of position in a good morning.
Nice article Wil. My standpoint on the RDL has always been to focus on the ROM of the hips. We should let that happen to its fullest and what is natural for the individual. Once the lumbar comes into the picture we now have an incorrect movement pattern pertinent to the exercise.
Love it @Damien! Great response.
Gidday, this stuff is so important. Only the leg press can rival the squat and deadlift in the ludicrous form, weights used claims, and (what) range of motion stakes. Well, maybe that’s an exaggeration. Chinups, dips, lat pulldowns and bench presses can be the vehicles for some amasing, jaw dropping imagination and creativity… and injury lists.
Then again, its true, the sudden Olympic Lift craze is hard to beat. Sorry crossfitters.
I love using Power Racks to teach hinging and back position. With all the talk and hype of ‘Functional Training’ as part of the desperate attempts at contemporary marketing (i.e. Tricep Extensions on a Bosu ball, on one leg, with a sand bag strapped to the other), nothing is more functional than learning to pick something up. That is learning how the hip (glute), knee (upper leg), lower spine, (spinal errectors and extensors, actually whole core) coordinate and function to enable us to lift things off the ground.
Unfit grandmothers regularly lift their grand children off the floor. Obese people lift their golf clubs from the ground. Unfit people pick up shopping bags, vacuum cleaners, heavy boxes, furniture, bags of lawn fertilizer, suit cases, etc, etc, etc day in and day out. The list is endless. While they are doing this, they use poor patterns and shocking techniques. As a Personal Trainer and Fitness Centre Manager I see streams of people with back, hip and knee problems. Especially as the age (repetition) goes up. So, the first thing I teach all clients is how to deadlift, or how to safely and functionally pick things up. At the same time I am giving them the ultimate compound exercise for burning calories and conditioning circulatory systems. Plus, it sets them up for every other exercise in the future as they progress. Grip, core, breathing, tightness, form, rep cadence and much, much more becomes an unconscious, corrective pattern. Injuries miraculously begin to disappear.
Power Racks, what an awesome invention. The ultimate simplicity and sophistication combined. They last for ever, and yet are super adaptable to unlimited purposes. I can get a really unfit person, even a grandmother, and even if I set the rack up to use a range of motion of only a few inches to start with, with a really light bar, we can safely teach them to do all that Wil highlights in his article.
We all have our favourite queuing techniques. I like emphasing starting all the work with glutes. Glutes drive hips forward. Then, in conjunction quads drive knees back. Core super braced, keeping that nice, safe arch, erectors protecting and bracing. Finally, erectors drive shoulders up. Like a symphony, all three fluidly working together. It is great teaching people that those erectors are so powerfull, and can protect and brace the spine so much, when used in conjunction with the rest of the core. I emphasise that the power of the glutes and quads is only limited by how good we become at locking in that nice arch, the spinal bracing and protection. Let the load spread nicely through flat discs. Use that natural curve, don’t let them pinch. The squeezing a balloon full of water on one side to create a bulge and weakness analogy works well. So does telling them to squeeze as hard as they can as if if trying to stop going to the toilet, and squeezing abs as tight as they can for engaging whole core.
Things I have found are that inexperienced people really need to have that bracing and core tightness thing crystal clear and down pat before using much weight. Plus, the lowering often presents more learning challenges than the lifting, and likewise that needs to be perfected before using any challenging weights. They need to learn about breathing, and using natures unconscious bracing power of blood pressure, safely, and to their advantage. And grip. No belts, no straps.
Mirrors can be awesome tools. Unfit people often have almost zero mind body connection and awareness. A mirror helps them see the mistake, correct it, and feel what that position is like. Start the new mental pattern and habit.
The rack is indispensable. As the people progress, we just drop an inch or so at a time, lower the weight, build up strength, and away we go again. They are so safe, and can relax and concentrate on learning and lifting. Patience is the key, and one day, even a grandmother is super confidently deadlifting from the floor. Along the way the health and fitness of their whole system is improved, and their whole life is transformed. They learn to love ‘weightlifting’.
Deluxe article.
No matter what I tried, my lower back always hurt when doing swings. After reading countless articles, this short and to the point comparison with the RDL nailed it down for me. Thanks!
Glad I could help!