Romanian Deadlift from Deficit

What it is

This barbell movement uses an elevated surface to increase your range of motion. It provides a deeper stretch and more intense recruitment of your hamstrings. This exercise primarily builds strength in your hamstrings, with significant engagement of your glutes and lower back.

Technique tips

• Keep your back flat and chest up throughout the movement.
• Initiate the descent by pushing your hips directly backward.
• Maintain a soft bend in your knees, never locking them out.
• Let the barbell track closely down your legs.
• Lower only as far as you can maintain a flat back.
• Focus on feeling a deep stretch in your hamstrings.

How to track your progress

Log the weight and reps of each set. Straddly turns every set into an estimated one-rep max, so a heavier single and a strong set of eight both count as progress, and it flags a personal record the moment you beat your best.