Romanian deadlift: the hinge as its own lift

The Romanian deadlift (RDL) is the hip hinge done as an exercise of its own. You start standing with the weight in your hands, push your hips back until the backs of your thighs are stretched, and stand back up. Your knees stay slightly bent and about where they started, so the work goes to the hips: the hamstrings and the glutes.

Deadlift form covers the hinge from scratch and the deadlifts that start from the floor, with a short section on the RDL. This page goes further into the RDL itself: the barbell version step by step, how low to go, the dumbbell, kettlebell and single-leg versions, how it compares with the conventional deadlift, and where it fits in a week.

How to do a Romanian deadlift

1. Start standing. Deadlift the bar from the floor once or lift it out of a rack at hip height. Feet about hip-width apart, hands just outside your thighs.
2. Soften your knees slightly, and keep them at that angle for the whole rep.
3. Push your hips straight back. Your chest comes forward as your hips go back, and the bar slides down the front of your thighs, close to your legs the whole way. Back straight, neck in line with it.
4. Stop when the backs of your thighs are fully stretched. That's the bottom.
5. Drive your hips forward to stand tall, squeezing your glutes at the top without leaning back. That's one rep; the bar doesn't touch the floor until the set is over.

That's the same movement deadlift form teaches with a broomstick, and the same standing start its RDL section describes. The knee angle is what sets the RDL apart: a 2022 study of deadlift variations describes the Romanian with the knees slightly bent and the stiff-leg deadlift with them straight, both holding about the same knee angle through the rep.¹

How low to go, and where you should feel it

Go as low as your hips keep moving back and your back stays straight. For most people that's somewhere around the knees to mid-shin. Where you should feel it:

• The backs of your thighs. A strong stretch near the bottom is the signal to stand up.
• Your glutes, working as you drive your hips forward out of the bottom.
• Your grip and upper back, holding the weight and your position.

If the stretch fades and your knees start bending more, you've turned the hinge into a squat. If your back starts to round to get the weight lower, you've gone past your bottom. Stop a little higher.

Depth in the studies varies. In one comparison, 21 men with at least three years of practice at both lifts were asked to lower each RDL until the bar touched the floor. Some couldn't, and the group averaged about 33 degrees of knee bend rather than the 15 degrees of an earlier description; the authors put the Romanian's range at 15 to 33 degrees.² And in ten competitive bodybuilders, standing on a step so the plates could travel lower raised activity in the glutes, one of the hamstrings and a back muscle compared with the RDL from the floor.¹ In experienced lifters, more range meant more activity. The range that counts is the range you reach with your back straight.

Romanian deadlift muscles worked

Mainly the hamstrings and the glutes, with the muscles along your spine holding your position:

• A 2020 review of 19 studies of the deadlift and its variants, in lifters aged 18 to 34 with at least six months of training, found the Romanian deadlift worked the hamstrings harder than the back muscles.³
• In 12 weight-trained men, hamstring activity was highest in the RDL and the glute-ham raise, ahead of the leg curl and the good morning.⁴
• In eight men with at least a year of lower-body training, the RDL was as effective as the barbell hip thrust at isolating the hip extensors, while the back squat also worked the front of the thigh.⁵

Those measure activity during a lift. Two training studies measured growth. In 32 young adults who trained twice a week for six weeks, an RDL program that stressed the lowering phase and a Nordic hamstring curl program both grew the cross-sectional area of the hamstrings by about 10%, with no difference between them.⁶ And in 36 people new to lifting, nine weeks of stiff-leg deadlifts grew the hamstrings by about 7%.⁷ Both were short trials, and neither promises a number for anyone else, but both point the same way: the hinge grows the backs of the thighs.

Romanian deadlift vs deadlift

The conventional deadlift starts from the floor with the knees well bent, so the legs straighten as the bar rises. The RDL starts standing and keeps the knees nearly fixed. That difference shows up in the numbers. In the 21 practiced men above, lifting the same weight, 70% of their RDL max, the conventional deadlift produced more activity in the front of the thigh (rectus femoris) and the glutes, and more joint torque at the knee and ankle. The hamstring measured, the biceps femoris, was about equally active in both.²

Neither replaces the other; they train the hinge with different amounts of knee. A common pattern from deadlift form is a heavier deadlift on one lower-body day and RDLs as the second hinge later in the week. If you only do one, pick the one you can do well.

Dumbbell, kettlebell and single-leg versions

• Dumbbells. A dumbbell in each hand, in front of your thighs or at your sides. The same hinge, which makes it the RDL for home. Dumbbells run out of weight sooner than a bar, so add reps or a slower lowering before you outgrow them.
• Kettlebell. One kettlebell held in both hands in front of your thighs, or one in each hand. The same movement again; a PubMed search found no study comparing it with the barbell version.
• Single-leg RDL. One foot planted, the other leg reaching back as you hinge, a dumbbell in one or both hands; hold something for balance at first. In 15 training-experienced men, the single-leg deadlift worked the glute medius and the biceps femoris harder than the conventional deadlift.⁸
• Smith machine. The bar runs on a track, so you balance less; the hinge is the same.

One leg or two? A 2025 meta-analysis of nine studies found no difference in muscle growth between one-limb and two-limb training, while strength rose most in whichever version was trained.⁹ No barbell, no dumbbells? The back workout lists a 45-degree back extension and a cable pull-through as other hinges, and the hip thrust trains the glutes from the floor.

Common faults, and a fix for each

• Squatting it. Your knees bend more and more on the way down. Set them once, slightly bent, and move only your hips.
• The weight drifting away from your legs. Keep it touching or nearly touching your thighs and shins all the way down and up.
• Chasing the floor. Lowering past your stretch by rounding your back. The bottom is where your hips stop moving back.
• Locking the knees straight. That's the stiff-leg version, a different lift. Keep the soft bend.
• Leaning back at the top. Finish standing tall, glutes tight.
• Lifting through pain. Sharp pain is not soreness. Stop, and see a doctor or a physical therapist.

Sets, reps and where it goes

• Three sets of 8 to 12, stopping each with two or three reps in reserve while you learn it. (How to judge reps left.) The American College of Sports Medicine's 2026 position stand advises at least two sets per exercise.¹⁰
• On leg day it's the hinge: the leg day workout puts it second, after the squat.
• On a back day it can be the hinge slot, if leg day doesn't already have a heavy one. It also teaches the position the barbell row asks you to hold.
• Add weight slowly. When every set reaches the top of your range with the same depth and a straight back, go up a small step.

Sore the first week? That's common with a new hinge; muscle soreness covers whether to train through it.

If you'd rather not plan it alone

A page can teach the hinge. Deciding how often you hinge, how heavy, and how it sits beside your squats and deadlifts is the part it can't do. Coaching is the version where your workouts are built around the days you actually have, and a weekly call looks at the week you just had and rebuilds the next one. Coaching to build muscle explains how that works, and here's how to apply. Otherwise: do three light sets of ten this week and stop each rep at the stretch.