When my clients attempt to follow their training programmes outside of personal training sessions, one of the first things they forget is the differences between deadlifts and Romanian deadlifts.
And who can blame them? The differences may seem clear if you’ve been training a while, but there are enough similarities to muddy the waters.
I recently made a Youtube video explaining the differences between deadlifts and Romanian deadlifts. It has been pretty successful (at least by the standard of my channel!). This goes to show that there are plenty of people out there that struggle with the distinction between deadlifts and Romanian deadlifts.
Why is it Important to Know the Differences Between Deadlifts and Romanian Deadlifts?
Knowing the difference between these two exercises is not just a fun piece of trivia for gym bro’s. It’s important because these exercises train different abilities and adaptations in the gym.
I go into this in more detail in the video, but the point is that you might programme these exercises completely differently based on your training goals. For example, your session design for a strength programme may look completely different to a muscle-building programme.
Side note: I recently wrote about how you might design a training programme to build strength and muscle at the same time!
Without further ado, here’s the video:
Romanian Deadlifts vs Stiff-Legged Deadlifts: What’s the difference?
In the video, I explained that I had glossed over some nuances to keep the video brief. My aim was to make the differences between deadlifts and Romanian deadlifts as clear as possible. To do that, I referred to Romanian deadlifts and stiff-legged deadlifts as the same exercise. This was the right thing to do for a clearer video, but it isn’t entirely accurate.
The deadlift, Romanian deadlift, and stiff-legged deadlift all exist on a continuum that describes how much knee bend is allowed in each lift.
The main deadlift allows the most knee bend, because we need to get down to a low starting position each time. We can push with the knees to help produce a huge amount of force to start the movement. There tends to be some individual variability here.
With the Romanian deadlift, the goal is to emphasise the hips moving forwards and backwards. However, some people will allow the knees to bend slightly as you descend into the movement. This reduces the amount of stretch on the hamstrings and allows the large gluteus muscles (your bottom) to work hardest to return to standing.
As the name would suggest, the stiff-legged deadlift is the most restrictive in terms of knee bend. Aside from some softening at the start of the movement, the knees should not move as you descend into the movement. This exercise is the one where the hamstrings undergo the greatest stretch, and you’ll feel them working to return to standing.
It’s important not to overstate the difference between the Romanian and Stiff-legged variations. They’ll both challenge your ability to hinge at the hips and minimise knee involvement. I mostly use the terms interchangeably with clients. The only exception to this I currently have is with a client who has sciatica. For her, the stretch on stiff-legged deadlifts is too severe. For this reason, we’ve had to make the distinction between Romanian deadlifts and stiff-legged deadlifts very clear.
Conclusion
It’s important to understand the differences between exercises in the gym, as they will involve your goals and action plans. However, it’s not easy, especially if you’re new to the gym. I can help with this and much, much more. Get in touch for a free consultation.