Not Just a Man's World

I’ve never been able to touch my toes.  Even when I did years of ballet as a child and then yoga as a teenager I couldn’t get there unless I’d just done a 2 hour session of leg-focused yoga.  So imagine my amazement last week when, after only 2 weeks of doing the Romanian Deadlift (RDL) I found I could not just touch my toes but get my hands almost flat on the floor.  At any time of day!

Woohoo! Two weeks of RDLs and I'm there. With ease!

Why should I care about touching my toes?

No specific reason.  Except that it’s one of those frustrating things that irritated me for years.  I could do all this marvellous stuff and could do some really complex yoga moves back in my yoga days, but despite that my toes remained a stubborn 6 inches away from my fingertips. 

Not being able to touch my toes was indicative of other hindrances as well.  Things that impact on my performance in the gym and in my outdoor hobbies.  Tight hip flexors and, in fact, tightness all the way down my posterior chain were major factors in why I couldn’t get to my toes. 

The tightness prevented me from obtaining a decent squat depth.  It stopped me from being able to complete the bigger moves when rock climbing.  It caused me to struggle whenever I reached longer Via Ferrata sections of multi-day Alps trip.  Imagine doing a 30 or 40 rep set of really big step ups with a weight across your shoulders after walking (mostly uphill) for 5 hours and you’ll be halfway to understanding my problem on the Via Ferrata.

Introducing the Romanian Deadlift

I’d heard about it, but I’d never tried it.  That was until Chris got excited about it and decided to build it into both our programs.  He did a great introduction to the RDL on his blog which provides links to lots of resources where you can learn more about it. 

Here’s a three step summary of how to do it:

1. Stand with your arms by your sides, holding a barbell (as if you were at the top of a deadlift).
2. Lock out your abs (to support your lower back) and lower the bar by pushing your hips backwards, as if you were trying to touch an imaginary wall behind you with your bottom.  Don’t lower the bar by bending your knees.  You’ll find that your knees do bend fractionally, but your shins shouldn’t be coming forwards.
3. Once you’re as low as you like stand up again by thrusting the hips forward. 

How low you go is, I understand, personal preference depending on what you want to achieve with this.  When I started doing RDLs and during my warm ups and cardio sessions I use a lighter weight and go as low as possible to get a maximum stretch.  Once I’m as low as possible I can feel a stretch all the way down my posterior chain.  When the knot was really bad in my calf I could feel the stretch in my calf knot too.  It was an unusual and deeply unpleasant sensation.

If I was solely concentrating on hamstring and lower back strength, which I do now for my main worksets, I use a heavier weight and don’t go as low so that I can get maximum work for my hamstrings and lower back.  Although as the sets progress I find I’m going deeper.

The key to all of this is that the movement, both down and up, comes from the hips.

What does it look like?

To give you a bit more clarity, here’s a video of me doing a few of my warm-up reps last Saturday.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo6n15DDcFw

What is it good for?

RDLs are brilliant because of their versatility.  They can be used for a range of things, with emphasis on different benefits depending on how deep you go and where you put the focus.  Here’s just a few:

• lower back strength;
• hamstring strength;
• hip mobility;
• training the body to drive a squat movement from the hips rather than the knees – somthing that I struggled with for a long time when I started training;
• stretching muscles in the posterior chain.

As you can see, the list above covers a good number of the things that I have identified I need to work on to progress in my powerlifting so doing RDLs is common sense for me.  I’ll let you know how it progresses.

Have you tried RDLs?  What were you using them for?  Did they work for you?

Related posts:

1. Blog-watch: deadlift
2. Core workouts (Part 1)
3. Lessons learned: good back squat form
4. Powerlifting progress 2011: week seventeen