Deadlift Form For Beginners | How To Deadlift Without Lower Back Pain

YouTube, what's going on? In this video, let's you and I cover the most common Romanian deadlift mistakes that people make. Now, the Romanian deadlift is a great exercise to work your hamstrings and your glutes. Notice how I said it wasn't a great exercise to work your lower back, and the reason I say that is because I know a lot of people have trouble and end up hurting their lower back when they're doing this Romanian deadlift exercise. So we're going to talk about the most common mistakes, we're going to talk about how to fix those mistakes, and I guarantee you are probably going to learn at least a few things from this video. So without further ado, let's hop right into the most common Romanian deadlift mistakes. All right, first and foremost One of the most common Romanian deadlift mistakes is going to be people go down and they try to lock their knees out. Please, I beg of you, keep a soft bend in your knees the entire time, because when you lock your knees out, number one, that's really going to put a not so good stretch on your hamstrings. But then number two, you're going to end up rounding your lower back to get down. Because if you can't keep a soft bend in your knee, notice how if I lock my knees out, my upper back has to round versus if I just keep a soft knee bend, my back kind of flattens out, right? So first and foremost, make sure to keep a soft knee bend the entire time. Number 2, please do not look up when you are doing this exercise. And I know it's probably counterintuitive to what you may have heard before, but you have to understand your spine works pretty much in one. So this right here is your cervical spine. This right here is your thoracic spine. And this right here is your lumbar spine or your lower back. And you really don't need to know all of that. By the way, I have a hole in my pants because I'm filming this video. On a Sunday morning when I have not done laundry yet. So this is what we're getting, but just don't grill me in the comments section. But again, going back to your spine, if you arch this part of your spine by looking up when you are doing a deadlift, inevitably this part of your spine is going to arch as well. So if you are going down like this, not only are you arching this part of your But that's going to end up arching the lower part of your spine as well, which is obviously going to put more stress on your lower back, and it is going to take the stress off of your hamstrings and glutes, the muscles you are trying to work. Also, not to mention, you are not going to be able to keep your core braced, which we will talk about here in a second. But when you end up arching your neck up, you end up flaring your ribs up. And when you are going into your Romanian deadlift, you want to make sure your ribs stay pulled down because that is how you are going to keep your proper core bracing, which is going to save your lower back. But if you're going down and you arch your head up and you arch your ribs up, then again, it creates this arch in your lower back And your core is not able to keep you safe, which means your lower back is going to take the work. So what I want you to think about instead is simply tuck your chin back to the wall behind you. You don't have to make like a double chin, but just simply tuck your chin back to the wall behind you. And then think about there is a string on the top of your head and it is pulling you to the ceiling. Try to then keep that the entire time. Again, I'm not looking down. I'm just tucking my chin and thinking there's a there's a string pulling my head up in front of me, and then you can go through the movement with proper spinal alignment and allowing yourself to keep your core braced, which will save your lower back. And again, you will be able to work more of your glutes and hamstrings. Because let's say you're doing this exercise for your glutes, for example, the minute you arch your back, your glutes cannot work. So it's very important for you to make sure you correct this mistake. Okay. All right. Now the third mistake, most people have no clue how to brace their core. Bracing your core is not what you do at the beach, which is trying to suck your stomach in and bring your belly button to your spine. If you do that, you are going to injure your lower back. There's 2, maybe 3 main things I want you to think about when you talk about bracing your core. You're basically going to do the opposite of what you try to do when you're out on the beach. You are going to try to think about one of 2 things. Number one, think about if you are really constipated and you're really trying to push a poop out. That's how I want you to think about bracing your core. Or number 2, think about if somebody's standing there ready to just punch you in your core as hard as they can. You want to make sure you bear down and help yourself take that punch. And number 3, if you think about coughing, if you put your hands in your stomach and just cough, you'll automatically feel How your core tightens up. All three of those things, whichever one works for you. That's how I want you to think about bracing your core because you could have the perfect form and it could look up. You could have the perfect form and it could look all correct. But if you're not bracing your core correctly, you are still going to get some lower back pain. So if you feel like your form is right. but you're still hurting your back, maybe try bracing your core a bit better. I also have an entire video on how to properly breathe and brace your core. I can link that here above. And I say maybe try that because there might be some other things going on, which leads us into mistake number 4, which is going to be not engaging your lats. When people do this Romanian deadlift, they think their arms are holding on to the weight. Your arms are not holding on to the weight. Your arms and your hands are kind of just like hooks. What's really holding on to the weight is this big lat muscle right here. Because if you just try to have your arms hold the weight, number one, you're going to see how I round my upper back. But number two, this is going to pull you down. And again, it's going to end up using more of your lower back than anything else. So in order to brace and use your lats, here's what I want you to think about. I want you to think about shoving your shoulder down into your back pocket right here. So as you're holding the weight, and I'll show you in a second, but as you're holding it, shove your shoulders down into your back pocket. And then think about if you had like a tennis ball and you were putting it between your armpit And you were trying to squeeze the air out of that tennis ball. When you do those 2 things, shove your shoulder down into your back pocket, squeeze the air out of a tennis ball, you should feel your lats getting engaged automatically. And then now with all the things we talked about, now you are ready to kind of go down into this deadlift With a much more braced position as opposed to this right here, because this right here is going to end up rounding your upper back, which is going to end up having you either have some back pain or just honestly not be able to lift as heavy of weights. So that is a really important one. Please try to learn how to brace your lats. It might take some time, But remember, just shove your shoulders down into your back pocket. Think about squeezing the air out of a tennis ball, and then from there you should be in a really good spot. Okay, now the 5th mistake— this is super common as well— people just simply go down too far in their RDLs. What you have to understand is your RDLs should be initiated through your hips. I always tell people, don't think about going down with the weight and then up with the weight. You should be trying to think about pushing your hips back to the wall behind you and then initiating the movement back up by using your hips and your hamstrings and your glutes to stand up. So what happens is people get to about right here where they're kind of fully stretched and their hips can't go back any farther. But they're like, oh, I gotta get lower, and they just get lower by arching and extending from their lower back. Let me make this very clear: this is not about how low you can go because a few reasons. Number one, everybody's mobility is going to be a little bit different, and everybody's active range of motion is going to be a little bit different. And number two, people's limb lengths are going to be a bit different. For example, when I do this Romanian deadlift, I can get to about right here and that's where I stop. But just because I get to right there and someone else gets to down here, that doesn't mean mine is wrong and theirs is right or vice versa. It all depends on what your active range of motion is. But I see a lot of people thinking they have to get like past this point right here to get lower. If you find yourself getting past this point right here, but then just extending from your lower back and your hips aren't going back any farther, once your hips have gone back as far as they can, that's it. You're not going to use your hips and your glutes or your hamstrings anymore on this movement. You're only going to use your lower back. So I challenge you to videotape yourself when you're doing this exercise and see Are you going down by using your hips, or are you going down by using your lower back? Because 9 times out of 10, when I see technique videos from any of my clients or any of our members inside the clubhouse, people will get to about right here and they'll end up extending. So I just challenge you, once you get to about like your upper to mid-shin level, that's probably about where you should stop and then head right back up. Which leads me to mistake number 6, I think we're on. What you just kind of heard me talk about, you should be initiating this movement through your hips, right? So somebody should kind of be like karate chopping your hips back to the wall behind you. And like if this bench was right here, right, there's a bench behind me, I should almost be trying to like hit that bench with my butt. So you should be starting by sending your hips back, not starting by thinking about going down in front of you. But then also, once you do that, what a lot of people will do is they'll get to this position, right? And they'll be stretched in their hamstrings, all that good stuff. But then they'll do this. They'll think like, all right, I got to come up, and they'll lift their chest. Notice how when I'm here, my back is flat. When I'm here, my upper— I'm sorry, my lower back is now arched and extended. When you get to the bottom of this RDL, you have to think about hips, hamstrings, glutes are pushing you back forward. You're not thinking about coming up because what did we say earlier in the video? If you get this, you're a good learner. Remember how if you arch your ribs, right, if you flare your ribs you're going to lose your core bracing and you're going to use your lower back. So if you get to here and you're like, all right, gotta come up, all you're doing at this point is putting a ton of stress on your lower back. So you have to get to this position right here. Pick the dumbbells back up. You have to get to this position right here, and you're not standing up. The only reason your upper body is going to move is because your hips And your hamstrings and your glutes are going to push you forward. You're not getting up by going up. You're getting up by using your glutes and hamstrings to push yourself forward. So I would get to the bottom of this RDL, stop for a half second, and really think about using my glutes, hamstrings, and hips to bring myself back up. Now let's go on to, I believe, Mistake number 7. Starting to lose count, but I hope you are at least enjoying these, and hopefully, again, like I said, you're at least learning something throughout this process. Another most common Romanian deadlift mistake is having the dumbbells too far out in front of you. Now again, previously, that's why we talked about bracing your lats, because if you are bracing your lats, pulling your shoulders down into your back Keeping those armpits kind of closed shut a bit, right? You will have to keep these dumbbells pretty much right at the sides of your body. So that's why it's also important, again, to brace your lats. But just to be sure, we don't want these dumbbells too far out in front of you. Because what happens when these dumbbells go out in front of you? You can probably already see. You're going to end up rounding your lower back, which is going to end up hurting your lower back. The way I like to hold these dumbbells, and again, this will be dependent on if you're using dumbbells or a barbell or a trap bar, but the way I like to hold dumbbells is since I'm trying to brace my lats and keep my lats engaged, pulling shoulder down, kind of shoving my armpit into the side of my body, I like to have them not like directly by my side and not out in front like this. I really don't like out in front like this because inevitably people end up rounding their shoulders because it's really hard for you to keep your lats braced if it's out in front of you. So I like to have my hands more so like at this 45-degree angle. Notice how the dumbbells aren't facing in front like this, but they're also not like this. They're more so at this 45-degree angle because that's what's going to allow you to brace your lats and then keep your lats engaged. Because if you go here, you're going to end up probably not being— it's too close, you're not going to be able to brace. And if you go here, you're not going to brace as well. So I like more of this 45-degree angle, kind of like angled by the sides of your body. Pretty much rounds out the Probably a few different ones I could also cover as well, but hopefully those helped you. And I just want to show you one last thing, and the reason I saved this for last is because this is going to matter if you are more advanced and/or if you're trying to specifically bias a certain part of your legs, because you can make an RDL more hamstring bias or more glute bias. Bias. We'll start with your glutes first. If you're trying to work a little bit more of your glutes, you are going to keep even more of a soft knee bend in your body when you go on the way down, because a little bit more of a knee bend is going to work a little bit more of your glutes. So if you're trying to bias your glutes, you can keep a little bit more of a soft knee bend. Now, if you're trying to bias your hamstrings, You want a little bit less of a knee bend. Nothing crazy, you're not locking your legs out, but you are trying to keep just a little bit less of a knee bend to really work those hamstrings a tad bit more. And actually, there was one last mistake I want to cover before I end this video because I just thought about it right now. When you are doing your RDLs, I want you to keep your feet flat on the ground the entire time. A lot of people will either lift their toes up or put their toes up on some sort of like platform or something. We don't want that. That makes you lose stability, and it's also going to work more of like your calf than it would your hamstrings or your glutes. You want to be able to grip the ground with your feet and have a lot of stability, which is going to be able to keep you the most safe and injury-free. So with your feet, think about if you were like a hawk's foot. You were trying to grip the ground with your feet, with your big toe, your pinky toe, and your heel. And you're trying to grip the ground like a hawk's foot or like a monkey's foot. Don't lift your toes up off the ground, which I know can be hard sometimes because you're trying to like Send your hips back. Send your hips back, but keep your feet gripping the ground. And guys, that was it for Romanian deadlift mistakes. I hope this video helped you, and I really do feel like it's probably one of the most, if not the most, in-depth RDL tutorial you've probably ever seen. So if you find it helpful, feel free to like the video, share it with a friend, leave a comment, let me know how you like it. If you like Eric, go ahead and subscribe to the channel as well. And other than that, thank you so much for watching, and we'll chat soon.