Okay. So usually I do Good Mornings after squats, stiff legged, for the hamstrings.
Yesterday, just to change things around, I did stiff legged deads. Bar close to my legs, flat back, up and down by pushing my hips back and in, not just collapsing at the waist. This morning, I’m a little sore in my low back and hamstrings, and surprisingly sore around my shoulder blades–mid trap area. Searching the archives it actually looks like I was doing a Romanian dead instead of stiff legged.
Any opinions or suggestions?
BTW, I did 3x5 with 100 or so lbs less than my conventional deadlift single-12x1, work according to Waterbury.
Is this good or bad re my regular dead strength?
Thanks.
–T.
Ya, it indeed looks like you were doing RDL instead of stiff legdeads. Both are posterieur chain specific, but the RDL will definitely give more of an hamstring activation, while the stiff leg deads will target your erector spinae a little more. As to your shoulder, your traps and rhomboids might not be accustomed to be worked in that way, so soreness is normal, except if it persist. If it does, I suggest you strenghtened them with horizontal pulling exercices and movements that retracts the scapula, like bent-over lateral raise. Anyway, good training, and keep strong
I have a horribly tight back, and loading a rounded spine doesn’t sound like a good time to me.
Romanian Deadlift:
Head up, chest up, back flat, knees soft, shoulder blades retracted, ass out.
I love this move. It works the whole posterior chain.
Knees soft? I’ve been doing it with knees stiff. Gives a stronger ham pull. Other than that, the same.
[quote]michaelv wrote:
Knees soft? I’ve been doing it with knees stiff. Gives a stronger ham pull. Other than that, the same.[/quote]
Risk vs. Reward
You can get great hamstring activation even with soft knees. My clients hate this move because, even with knees soft, their hams are sore for days after.
If I read the article description correctly, an actual stiff legged dead is done with the weight more out in front of the body. This just seemed intuitively stupid to me, so I just did the RDL by happenstance–but this is how I’ve always done what I thought were sld’s.
As to the mid-back/trap thing, I do power cleans, regular deads, rack pulls and so on…it must just be a slight difference in motion.
I’m not complaining!
Thanks,
–T.
with the bar further out from the body the back acts as a lever against the hams/glutes with the pelvis being the fulcrum between the load and the action.this requires your spinal erectors to maintain the load as the pelvis rotates.
with the rdl’s the spinal erectors fire sequentialy as the hips rotate into the upward position.