The Romanian Deadlift is a Mother Fucking Deadlift.
Romanian Olympic Weightlifter Nicu Vlad invented what others call the “Romanian Deadlift.” Doing them heavy worked out pretty well for him. He was one of the best 100kg lifters ever, and legend has it he Front Squatted 700 pounds for a double.
So to be clear, the Romanian Deadlift did not originate as a bodybuilding exercise. It originated as an assistance exercise for the Snatch and the Clean & Jerk. There are no ‘feel’ exercises in Weightlifting.
In my opinion, Mr. Konstantinovs, the greatest Deadlifter under 300 pounds to ever live, does RDLs in the most effective way possible.
He’s using a platform that allows him to get his fists all the way to his shoes. I think this is the way to go as opposed to just letting the bar go past your knees. If you go heavy on RDLs but only let the bar pass your knees, it is entirely possible that you can end up doing something that resembles a rack pull more than a strict hip extension exercise.
But if you do RDLs off a high platform, and you do them deep, there is no chance that you will compromise the effectiveness of the exercise even if you change your body position to allow for more weight to be used.
It also ceases to be a “feel” exercise. You don’t need to wounder if you’re using RDL technique that will raise your Deadlift. You know you’re doing it right because you either make the pull from a 6 inch deficit or you don’t make it.
It becomes like the Squat, Dead from the Floor, Bench, Pull-up, or any other lift that you can qualify improvement easily through reps and weight - not through feel alone.
It could be argued that there are no “form” exercises. Some people do better using strict form and feeling the muscle work while others do better moving as much weight as possible.
But the people who can grow using light weights are usually genetic freaks like Flex Wheeler, who can get 50+ inch chests from playing with 225 on the Bench Press and 120lbs on the lat pulldown.
Anything they do would make them grow. In fact, it’s possible that these genetic freaks would grow even more if they used really heavy weights. So to be on the safe side, always go heavy - because you’re probably not a one in a million super freak that grows from even looking at pink dumbbells.
Don’t keep your scapula retracted when you do this lift. Just keep your low back arched, go low, and you’ll get it right.