My Ultimate RDL Step-by-Step Guide 💪🏻

When I first started gymming, RDLs were something that took me quite a while to figure out. I often felt like I wasn’t working the muscles I wanted or my forearms would tire too easily, making it hard to even begin working those muscles out.

If you’re struggling with RDLs here’s my complete guide on how to properly execute it!

⚠️IMPORTANT THINGS TO TAKE NOTE OF

1. Always start with a lighter weight before working your way up to a working weight if you’re unsure how heavy you can go.

2. GO. SLOW. Especially when you’re new to the exercise. Go slow to focus on your form and make sure you’re working the right muscle.

4. Recommended sets and reps: 4 sets of 8-10 reps

🏋️‍♀️SETTING UP

1. Soft bend in the knees.

- This helps you hinge at the hips

2. Keep your weights close to you

- Be it a barbell or a set of dumbbells, keep the weights close to your body

- 💡TIP: I like to use dumbbells bc you aren’t limited by the bar and can keep the weights even closer to yourself as you can see in my pictures!

3. Keep upper body stiff and straight

- Hold your upper body in this position throughout the exercise

🏋️‍♀️GOING DOWN

1. Send your hips back!

- Instead of thinking about bringing your upper body down, think about sending your hips/booty back.

- As you send your hips back, your upper body will naturally bend down

- How much your knees are bending should not change as you perform the exercise. Keep it locked.

2. Keep your dumbbells close as you go down

- Imagine you’re drawing a line down both your legs with each hand.

- Sticking your dumbbells out/far away from you will cause you to engage your lower back

- Stop at mid-shin or when you feel the stretch in your hamstrings/glutes

- 💡TIP: You can perform this exercise with a bench touching the back of your knees. As you perform the RDL, make sure your knees stay in contact with the bench.

3. Back stays straight. Head doesn’t tilt up

- Don’t look up/at yourself in a mirror as tempting as it might be.

- Imagine your head and back are straight against a plank so it’s stiff and your head can’t tilt up or down independently.

- Flexing your neck up is improper form and you may end up hurting yourself

- 💡TIP: To look at your form, consider taking a video of yourself

- 💡TIP: You can practice keeping your upper body straight by placing a stick against the middle of your back and practice moving up and down!

🏋️‍♀️COMING UP

1. Bring your hips back to the starting position

- Like how you sent your hips back to go down, use your hips to bring yourself back up

2. Keep your dumbbells close as you go up.

- Similar to going down, imagine drawing a line up with your hands along each leg

3. Back straight, head doesn’t tilt up.

- Fight the urge to look at yourself as you go up!

- 💡TIP: One way to know if your form is alright is to be conscious of what you’re seeing right in front of you (you should mainly be looking at the floor as you go down and up!)

🏋️‍♀️BENEFITS OF LIFTING STRAPS FOR RDLs

1. Great aid if your forearms get tired easily

- Especially when it tires out before you even feel your glutes/hamstring working… 🫠

2. Helps you lift heavier/ for more reps

3. Helps you focus solely on using your glutes/hamstrings

- Not having to worry about your forearms giving out helps with mind to muscle connection on your hamstrings/glutes!

🦋And that’s my guide to perfecting your RDL so you don’t have to go through the countless struggles I had when I just started out!! Please let me know if I left anything out or comment what exercise you’d like to see me breakdown next!

#Lemon8SG #Fitness #RDL #Gym #legday #gymtutorial #gymsg#workoutroutine #Lemon8Lifestyle #chloeoegym