Month: May 2021

If you were looking for how to do a Romanian deadlift (RDL), you have come to the right place.

In this short guide I am going to give you everything you need to know on how to do a Romanian deadlift.

This is in my humble opinion one of, if not the best lower body exercises you can do for your posterior chain (hamstrings and glutes).

Yet oftentimes people can experience lower back pain, not feel it in their glutes, or just downright don’t know how to properly execute the movement.

We are going to cover all of those things in this article and then some.

I will be providing you with tips, step by step instructional tutorial videos, and more.

Ready to dive in and learn how to do a Romanian deadlift? I know you are, let’s kick it.

How To Do A Romanian Deadlift

What Is The Difference Between A Regular Deadlift vs A Romanian Deadlift?

When it comes to a Romanian deadlift vs a regular deadlift (sumo or conventional) there are a few main differences.

Decreased Range Of Motion

Generally speaking with an RDL there is a decreased range of motion versus a traditional deadlift.

This is because with a traditional deadlift you are pulling the barbell off of the floor, starting from the bottom position.

With a Romanian deadlift you are rather starting from the top position (fully standing) and then going to about your shin levels (more to come on this when we talk about proper form) as opposed to going all the way to the floor.

Decreased Risk Of Injury

Once more, generally speaking, there is a lower risk of injury with an RDL as opposed to a traditional deadlift.

I have seen this anecdotally speaking by coaching literally thousands of clients by now as well as myself!

This is for a few reasons.

Number one piggy backing off of the previous point there is a decreased range of motion and you are NOT picking the barbell up off the ground.

Often times that extra 3-5 inches are where people get injured because they have to lower the barbell and pick the barbell up from the floor.

This can be an anatomically hard position to get into for most people (myself included!) and can lead to rounding your lower back.

This can lead to intensive pulling on your lower back, leading to injury.

If you do not go down to the floor, you are saving yourself from an increased risk of injury.

As well as with an RDL there is usually even just a slight decrease in load.

Therefore there is less overall pressure and stress being put on your body, your low back muscles in particular.

Glute & Hamstring Dominant

When it comes to a Romanian deadlift versus a traditional deadlift, the RDL leads itself primarily a hamstring and glute dominant movement.

A traditional deadlift is a totally body strength training movement. You need to use your quads much more in a deadlift as opposed to an RDL because once again you have to pick the bar up from the ground.

Not to say the RDL is not a total body strength training movement, because you still need to engage your core, use your lats, etc, but it is a much more glute and hamstring bias movement.

Can Be Used As A Strength Training & Hypertrophy Movement

When it comes to how to do a Romanian deadlift, there really is no “wrong” way to do them.

For clarification, hypertrophy just refers to muscle growth. Growing bigger, stronger, more defined muscles.

A traditional deadlift variation will do this, but again, that is more of a total strength body strength training movement.

You aren’t worrying about feeling your muscles working, you are worried about moving that heavy weight from point a to point b.

You also generally are not doing more than 5 reps of a traditional barbell deadlift from the floor because that ends up being incredibly taxing and fatiguing on your lower back.

With an RDL, you can bump the reps up to 6, 8, or even 10 reps.

This makes it a great option for a strength training movement but also a hypertrophy movement for growing your muscles.

More on this to come when we talk about how to program the RDL into your workouts.

Many Variations

With the Romanian Deadlift there are simply tons of variations you can work into your routines.

This helps with not only keeping things fresh and exciting, but also if you have an injury, if you have only certain equipment available to you, etc.

Where as if you are doing a traditional barbell deadlift, if you don’t have a barbell, I guess you are SOL!

With the RDL, you can usually always find a variation to fit your needs.

More on that to come when we cover some of the different variations.

How To Do A Romanian Deadlift : Complete Tutorial

Now that you know the main differences between a Romanian deadlift vs a traditional deadlift, let’s cover how to perform it.

Note, this is going to be talking about doing an RDL with a barbell, but all of the same principles we are going to touch on are used for any variation you complete.

Dumbbells, kettlebell, anything.

Before we talk about the actual movement, we need to cover the most important part of this (or any strength training movement) and that is how to brace your core.

Core Bracing

Without properly bracing your core, you are asking for an injury, no matter how “perfect” your movement looks.

Your core protects your lower back. If you do not use it, you will get injured.

Cues

• Do NOT think about sucking your stomach in. That is not the correct way to brace your core.
• Think about someone is about to punch you in your stomach and you are going to bear down to brace for that punch. You are pushing your stomach out. Essentially the opposite of what you do at the beach.
• Or think about if you are sitting on the toilet and you are a little constipated and you really gotta push one out. Do this same thing to brace your core, just don’t poop, please!

Cues

• When performing a Romanian deadlift, do NOT think you are going down and up. This is where most people mess up.
  
  The more you think you are going down, and then coming back up, the more you will round your lower back. The more you round your lower back, the greater risk of injury.

You have to think you are going BACK with your hips, then forward with your hips. Think about sending your hips back to the wall behind you. If you were trying to touch your butt on the wall, or if someone had a rope wrapped around your waist and was pulling you back.

• Think about using the bar as a paint brush to paint your legs the whole way down and the whole way up.

Aka, keep the bar rubbing against your thighs and shins the entire time. Close your armpits shut and keep your elbows close to your body. Once the bar starts to shift away from your body, that is when you put pressure on your low back.

• Think about showing your nipples to the wall in front of you.

This will prevent you from rounding your lower back. Think hips back, chest forward.

• Keep a slight bend in your knees. Do not lock your knees out, but don’t intentionally bend them. Keep a soft bend in them.
• When standing back up from the bottom, do NOT lift your chest first. This will put a great deal of stress on your low back.

Think about pushing your heels into the ground, pulling from your glutes and hamstrings, and initiating the movement with your hips as opposed to your chest and lower back.

Programming

Sets – Perform anywhere form 3-4 sets of this exercise

Reps – Perform anywhere from 5-10 reps of this exercise

Frequency – Perform this exercise anywhere from 1-2x per week

Timing in Workout – Generally speaking you want to perform this exercise within the first 1-2 movements on your workout

Variations

As we talked about earlier when it comes to how to do a Romanian deadlift there is no wrong way to do them because there are so many variations.

I will include some of my favorites that I program into my clients programs below.

DB RDL

Cues

• All of the same principles apply here with the dumbbells, just be sure to keep the dumbbells close to your body as opposed to holding a barbell

DB 1.5 RDL

This can be a great variation if you want to challenge yourself a bit more or don’t have as heavy of weights!

KB RDL

Cues

– Keep the kettlebell directly beneath your body

Single Leg RDL

If you want a challenge, the SLRDL is a great way to do that.

How To Do A Romanian Deadlift : FAQ

I am now going to cover some common questions I get regarding the RDL.

“Eric my back hurts every time I do these, why and how can I fix it?!”

Well, like we touched on earlier, there are a few things when it comes to back pain with the RDL.

My first suggestion would be going back and re watching how to properly brace your core.

So many people do not brace their core correctly which then leads to back pain.

The second most common culprit is not pushing back with your hips but rather bending at your knees.

Remember, think about hips back to the wall behind you trying to close a drawer on a dresser, then bring your hips back forward.

When you bring your hips back forward, do NOT move your chest first. Move your hips first and let your upper body follow in line.

Third would be to remember to keep the weights close to your body.

The farther away the weights are, the more pressure you put on your low back.

This goes in line with making sure your lats are working. I want you to think about squeezing an orange between your armpits and making your elbow pits face the wall in front of you.

“Should I Keep My Knees Straight Or Bent?!”

Keep a slight bend in your knees.

Don’t completely lock your legs out as this is going to make it impossible to keep the bar close to your body and will put a lot of pressure on your low back / knees.

Keep a soft bend in your knees like you are in an athletic stance.

Don’t initiate the movement with a knee bend, initiate the movement with your hips back.

But keep a slight bend in your knees throughout the movement.

As you stand up you can lock your hips and knees out at the same time.

“Should I Squeeze My Glutes At The Top!?”

Yes, but probably not like you think.

Most people think “squeeze their glutes” and they over exaggerate it too much to the point where they arch their back.

Rather than thinking about squeezing your glutes at the top and thrusting forward, think abut something has a rope tied to your glutes from behind.

The left side has a rope pulling from the right side.

The right side has a rope pulling from the left side.

As you stand up, someone is pulling both sides of the rope. This will allow you to squeeze your glutes properly without over arching your back.

Or, you can think about pinching a penny between your butt cheeks!

“Do I Have To Go All The Way To The Ground?!”

No, you do not have to at all.

In fact, it actually is not recommended that you do that.

Your active range of motion of your hamstrings only goes but so far.

Generally speaking (different for individual limb lengths) once you get to about your shin levels with the weight, that is where your active range of motion for your hamstrings end.

So, going past that point is no longer working your hamstrings and glutes, it is working your lower back.

Which is not what we want here.

Therefore, simply stop about about or right below your shin height, and you should be good to go!

How To Do A Romanian Deadlift : Final Word

I hope this article gave you a complete breakdown on how to do a Romanian deadlift.

I believe it to be the Mecca of lower body strength exercises and cannot wait for you to start incorporating it into your routine.

If you want to know how to incorporate the RDL into your workout routine, head HERE To watch my free video on how to create your own workout routine.

If you need some extra help with your programming, feel free to head HERE to see if we may be a good fit for coaching together.

Other than that, hope this article helped you a ton, and chat soon.

-E

“Should I eat back my exercise calories?” Is by far one of the most common questions I get as a fitness coach.

With the recent rise in popularity of calorie counting, apps like my fitness pal or your apple watch are tracking how many calories you burn through exercise.

That means of course if you can simply just exercise a bit more, burn a but more calories, you will be able to eat more calories.

At least, that is what one would think, right?

Don’t worry, in this short article I cam going to cover everything you need to know about the question of “should I eat back my exercise calories”.

Just be sure to read the whole thing. Top to bottom. Side to side.

Yea I am talking to you. I know you like to skim through things and just see if you can quickly find the answer.

If you are going to read one thing in it’s entirety today, make it this.

Capeesh? Groovy. Let’s jump right in.

Should I Eat Back My Exercise Calories

Let’s First Understand Why

If you are reading this article right now chances are that you are either trying to lose weight, maintain your weight, or gain weight.

Chances are also that you are tracking your calorie intake per day to try to accomplish one of these goals.

Let’s first briefly cover why total calories are so important and how they are going to play a role in your body composition.

Total calories are by far the “biggest rock” when it comes to making body composition changes.

Before carbs, fats, protein, fat burners (kidding those do absolutely nothing!) your total calorie intake will determine whether you lose, gain, or maintain your weight.

In order lose weight, you must be in a calorie deficit. This means you are intaking less calories than what your body burns.

In order to maintain your weight, you must be in a calorie maintenance. This means you are intaking the same amount of calories your body burns.

In order to gain weight, you must be in a calorie surplus. This means you are intaking more calories than your body burns.

Anyone of those 3 equations you are in at all times.

If you want some extra help with learning exactly how to count calories correctly, you can head HERE I have a free in depth guide on that.

Sometimes intentionally, sometimes not! (Quarantine weight gain anyone?).

Yet this clearly comes back to your question of “should I eat back my exercise calories” because the calories you burn is going to play a role in how many calories you eat.

Let’s talk about how big or small of a role they play right here and now.

Calorie Trackers : Are They Accurate?

Let’s take any one of the trackers you are using to track your calories burned.

My fitness pal, your apple watch, Fitbit, Garmin, you name it.

I am going to let you in on a dark, dirty little secret. Remember, don’t shoot the messenger.

That calorie tracker you are using to track your calories burned is anywhere from 20-93% inaccurate .

Yep, you read that right.

So let’s say your apple watch says you burned 500 calories doing cardio.

You really only burned like maybe 250. Maybe.

I know this seems like a shot below the belt, but there are studies to back this up.

A Stanford study HERE proves this.

Now they aren’t totally useless. They are for the most part accurate with your step count as well as tracking your heart rate.

So why are they so inaccurate on calories burned?

Let’s talk about it.

Why Are Calorie Trackers So Inaccurate?

Well a few reasons.

Number one is that each individual is different.

For example if you have more lean muscle mass than me, you are automatically going to burn more calories.

Why?

Because the more lean muscle mass you have, the more oxygen your body has to pump.

The more oxygen your body has to pump, the more calories your body burns.

Your apple watch cannot know this about you.

Second, let’s say you run 5 miles a day and I run 0. (If I could run negative miles, I would).

We both decide to run 5 miles.

We are the same age, same weight, same height, same heart rate, everything.

My body is going to burn more calories running 5 miles than your body.

Why?

Your body is used to it! It is conditioned for it. My body on the other hand never runs so it will have to burn significantly more calories.

Once again, your apple watch does not know this.

Third, “Caloric expenditure can be measured directly, which requires the measurement of the heat released by the body, or indirectly be measuring ventilation and the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide by the body” – Robert A. Robergs, Ph.D., and Len Kravitz, Ph.D.

So if you could care to explain to me how your Fitbit knows how much carbon dioxide you are releasing, that would be nothing short of a miracle.

On Top Of That

If you want to dive deeper into the science of things, should I eat back my exercise calories really is a concern that should matter very little.

When it comes to how your body burns calories in a given day, there are 4 main components of that.

Above is your Total Daily Energy Expenditure.

70% of your total calories burned during the day comes from your BMR, or your Basal Metabolic Rate.

This just means how many calories your body burns at rest without doing anything else throughout the day. This is different for everyone.

15% comes from your NEAT, which is your Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. This just means all the extraneous movement you do during your day that is not dedicated exercise.

Me writing this article right now is NEAT. You walking to the fridge or from your car to the store. Reading this article. All of that is NEAT.

10% comes from your TEF, which is your Thermic Effect Of Food. Your body has to use energy to break down and digest food.

Fun fact : Protein has the highest TEF so if you are looking to lose weight, this is why protein is so important!

And finally, we come to EAT, which is exercise activity thermogenesis.

This takes up 5% of your total calorie burn for the day.

5. Yes, 5%.

You read it right. If you don’t believe me and you are arguing science, then I can’t really help you.

Therefore you worrying about whether to eat back your calories burned through exercise is really a 5% kind of question.

It simply will not make that big of a difference.

Note

This is not me saying don’t exercise. I know some people will read this and say “OMG you are saying not to exercise how is that healthy?!”.

No, that is not what I am saying.

What I am saying is don’t worry about how many calories you burn during your exercise because it really doesn’t make that big of a difference.

Focus your workouts on increasing your performance. Getting more reps, lifting heavier weight, improving your mile time or push ups.

If you want to know how to take advantage of the other 95% and increase your metabolism, head HERE.

Point Being

Calorie trackers are wildly inaccurate. This obviously plays a role when talking about should I eat back my exercise calories or not.

Let’s use this as an example as we break down the scenario for if you are trying to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight.

Should I Eat Back My Exercise Calories : Weight Loss

I am just going to give it to you straight, if your main goal is to lose weight, you should not be eating back the calories you burned through exercise.

Let’s talk about why.

We just learned above that your calorie tracker is wildly inaccurate, correct?

You don’t truly know how many calories you are burning.

Let’s say your maintenance calories are 2000. You are trying to eat in a 1500 calorie deficit to lose body fat.

You go on your treadmill and burn 500 calories, then just through some walking and chores around the house your fit bit says you burned 200 calories.

Woohoo!

This means you can eat 700 more calories!… Right?

Well, since we now know you didn’t actually burn that many calories, here is where the issues come up.

You are supposed to be eating 1500 calories to lose weight. Your maintenance calories are 2000.

You are now eating 2200 calories because you think you burned 700 calories.

When in reality you have no clue how many calories you burned.

This leads you to eat 2200 calories and not see any progress as a result because it effectively takes you out of that calorie deficit.

Your calorie equation is no longer that of you are eating less calories than your body burns.

You are more than likely eating around the same amount of calories as your body is burning, thus leading to no weight loss.

See How This Could Be An Issue?

This is where people start to get incredibly frustrated because they aren’t seeing any progress. Though they think they are doing everything right.

What I tell all of my online coaching clients or Clubhouse members is to simply not even take into consideration your “calories burned through exercise”.

Don’t even look at it. Think of it as a cherry on the top.

You learned above that exercise only takes up 5% of your total calorie burn anyway.

Continue to stick to whatever your calorie deficit number was and do not even take into account your exercise calories.

If you don’t know what your calorie deficit should be, you can head HERE to check out my 100% free calorie calculator.

Should I Eat Back My Exercise Calories : Weight Maintenance Or Gain

Now that you know you really shouldn’t be focusing on your calories burned when it comes to losing weight, let’s talk about weight maintenance or gain.

Honestly, I am going to give you pretty much the same answer with some slight deviation.

When thinking about how many calories to eat to ether maintain or gain weight your activity level should already be taken into consideration.

If you don’t know how to find your maintenance calories, you can head HERE for my totally free calculator.

Therefore if you are eating around maintenance calories, whether you burn 300 exercise calories or 500 exercise calories, I wouldn’t put too much stock into it.

I would continue to eat the same calorie limit you were shooting for from the beginning.

If you are looking to gain weight, you would simply take 2-300 above your maintenance calories and eat that per day.

Here if you wanted to truthfully eat back your exercise calories just to ensure you are in a calorie surplus, you can.

Yet again honestly, I wouldn’t worry too much about it at all. When my clients go into a calorie surplus to gain weight, unless they had a day where they go on a hike and burn 3000 calories, we don’t even look at their exercise calories.

What Should Your Exercise Be Focused On?

I briefly touched on this earlier but wanted to make sure I hit on it towards the end so it is fresh in your head.

So many people are warped into thinking that exercise is for the sole purpose of burning calories.

As we learned, that is the least important thing about exercise, especially when it comes to making body composition changes.

If you are using exercise and cardio as your sole vice to burn more calories and lose more weight, you are going to lose that game every time.

Remember, you can never out train a bad diet. Let your nutrition take care of your body composition changes.


Your workouts on the other hand should be centered around increasing your performance.

Things like

• lifting more weight
• Doing more reps
• Doing more sets
• Getting your first chin up or push up
• Improving your form
• Increasing your range of motion
• Improving your Mile time

To name a few.

Your workouts are meant to build your body up, not tear your body down.

If this article taught you anything I would hope it is that exercise calories don’t really matter, and you should be looking to be a bad a** in your workouts.

If you want 52 free workouts, you can head here .

Should I Eat Back My Exercise Calories : Final Word

That’s all folks.

I hope you learned in depth as to why your exercise calories should be nothing more than a less than important piece of data.

I wouldn’t spend anymore time focusing on it past this point in your journey.

Focus way more on your nutrition.

Focus way more on improving your performance in your workouts.

I promise the rest will fall into place.

If you have any questions or concerns drop them below.

To get my diet and training programs, feel free to check out hundreds of us rocking it inside The Clubhouse, my members only content area.

Talk soon,

-E