Does my Stiff Leg Deadlift look dangerous ?

I've started doing these recently, the weight is still quite light obviously. My main concern is that to get to the bar with straight (or nearly straight) legs my back has to round. And before anyone says anything I'm wearing straps because I forgot my chalk today.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsMbcU2PObU

The whole point of this movement for me is that the back should round and allow you to strengthen it over it's full range of motion. The fact that the legs are straight is merely to limit the weight you are able to use to alleviate danger while you are developing your erectors to be functional dynamically instead of just statically.

This exercise is the first step towards being able to deadlift with shoulders forwards and (upper) back rounded, allowing you to take advantage of less range of motion, and more speed off the floor.

you look like you have tight hamstrings. for me, tight hams usually results in alot of back and knee problems. ive had alot of injuries in those areas in the past though.

When I perform SLDL i make sure (or try to) my lower back is as arched as possible, if it means i have to bend ze knees a little to maintain this then so be it.

Also make sure to drag it up your legs, it drifts out in front of yours.

Also that doesn't look like 165?

Yeah I need to keep the bar closer to me up the shins. I have the same problem with regular deadlifts. I'm using a lot of 10 and 15 plates so it probably looks heavier than 165



How can you tell I have tight hams mate?



Thanks, thats insightful

Also now that I've watched it, don't just drop the sucker! The eccentric is what the SLDL is all about! Using weights you can control on the way down further limits the weight until you are strong enough to lift it safely with a rounded back.

Will do

Do you think touch and go would be superior to dead stop reps for this exercise ?

I certainly think so. I find a max set of 5 is tough enough on the 1st rep to really hammer the start and by the 5th rep you are really hammering your lockout with a work load you couldn't achieve if they were all dead stop.

I'll certainly give that a go. Makes sense to me

I find this fascinating Never really heard of a deadlift intentionally being trained like this. In fact I have never really "got" SLDL altogether.

But if this is in your bag of tricks tom, must be good!

because you have to round over so much to get to the bar with straight legs. for me, the tighter my hams, the more likely my back will go pop. but like I say, that might not be a problem for you.

I prefer not to touch the floor when doing SLDLs / RDLs, constant tension and not as fast as you are going

It seems like there is two very contrasting methods. If you want maximum tension, particularly in the hamstrings. You need a totally flat back, not at all rounded. And just to lower down to the point your hamstrings get tight. For most people if they go all the way to the ground their back will become rounded, and they would actually lose tension.

What Tom is suggesting sounds totally different. Intentionally fully rounding the back and letting the back muscles stretch out with the bar going all the way to the ground.

This would be a very back specific exercise, working back muscles in a eccentric/concentric fashion and not isometrically like you get in a flat back DL or a squat. The training effect on hamstrings would be minimal here.

Yeah, one is a slight modification of a deadlift while my way is a specific way of targeting the hams.

Can see both having their place tbh, especially toms method for when the bar starts becoming more heavy and your body is being pushed to the limit

When it gets heavy enough....there's only so much of the work you can delegate away from the hamstrings

I've done 300x5....the training effect on hamstrings was far from minimal. The round back would take away from hamstrings IF you were only going down to the same point as a flat backed SLDL, but the fact that you go to the floor means your hamstrings still get plenty of tension unless you are very flexible.