Starting Strength

rack from the hang position, stepping back to clear the rack, and then lowering the bar down to the mid-shins and raising it back to the hang position. This movement looked like a deadlift, but one that started at the top instead of the bottom, so naturally it had to have a new name. The term “Romanian deadlift” has been applied to it since then, although its name translated from the Romanian is probably something different (if it even has a Romanian name; the exercise has been developed since that day entirely in the USA and may simply have been Vlad’s way of dealing with unfamiliar equipment). It is referred to by the initials “RDL.”
     

    Figure 7-23. The great Nicu Vlad: the importer, as legend has it, of the Romanian deadlift. Vlad was pretty damn strong.

    The RDL has two important characteristics that distinguish it from its parent exercise. The first is that it uses very little quadriceps because the knees start off nearly straight – unlocked, but not very – and pretty much stay that way, so the quads don’t have an opportunity to actively extend the knees during the movement. The RDL is specifically intended as a hip extension exercise, and the quads are not supposed to be involved except to isometrically anchor the knee angle from the anterior. All the work that occurs through the bottom of the range of motion and that would normally be shared between knee extensors and hip extensors is done only by the glutes and the hamstrings. The lower back muscles keep the lumbar spine locked in line with the pelvis. The hamstrings, acting at their attachments on the ischial tuberosities, cause rotation around the hip joints when they pull the bottom of the pelvis and the back of the knees together, making the hamstrings and glutes the prime movers during the exercise.

    Figure 7-24. The function of the hamstrings in the RDL is essentially all hip extension, both eccentric and concentric.

    But more important is the difference in the fundamental nature of the two movements. The deadlift starts with a concentric contraction as the bar is pulled from the floor, and the eccentric phase is not really emphasized because the lift is essentially over after it is locked out at the top. In contrast, the RDL is like the squat in that the movement starts with an eccentric contraction, the “negative,” which precedes the concentric. The bar starts from a position of knee and hip extension, the bar is lowered down into flexion, and a stretch reflex initiates the concentric contraction back into extension. Any concentric contraction is stronger when it is preceded by this stretch reflex, due to increased efficiency in motor unit recruitment and to the ability of the elastic components of the muscles and connective tissues to store elastic energy developed during the eccentric lengthening of the muscle bellies. A jump is the best example of this principle; every time a jump of any kind is performed, it is preceded by a short drop of the hips and knees that creates a stretch reflex in the muscles about to contract for the jump. It takes a great effort of will to jump without this drop – it is such a normal part of human movement that it is very difficult to exclude. The stretch reflex also explains why bouncing the second through fifth reps of a set of five deadlifts off the floor is so popular. The majority of weight room exercises can be “cheated” with the use of a cleverly applied or exaggerated stretch reflex. I myself have “curled” 205 in this way.
     
    But for the RDL – and the squat, the bench, the jerk, and maybe the press, depending on how it’s done – the stretch reflex is not cheating but is an inherent part of the movement. The bounce out of the bottom of the RDL enables rather heavy weights to be used in the exercise despite the fact that the quads have been excluded from helping with the movement. RDLs take advantage of the stretch reflex just to the extent that it affects the hip extensors.
    The RDL starts in the rack with pins set at a position a little lower than the level of the hands in the hang position. This rack position allows for an easy, safe return to the rack in the event of a slipping grip that might lower the bar before you rack it. With a clean-width grip, take the bar out of the rack and step back just far enough to clear the pins. Assume the same stance you use for a deadlift, with heels 8–12 inches apart, toes pointed slightly out. Raise your chest, and focus your