Skip to content
BarWeight
Tools

Barbell RDL: where to stop, and why it is not a number

Also called: barbell rdl, RDL, romanian deadlift. All one movement, one page.

By

We compute it and we cite it. We do not test gear. How we know this.

Short answer

A deadlift that starts at the top and never touches the floor. Hips go back, knees stay mostly still, hamstrings do the work.

Pattern
Hinge
Equipment
Barbell · Plates · Rack (optional, to start from the top)
Usual bar
45 lb / 20.4 kgOhio Power Bar, 45 lb

Barbell Romanian deadlift setup

  1. 01Start standing, bar at your hips. Pull it from a rack or deadlift it up first.
  2. 02Feet hip width. Soft knees — bent slightly and then locked in that angle.
  3. 03Shoulders back, lats tight, bar touching your thighs.

Barbell Romanian deadlift form, step by step

  1. 01Push your hips straight back. The bar slides down your thighs.
  2. 02Keep going until you feel a strong stretch in your hamstrings — usually somewhere around mid-shin, but it depends entirely on your flexibility.
  3. 03Stop before your back rounds. That point is your bottom, not a number on a chart.
  4. 04Drive the hips forward to stand back up.

How to load the bar for the barbell Romanian deadlift

Before the barbell romanian deadlift is a rep, it is a number on the bar. Plates go on in pairs, one per sleeve, and the bar itself is part of the total — a 45 lb bar with a 45 on each side is 135 lb, not 90. This animation walks the three loads you will meet most often.

Our own render, modelled to the IPF bar spec and the published plate spec table.An original 3D animation showing how the three most common barbell loads are built. A 45 lb bar starts empty; a 45 lb plate slides onto each sleeve to make 135 lb, a second pair makes 225 lb, and a third pair makes 315 lb. The running total and the plates-per-side count are shown throughout. This is an illustration of a class of equipment, not footage of a specific product.Original animation by BarWeight — an illustration of this class of equipment, not footage of a specific product, and not a demonstration of how to perform a lift.

Need a different number? Run it through the plate math calculator.

Barbell Romanian deadlift video demonstration

Reading the steps only gets you so far, and a render cannot show you what a human body does under a bar. This is the barbell romanian deadlift demonstrated by a coach, not by us — we did not make this video, we do not host it, and we do not earn anything from it.

Demonstration

FIX Your RDL Form! (Ultimate Romanian Deadlift Tutorial)

Squat University

FIX Your RDL Form! (Ultimate Romanian Deadlift Tutorial) — Squat University. Embedded from YouTube; this site did not produce the video.Run by Dr. Aaron Horschig, a physical therapist and former weightlifting coach; channel specializes in barbell movement biomechanics and coaching, including the hip hinge pattern.

Common barbell Romanian deadlift errors

  • Turning it into a squat by bending the knees on the way down.
  • Chasing the floor and rounding the back to get there.
  • Letting the bar drift off the legs.
  • Going too heavy — this is a stretch-and-control lift, not a max-effort one.

Barbell Romanian deadlift: muscles worked

Primary

  • Hamstrings
  • Gluteus maximus

Secondary

  • Erector spinae
  • Forearm flexors (grip)
  • Adductor magnus

How we know: Backed by the electromyography sources listed at the bottom of this page.

Barbell Romanian deadlift: what the evidence does and does not say

The deadlift EMG review covers the lift and its variants generally. We did not verify RDL-specific activation figures, so none are quoted here. On the question everyone asks — how low — the honest answer is that the bottom of your RDL is wherever your back stops being flat. That is individual mobility. We are not going to hand you a number that sounds authoritative and describes somebody else.

How to program the barbell Romanian deadlift

Training convention: 3-4 sets of 6-12, usually as a hamstring or posterior-chain accessory after squats or deadlifts. Range of motion beats load here.

Rep ranges are training convention. They are what most lifters and coaches do, not a measured result, and nothing on this page is medical advice.

Run the numbers

Knowing the lift is half of it. The other half is loading the bar correctly.

Questions people actually ask

▶How low should I go on a Romanian deadlift?

Until you feel a strong hamstring stretch and no further than the point where your back stays flat. For many people that lands somewhere around mid-shin, but that is a description, not a target. Chasing the floor by rounding your back defeats the lift.

▶What is the difference between an RDL and a deadlift?

An RDL starts at the top and never touches the floor. The knees stay soft and fixed, the hips travel back, and the bar slides down your thighs. A conventional deadlift starts on the floor and involves far more knee bend.

▶Should the bar touch my legs on an RDL?

Yes — it should stay in contact with or very close to your thighs and shins the whole way down. Letting it drift away from your legs loads your lower back and is one of the most common errors on this lift.

The kit this lift needs

Straight from this movement’s own equipment list. Each page below compares published specs across every model we have verified — no prices, no ratings, nothing we claim to have tested.

Same pattern, different lift

All barbell exercises

Sources

How this page is built and what we will and will not claim: read the methodology.