What Muscles Do RDLs Work? Complete Breakdown & How To Maximize Gains

When it comes to building strong legs, you need to train your posterior chain. These are the muscles at the back of your body, which include your gluteus, hamstrings, and erector spinae. 

Deadlifts should form the backbone of your training program. They’re an excellent posterior chain builder that develops important functional movement patterns.

Incorporating deadlift variations is a great way to work on potential weak points and target certain muscle groups. A popular variation is the Romanian deadlift or RDL.

Instead of bending your knees, you bend at your hips while your knees stay still. Doing this places more emphasis on your gluteus and hamstring muscles. The Romanian deadlift benefits include developing your posterior chain and building core strength.

With that in mind, what muscles do RDLs work? This article takes a look at the primary movers and ways to improve your muscle activation.

What Muscles Do RDLs Work 

The Romanian deadlift is a compound movement, meaning it works several muscle groups at once. The majority of these are your posterior chain muscles. 

Hamstrings

Hamstrings

Muscles located at the back of your upper leg, below your glutes and above your calves. Consists of three muscles.

Your hamstrings are located at the back of your legs below your gluteus muscles. They’re one of the primary posterior chain muscles, meaning they play a leading role in the Romanian deadlift.

As you perform a hip hinge, your hamstrings stretch as you lower the bar, helping to control the movement. Alongside this, they forcefully contract to push your hips forward as you bring the bar up.

Gluteus

Gluteus

Large, superficial muscles located at your buttocks just below your lower back area.

Your gluteus muscles are located at the back of your legs above your hamstrings. They work alongside the hamstrings as one of the primary movers.

The gluteus maximum showed a maximum muscle contraction rate of approximately 75% during the lowering phase of the Romanian deadlift. This increased to about 85% as the barbell was brought up. These results support the important contribution of the gluteus muscles during the Romanian deadlift.

Your glutes help to extend your hips, pushing them forward as you bring the bar up from the floor. This allows you to perform the lockout as you return to the starting position. Your glutes are primarily activated during hip extension as you come to the top position.

Erector Spinae

Erector Spinae

Muscles that span the entire length of your spine on either side.

Your erector spinae muscles run vertically along each side of your spine from your neck to your lower back. They form part of your core musculature alongside your abdominals and obliques. Their primary functions are to stabilize and extend your spine.

When performing the Romanian deadlift, your erector spinae stabilizes your body. This helps you to keep your back flat as you hinge your hips back. They are also primary movers that ensure a stable body position and correct movement patterns.

Wrist Flexors

Your wrist flexors are located on the front side of your forearms. Their primary function is to flex the wrist, bringing the palm closer to your forearm.

During both phases of the Romanian deadlift, your wrist flexors contract with your wrist extensors to keep a neutral position. This ensures a strong grip as you hold onto the bar and prevents the bar from slipping. Without your wrist flexors, your primary movers would be unable to function correctly.

Wrist Extensors

Wrist Extensors

Muscles that make up the back portion of your lower arm, between your elbow and wrist.

Your wrist extensors are located on the backside of your forearms. They primarily function to extend your wrists or bend them backward. 

Because of this, they work with your wrist flexors to ensure a firm grip during the Romanian deadlift. Having a strong grip ensures efficient strength and power generation.

Hip Adductors

Hip Adductors

Muscles located at the upper inside part of your legs between your quads and hamstrings.

Your hip adductors are located on your inner thighs, starting at the pelvis and extending to your thigh bone. Their main function is to move your legs towards your body’s midline. Furthermore, they help to stabilize your hips and pelvis during movement.

As you lift the barbell, your hip adductors work to stabilize your hips. This helps to maintain the correct alignment of your pelvis and legs. As you perform the hip hinge, your hip adductors stop your legs from moving outwards.

Muscle Activation In Different RDL Variations

The Romanian deadlift offers several useful variations including when using dumbbells. Check this article out if you’re interested in learning about some of the many dumbbell deadlift benefits. 

Programming these deadlift alternatives can change muscle activation and work on potential weak points. Here are three of the main ones to consider.

Single-Leg Romanian Deadlifts

Single-leg Romanian deadlifts require you to balance on one leg and hinge at your hips. Therefore, they’re a great way to develop stability, balance, and core strength and can be performed using different variations.

Programming single-leg Romanian deadlifts helps address potential muscular imbalances between the two sides of your body. Alongside this, the single-leg movement allows you to better engage your hamstrings and glutes.

Banded Romanian Deadlifts

Banded Romanian deadlifts use the same movement pattern as a normal RDL. However, a resistance band is looped around the barbell and your feet. This adds extra tension and requires you to focus on correct muscle activation.

This is a great variation if you have difficulty engaging your gluteus muscles. The resistance band keeps your muscles under constant tension. This forces you to properly engage your glutes to extend your hips.

Trap Bar Romanian Deadlifts

Like the traditional Romanian deadlift, the trap bar Romanian deadlift also targets the posterior chain. However, using a trap bar changes the grip position and starting height. 

With a normal barbell, you generally use a pronated (palms down) grip. A trap bar allows you to use a neutral grip with your palms facing in at a higher starting point.

This makes the trap bar Romanian deadlift a great exercise for those who struggle using a pronated grip. A good example would be beginners who are still learning the different technique elements.

With the raised handles in the middle of the bar, the load is more in line with your center of mass. This means you’ll shift some of the load to your quadriceps and core while taking some off your lower back.

Tips To Maximize Muscle Engagement

• Focus On The Correct Technique — Using the correct technique cues is vital for proper muscle engagement and reduced injury risk. This helps to correctly distribute stress placed on the body. 

Push your hips back while keeping a slight knee bend with the bar staying close to your legs. Contract your glutes as the barbell comes to the floor, squeezing them as you come up.

• Improve Your Mind-Muscle Connection — Your mind-muscle connection refers to the way you think about contracting a specific muscle. Studies show that developing your mind-muscle connection can help to increase muscle growth.

Think about activating your primary movers, in this case, the glutes and the hamstrings. Contract your glutes as you come up, and contract your hamstrings as you slowly lower the bar. 

• Use The Help Of A Mirror Or Partner — Performing RDLs with the help of a mirror or partner can reinforce the correct form. Using these methods to focus on the correct technique cues can improve muscle engagement. When seeking a partner’s help, ask them to provide feedback as you initiate the different phases of the movement.

Conclusion

Deadlifts have firmly cemented themselves as a must-do exercise when it comes to developing strength and power. Whatever your exercise goal is, the correct programming offers several useful performance benefits.

RDL’s are a functional movement that offer a useful variation for targeting your gluteus and hamstring muscles. Additionally, many of the common variations can be used to work on potential weak points.

With this in mind, add them to your program and start to enjoy the many benefits you offer. Once you do, you’ll likely never look back!

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