How To Perform The Stiff Leg Deadlift

 

After posting a video of me doing some stiff leg deadlifts on my Instagram a lot of people commented saying it didn’t look like a Stiff leg deadlift because my legs were still bent. Some people said it looks like a normal deadlift to them.

You have to realize that just like any other barbell movement, the stiff leg deadlift is going to look different from person to person.

We are all built differently; long torso, short torso, long limbs, short limbs, fat, skinny, tall, short.

My stiff leg deadlift will look slightly different than your stiff leg deadlift just like my conventional deadlift will look different than yours.

The cues that I offer in these videos are just guidelines to follow.

The Stiff Leg Deadlift

The stiff leg deadlift (otherwise known as the straight leg deadlift) should be more appropriately named the “Stiffer” or “Straighter” leg deadlift.

We can all agree … a grip that is more narrow than our preferred Bench Press grip could be considered a close grip bench.

There is no standard that says a close grip bench must be this narrow.

Anything inside your most commonly used bench press grip is a close grip bench. Maybe we should rename this movement to the ClosER Grip Bench.

The stiff leg deadlift is no different. Your legs should be a little bit straighter or stiffer than your normal deadlift position.

The goal of the stiff leg deadlift is to minimize the amount of leg drive or quad engagement you can use by opening up the angle of your knees.

This will lengthen or stretch the hamstring and put the majority of the load on your posterior chain.

This is how you safely lift with your back, not your legs.

Strengthening your deadlift without leg drive will make your deadlift that much stronger when you incorporate leg drive back in.

The Set-Up

• Place your feet about hip width or narrower and slightly point your toes out. Toes out will further facilitate glue activation.
• Unlock your knees. Without further bending your knees, bend over and place your hands on the bar.
• Now, take into consideration the angle of your shin. We want to keep this angle as close to vertical as possible. Allowing your shin angle to drop less than 90 degrees means you are pushing your knees forward, allowing you to use more leg drive. Remember, we want to minimize leg drive. Pushing your knees forward will also shorten the Hamstrings, taking the tension off of them.
• Keeping your shins vertical can be difficult to do without any weight to pull against. Having some weight on the bar will allow you to shift your weight back without falling over.
• Now that your feet are in place and your hands are on the bar, Push your hips up as high as you can and really feel that stretch in your hamstrings.
• Slowly pull your hips down until you feel them become even in height with your shoulders. Try to make your back as parallel to the ground as possible. Make a nice table top out of your back.
• As you’re doing this you need to pull UP on the barbell while letting your weight fall back. Use the weight on the barbell as a counter balance.
• Once you are in the correct position, your hamstrings should be locked and loaded ready to pull. Pull the weight up with your hamstrings and fight to keep your lower back as tight as possible. Mind-muscle connection is very important here.
• While you’re pulling the bar up with your hamstrings you are also pulling the weight up and into your body with your upper body.

There might be a tendency to let the barbell drift forward when performing the stiff leg deadlift. To keep this from happening, pull the weight up and into your body using your lats.

I prefer using a double overhand grip with straps to prevent curling the weight and hurting my bicep. Usually, the weight is heavy enough that no matter how hard I pull on the barbell, my arms won’t bend anyway.

Additional notes
To ensure vertical shins you can set up a bench or a box and lean your calves against it. Make sure the bench or box is weighted with plates or training partners. I just purchased Brandon Allen’s Vert pull and I can’t wait to use it.

• What’s the difference between the stiff leg deadlift and the Romanian deadlift?
  The stiff leg deadlift starts from the floor and ends at the floor.
  The Romanian deadlift starts from the top and finishes at the top.
• What if I can’t maintain a flat back while trying to get into the correct starting position?
  Prop the weights up to raise the bar higher off of the ground. This should allow you to get into the correct starting position with a neutral spine.

That’s it everyone. I know it wasn’t a very long article and that’s because all of the basic deadlift mechanics still apply. The only difference is we are now pulling with higher hips, less leg drive, vertical shins, and we are using our BACK to lift the weight, NOT our legs.

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