What is the Roman deadlift and how to do it right? The shoulder blades are flattened, the back is arched, the knees are slightly bent. This is the starting position for Roman traction. Slowly lower the barbell or dumbbell to reach the maximum range of flexibility of the hamstring just below the knee. At the bottom of the range of motion, we return to the starting position, moving the hips forward.
Effective exercise
Deadlift is one of the best exercises you can do to develop your back chain (hamstrings, buttocks, and back). It differs from regular and hard traction in several key ways. If you cannot perform traditional Roman cravings for any reason, you can always choose one of several options. This is one of the best exercises you can do to develop your hamstrings, buttocks, spine and even forearms.
What is roman traction? This is an effective exercise for the lower body that resembles a regular barbell pull, but it targets your hips and buttocks more than your back. Your legs remain fairly straight, slightly bent at the knees. There are several variations of execution, including Roman traction on one leg.
A bit of history
The story goes that in 1990, an Olympic weightlifter named Nicu Vlad from Romania, speaking in San Francisco, demonstrated an exercise similar to modern Roman traction. Someone in the audience asked what it's called. He shrugged and said that it was just to strengthen the back. There was an Olympic weightlifting trainer from the USA, and he called the exercise Romanian traction, also called Roman.
Roman traction in the horizontal plane
Deadlift is aimed at the back chain, which is a group of muscles on the back of the body: thighs, buttocks and back. Like all good complex exercises, it also targets smaller auxiliary muscles. To a lesser extent, Roman traction also works on the biceps, which makes it one of the best exercises you can do to train all the major muscle groups in your body.
Regular traction is still one of the best exercises for developing and strengthening the back chain, which is very difficult even for advanced powerlifters. Roman barbell traction allows athletes to train many of the same muscles without risking symptoms associated with overtraining or trauma. This strength exercise is equally well suited for both girls and men.
Three easy steps
Large complex movements, such as Romanian traction, provide maximum muscle load, but they also require good technique. So, let's see how classic Roman traction is done. The technique provides for only three simple steps:
- Step 1. Setup. The chin should be slightly tightened, and the neck in a neutral position relative to the body. Place your feet wide hips and grab the bar with your palms down. Take a deep breath, lift the barbell and press your shoulders to the sides. In this position, it is important that the body is vertical, arms are straight, and the shoulder blades are lowered down to the back. This will fix the back and minimize strain on the neck.
- Step 2. Lift the bar off the floor with your knees slightly bent. Then lower the bar down the front of the legs, allowing the back of the thighs to move backward. Bring your pelvis back while keeping your back straight. This will cause you to feel how tension develops in the hamstrings and throughout the back (lower and middle, especially around the shoulder blades), and the body moves parallel to the floor. Do not try to lower the bar to the ground. Keep your back straight and shoulders above the barbell, knees at more or less the same angle. Once you begin to feel stretching in your hamstrings, you can allow yourself to bend a little more in your knees. At this point, the bar should be at a knee height or slightly lower.
- Step 3. Keeping your back tight, chest up, and knees slightly bent, move your hips forward, lifting the barbell to the level of the lower back. Use the buttocks and hamstrings to lift upward, keeping the barbell close to the body.
Other options
No matter how good your technique is, you will encounter a plateau, even performing complex exercises. Therefore, it is sometimes useful to use variations of the same effective exercise. Traditional Roman traction is always performed with a barbell and two legs on the ground, but there are three other options that are worth considering:
- Tie Rod. Dumbbell traction is exactly the same as the classic one, except that instead of a bar you use a pair of dumbbells. Holding a dumbbell in each hand, keeping your back straight, lower them below with a controlled movement until you feel a stretch in the hamstring of the front leg, and then return to the beginning.
- One-handed Romanian traction is a more complex variation, in which during the descent you balance on one leg. Stand on one leg and lean forward with a slight bend at the knee. Keeping your back straight all the time, lower the weight in a slow and controlled movement until you feel a stretch in the knee joint of your standing leg, and then return to the beginning. You can also perform this movement with weights of the same weight in each hand, which facilitates the removal of the shoulder blades.
- Stiff leg. While other options allow slight bending at the knees, heavy leg traction requires you to take a straight leg position without bending. At first, this may seem a little difficult, but this position of the legs places the greatest emphasis on the development of the hamstring. Just remember to keep your back straight.
Good weightlifting shoes
For best performance, you should also pay attention to clothing that should be comfortable and shoes that provide a stable surface that helps balance and support heavy loads. This is especially important for exercises such as traction, squats and overhead presses. It should comfortably fit to your feet and not leave room for gliding. This provides good traction, as there is no slipping and shear during lifting. Proper weight lifting shoes not only improve exercise performance, but can also reduce the risk of injury.
The best workout to strengthen your tendons
If you neglect the hind legs, you can fix the problem by adding Roman traction to your workouts. This is a variation of the standard traction that engages your hamstrings, giving them flexibility and endurance. This exercise can be done anywhere because you do not need to use very heavy weights to be effective. Using the barbell in the gym is the easiest way to do the exercise, but you can implement it at home with bottles of water, for example.
The Roman craving is equally good for both girls and men. The number of repetitions can be different, as well as the weight of the bar. For example, you can do 3 sets of 10-12 reps. Rest 3 to 4 minutes between each set. This will give your muscles enough time to relax so that you can put maximum effort into each next round.
Is this a female exercise?
For girls, Roman rod traction is an exercise that can be used to develop and pump thighs, muscle growth, strength and muscle endurance, characteristic of strength sports, athletics and fitness. This exercise in a slightly tougher form and with larger weights is used by weightlifters, powerlifters and other athletes to develop strength and mass in the back chain.
Which muscles are best pumped?
Erectors (also known as lower back muscles) are muscle groups that should be felt the least during Roman traction. Please note that the muscles of the lower back should not be the only muscles that you feel when doing the exercise. If you find that you feel the muscles of the lower back too much (more than the hamstrings and buttocks), it might be better to review the exercise to get the right shape and technique.
Like most movements, Roman traction is directed to the buttocks and hips. Trapezius muscles are also used to keep the torso and shoulder from rounding forward in the elevator. The forearms help in holding weights. Buttocks involved in almost every sports movement (squats, deadlifts, running, jumping, and so on) are powerful muscles that can be purposefully worked out with this exercise.