Draft on straight legs with dumbbells, deadlift, deadlift with dumbbells on straightened legs ... Not every visitor to the gym knows that all these names belong to the same exercise. Further in the article, detailed information will be given on the technique for performing this movement, its features, as well as several useful recommendations that will make traction on straight legs with dumbbells not only effective, but also a safe exercise.
What muscles work?
When performing deadlift with dumbbells on straight legs, the main load is given to the gluteal muscles and the back surface of the thigh. Indirect load get the muscles of the lower back. So that such a balance is not broken, you need to focus on the fact that the movement was carried out only through the extension of the hip joint. No need to pull the weight with your back. If you do not feel how your legs work, then the load goes on your back. In this case, you should train a little with lighter weight in order to learn how to feel the target muscles.
Dumbbell Straight Leg: Technique
We figured out the theory, now it's time to move on to practice. The exercise is performed as follows:
- Put your feet shoulder width apart. With a direct grip, pick up the dumbbells. Bend your knees slightly and bend your lower back.
- As you breathe in, lower yourself down, holding your shells as close to your feet as possible. Lower yourself until you feel a stretched biceps in your legs. The back should be even all the time!
- Stay at the bottom point for 1-2 seconds to properly feel the tension in the muscles. As you exhale, return to the starting position.
- Do the required number of repetitions.
Performance Nuances
The main rules to consider when doing traction on straight legs:
- In no case do not round in the back! In this position, your technique will be severely disturbed, due to which the back will receive most of the load, while the leg muscles will be practically not involved. In addition, the probability of injury with a rounded back is incredibly high!
- Legs do not need to be kept perfectly straight, but they should not be bent too much. In the first case, you can be seriously injured, and in the second, the main load will lie not on the back of the thigh, but on the front.
- Try to keep shells along your legs and as close to them as possible. Thus, you will set the correct load vector and work out the gluteal muscles with hip biceps better. The option of holding dumbbells in front of you will not be effective and will completely negate the meaning of this exercise.
Deadlift on One Leg
This is a more complex version, designed for experienced athletes. The execution technique is as follows:
- Take a dumbbell or weight in your right hand.
- Bend the left leg slightly in the knee and, while inhaling, lean forward, while taking the right leg back. Keep your back straight! The arm with the projectile should be perpendicular to the floor throughout the duration of the exercise.
- When your body is parallel to the floor, pause for 1-2 seconds. While exhaling, slowly return to the starting position.
- After repeating the movement the required number of times, take the dumbbell in the other hand and change the working leg.
Cognitive video
To understand how to properly perform draft on straight legs with dumbbells, just pictures and text instructions are not enough. You must also understand how this exercise looks in motion. To do this, we suggest you familiarize yourself with the video below, which shows in detail the technique of Romanian traction with dumbbells.
Recommendations
In the end, you need to give you some useful tips regarding pulling on straight legs with dumbbells. By listening to them, you will protect yourself from injuries and will quickly see the desired results from training.
- Be sure to warm up. Deadlift with dumbbells, like any other leg exercise, is very effective, but at the same time extremely traumatic movement. That is why before starting a workout, it is necessary to carry out a warm-up. This applies not only to the day of the legs, but also to all training days. No need to listen to "experts" who say that a warm-up supposedly takes a lot of strength and energy. Believe me, it’s better to spend 5-10 minutes warming up than treating joint and tendon injuries for several months.
- Do not just pull on straight legs with dumbbells. If you set yourself the goal of pumping up large and massive legs, then one exercise will not be enough for you. At the very beginning, when you are still a beginner, the effect of such trainings may be, but then you will have to increase the load. As a rule, training on the day of the legs is as follows: the first is the basic exercise (squats with a barbell, for example), and then the insulating movements (deadlift, etc.) are performed.
- Do not train your legs too often. It should be understood that this is a large muscle group, which requires a lot of time to recover. In order to properly pump the lower limbs and at the same time recover for the next lesson, it is enough to train them once a week. If you conduct hard training several times a week, then it will simply drive you into a state of overtraining.
This can end the article. We hope that the information you could find in it was useful and interesting. We wish you success in training!