No matter what kind of strength athlete you are, the deadlift has more than likely entered your repertoire at one point or another. Love it or hate it, there’s nothing like hefting a heavy barbell off the ground. But it’s not all about the barbell. Changing your stance, equipment, and the angle of your body will help you hit different muscles and goals.
The dumbbell stiff-leg deadlift will target your hamstrings, lower back, and glutes in a major strength-building stretch that builds mobility, muscle, and strength. If you typically work with barbells, a dumbbell variation will challenge your stability, grip, and coordination in a new way. And if you’re new to lifting, dumbbells can help you get started.
Here’s everything you need to learn the dumbbell stiff-leg deadlift — including what makes it different from its cousin, the Romanian deadlift.
Table of Contents
- How to Do the Dumbbell Stiff-Leg Deadlift
- Dumbbell Stiff-Leg Deadlift Variations
- Dumbbell Stiff-Leg Deadlift Alternatives
- Dumbbell Stiff-Leg Deadlift Tips
- Benefits of the Dumbbell Stiff-Leg Deadlift
- Muscles Worked by the Dumbbell Stiff-Leg Deadlift
- Who Should Do the Dumbbell Stiff-Leg Deadlift
- Common Dumbbell Stiff-Leg Deadlift Mistakes
- Frequently Asked Questions
How to Do the Dumbbell Stiff-Leg Deadlift
No gym? No problem. All you need for the dumbbell stiff-leg deadlift is a pair of dumbbells and yourself. Here’s a specific breakdown of how to do it correctly so you get the most out of your training time.
Step 1 — Stand Tall With Tension
Grab your dumbbells and stand tall with your feet shoulder-width apart. Hold your weights in front of you with an overhand grip and your shoulders depressed. Find your standing line of tension with your knees slightly bent, hips tucked, and glutes squeezed. Draw your navel towards your spine and tighten your sides to engage your core. Keep your shoulders down and your head retracted.
Coach’s Tip: Spend a few seconds in this position to prime your brain and body to return to this line of tension in between reps.
Note: In the barbell version of this lift, you’ll start with the barbell on the floor. In the dumbbell version, you can start in a standing position, as indicated here. That’s because weight plates are generally larger than dumbbells and give you more leeway to reach the floor without hyperextending your knees. If you do have the requisite mobility to start from the floor, however, start with step four and go backward from there.
Step 2 — Hinge Your Hips
Hinge your hips back as far as you can while keeping your legs as straight as possible — without hyperextending your knees. Keep your dumbbells close to your body. Keep your core stiff. Engage a stretch in your hamstrings and lower your hips without letting your knees bend excessively or come forward too much.
Coach’s Tip: Try not to initiate the movement by reaching your dumbbells toward the floor. Instead, think about driving your hips as far back as possible while pushing your feet into the ground to maintain your balance.
Step 3 — Lower Your Dumbbells
Maintain emphasis on feeling your hamstrings in your hinge as you lower your dumbbells toward the floor. Hold your weights close to your body and squeeze your armpits to engage your lats. Maintain your core stiffness to avoid rounding your back. Look forward slightly while keeping your chin gently tucked. If you can, have the dumbbells come to a stop on the floor between reps.
Coach’s Tip: In the barbell stiff-leg deadlift, the barbell touches the ground between each rep. If possible, the dumbbells should touch the ground between each rep. But always avoid hyperextending your knees. You can keep them very slightly bent. If you can’t quite get the dumbbells to the ground, that’s okay — just go as deep as you can without breaking form.
Step 4 — Stand Up With Power
Maintain tension at the bottom of the lift with your abs and lats engaged. Push into your heels to engage your hamstrings and glutes. Drive your hips forward to stand back up with power. Squeeze your glutes at the top. Pause for a second and repeat for your desired number of reps.
Coach’s Tip: Let your hips initiate the movement. Think of your upper body as a stiff trunk that will come along for the ride as your feet, legs, glutes, and hips work together to bring you up to a standing position with power.
Dumbbell Stiff-Leg Deadlift Variations
If you want to try a variation on the dumbbell stiff-leg deadlift, you can switch out your equipment, change your stance, or try a unilateral version. Each variation offers different benefits but will still help you get a strengthening stretch through your hamstrings.
Kettlebell Stiff-Leg Deadlift
Try the stiff-leg deadlift with one kettlebell in front of you instead of dumbbells. Kettlebells are a great option for everyone from beginners to advanced lifters. Holding one weight instead of a dumbbell in each hand can be more accessible. If you’re going heavier it can also be a different challenge to your grip.
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Perform the same movement, just with one weight in one hand at a time. Be sure to keep your shoulders back and lats engaged, as the hand position of the kettlebell may encourage your shoulders to round forward.
Sumo Stiff-Leg Deadlift
Take a sumo stance with your stiff-leg deadlift: step your feet out wider than your shoulders and point your toes out. This is going to work your inner thighs and glutes a bit more but you’ll still feel a stretch in your hamstrings.
Your inner thighs or adductor muscles are prone to be underused so it can be beneficial to work them here. Make sure you warm up before assuming a sumo stance and performing stiff-leg deadlifts otherwise as normal.
Single-Leg Stiff-Leg Deadlift
A great way to vary almost any exercise is to make it unilateral. Enter the single-leg stiff-leg deadlift: work one leg at a time to even out imbalances in strength, muscle, and mobility. This is a great unilateral exercise for runners who can be at risk of overusing the anterior side of their legs.
Working each hamstring separately while you build control and tension through your feet, core, and hips will carry over to your other activities. Try to keep your pelvis facing the floor and resist rolling your hip open to the side. Perform this move by planting your working leg and letting your non-working leg drift back behind you as you deepen your hinge.
Dumbbell Stiff-Leg Deadlift Alternatives
Let’s look at a few alternatives to the dumbbell stiff-leg deadlift if you want to try something entirely. These movements will still work your hamstrings and posterior chain and are suitable for beginners to advanced lifters.
Glute Bridge
The glute bridge is a powerful bodyweight training that all beginners should learn. When you’re new to lifting, the cue to squeeze your glutes may not make a lot of sense. Lying on the floor, lifting your hips, and actively trying to squeeze your glutes is a great place to start. Your hamstrings also assist in extending your hips at the top of your bridge.
This is similar to the stiff-leg deadlift because you are using your hamstrings to help bring you into hip extension and squeezing your glutes at the top of the movement. When you’re ready to progress, you can emphasize your hamstrings even more by balancing on one leg and making it a single-leg glute bridge.
Stability Ball Hamstring Curl
The stability ball hamstring curl is another bodyweight movement that will teach you to actively engage your hamstrings. Lie on the floor with your heels on a stability ball. Press into your heels to lift your hips into a bridge and squeeze your glutes. Try to maintain the height of your hips as you bend your knees to drag the ball toward your body. You may feel your hamstrings cramp a little and that’s normal.
If the ball is too challenging at first, you can keep your feet on the floor and use sliders. This may seem quite different from the stiff-leg deadlift since you are actively bending your knees, but it can be a helpful option for strengthening your hamstrings before you put them under load.
Romanian Deadlift
For advanced lifters looking for an alternative to the stiff-leg deadlift, try the Romanian deadlift. It’s similar but your knees can bend a little bit more. It may be a more accessible option if you have mobility limitations and super tight hamstrings. You also won’t be touching the barbell to the ground between each rep like you do for barbell stiff-leg deadlifts. Stop with the barbell at your shins instead.
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In the Romanian deadlift, you don’t need to focus on reaching down as far as possible. You’ll still be working your hip hinge, but by bending your knees more you will also work your hip flexors and quads in addition to your hamstrings and glutes. Be sure to still keep your hips back and avoid your knees bending past your ankles as you would in a more conventional deadlift program.
Dumbbell Stiff-Leg Deadlift Tips
It’s important to vary your sets, reps, and load accordingly if your goal is building muscle, strength, or endurance. Be mindful of your grip when lifting heavier dumbbells. If you find your hands giving out before your legs, try a lighter weight.
- For Muscle Mass: Aim for four sets of eight to 12 reps. The weight should feel heavy but you should be able to do one to two more reps at the end of each set.
- For Strength: Perform five sets of four to six reps at a heavy weight. Focus on standing powerfully with maximum tension at the top.
- For Endurance: Try three sets of 12 to 15 reps at a light enough weight to complete your higher rep range with control.
Benefits of the Dumbbell Stiff-Leg Deadlift
Deadlift with stiff legs and you’ll increase strength and muscle in your hamstrings and lower back while increasing your hip mobility. As you focus to keep your back from rounding, you’ll be boosting your core stability. Here’s what to expect from this staple lift.
Strengthen Hamstrings and Lower Back
The dumbbell stiff-leg deadlift is a bit more of an isolation exercise for your hamstrings than, say, the traditional deadlift — which is a full-body exercise to the fullest extent of the phrase. The stiff-leg version emphasizes your hamstrings to a huge degree, with a heaping side helping of lower back strength.
If you’re a bodybuilder with physique goals, this is a solid deadlift variation for building up your hamstrings. Emphasizing the squeeze at the top is an opportunity to get some glute gains, as well.
May Improve Mobility and Flexibility
Performing the dumbbell stiff-leg deadlift helps build hip mobility and increase your hamstring flexibility. Going through the hip hinge movement — from hip flexion to hip extension — under load can help to increase the range of motion in your hips over time. The hip extension part in particular may help to stretch and strengthen your hip flexors at the same time.
If you have very tight hamstrings, this move will be challenging for you. If you have flexibility goals, some research has shown that resistance training is a more effective way to increase your flexibility than simply performing stretches. (1) While a supine-assisted hamstring stretch may feel nice, performing dumbbell stiff-leg deadlifts may increase your flexibility.
Increases Core Stability
One way of strengthening your core and building stability is to teach it to help your spine resist movement under load. There are core exercises you can do to help resist flexion, extension, rotation, and lateral flexion of your spine. You will put all this work into practice in the dumbbell stiff-leg deadlift.
Stopping your back from rounding is anti-flexion. Being careful not to arch your lower back is anti-extension work. You will also resist rotation through your trunk or bending side to side, especially as you drive through your legs to stand back up.
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Holding your spine in a neutral position to resist all this work will require you to isometrically contract your core, as well. Think of your upper body as a stiff plank while you go through hip flexion and hip extension. This can help build core and lower back strength strength and stability when you do it consistently over time.
May Improve Athletic Performance
Strengthening your lower body in the dumbbell stiff-leg deadlift may improve your athletic performance in other sports and lifts. Having strong hamstrings can help you in running and sprinting. The power you generate through your hips can help with explosive movements like jumping and Olympic lifting.
Stronger hamstrings and glutes can also carry over into your bigger lifts like conventional deadlifts, squats, and lunges. While squats and lunges may be more quad-dominant, having an equally strong and engaged posterior chain can help you lift heavier and manage injury risk.
Muscles Worked by the Dumbbell Stiff-Leg Deadlift
The dumbbell stiff-leg deadlift is a posterior chain exercise that mainly targets your hamstrings but also works your lower back and glutes. Your lats come into play as well to help you hold your dumbbells close to your body. Let’s look at your specific muscles and their roles.
Hamstrings
Your hamstrings are a muscle group on the backs of your thighs and are comprised of three muscles: the biceps femoris (a long head and a short head), semitendinosus, and semimembranosus. (2) Your hamstrings function to extend your hip and flex your knee — on the posterior or back side of both your hip and your knee.
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As you lower into your stiff-leg deadlift, your hamstrings are stretching in the eccentric phase of the movement. When you stand up with power, they contract to aid in the extension of your hips. Your hamstrings are key muscles in other movements like sprinting and jumping. They also assist in stabilizing your knee joint. (2)
Erector Spinae
Your erector spinae are the muscles running vertically along either side of your spine. They work to stabilize and protect your spine by resisting movement under load. Your lower back muscles including your erector spinae will work in the stiff-leg deadlift. Try to emphasize feeling your hamstrings and your glutes for more stability.
These muscles must be firing and engaged so your spine doesn’t overly extend or flex and take on the load of the weight. When you lower down into your deadlift as you hinge your hips, your erector spinae are eccentrically contracting. As you stand back up with power, they will contract concentrically to protect your lumbar spine as your glutes and hamstrings work together to extend your hips.
Glutes
While your hamstrings are the primary muscles worked, your glutes come into play as well. Your glutes are a major muscle group in your buttocks that consist of your gluteus maximus, gluteus minimus, and gluteus medius. (3) The main functions of your glutes are to extend your hips and externally rotate your femurs or thigh bones.
Your glutes — especially your gluteus medius — also aid in externally rotating your hip to keep your knees from caving in during your deadlift. When you do a single-leg stiff-leg deadlift, you’ll be working your gluteus medius even more to help stabilize your knee and keep your hip externally rotated.
Latissimus Dorsi
Your latissimus dorsi or lats are the largest muscles in your back. (4) Their function is to adduct your arms or keep them towards the midline of your body. They also assist in shoulder extension and aid in scapular movements and stability. In the dumbbell stiff-leg deadlift your lats help keep your arms close to your body as you lower down.
Your arms are slightly adducting and your shoulders are extending in this position. As you stop your arms from drifting forward, your lats are at work. They also help to depress and stabilize your scapula during the movement.
Who Should Do the Dumbbell Stiff-Leg Deadlift
Most gymgoers can benefit from the dumbbell stiff-leg deadlift — but let’s get specific as to who should prioritize this exercise the most.
Office Workers
Sitting all day at work can be harmful but is the reality of life for many people. When you sit for long periods, your hips become not only tighter but weaker. Your posture may suffer and you may experience back pain.
Choosing an exercise like the dumbbell stiff-leg deadlift will help you work your underused posterior chain. Building strength and muscle in your hips, legs, and glutes may help relieve some of your back pain. It may also make activities of daily life easier by improving your mobility and flexibility.
Powerlifters
Working your hip hinge and standing up with power will carry over to other sports like powerlifting. Using dumbbells will challenge and tax your grip in a different way than barbells and are a great way to improve your grip strength.
You’ll be doing extra core work and stabilization of your shoulders. You can slow down the movement and go lighter with dumbbells than you would in your lifts with barbells. These can be great to work on as an accessory exercise to keep making progress toward your main goals.
Bodybuilders
Bodybuilders may benefit from this exercise to target and grow their hamstrings and glutes. To get more specific on your hamstrings growth, try a unilateral stiff-leg deadlift to iron out any strength or muscle imbalances in your left leg and right leg.
Common Dumbbell Stiff-Leg Deadlift Mistakes
The dumbbell stiff-leg deadlift is a straightforward exercise with a lot of room for error. Let’s look at a few common mistakes to avoid to help you get the most gains for your hamstrings and glutes.
Leading With Upper Body
The “goal” of the dumbbell stiff-leg deadlift appears to be lowering your dumbbells as far as you can with straight legs. Folks understandably may start the movement leading with their upper bodies by trying to reach their dumbbells down.
Instead, focus on pushing your hips as far back as possible until you feel your hamstrings stretch. Then start to reach your dumbbells down but maintain tension in your core and lats.
Rounding Your Back
As you reach farther toward the floor with your hips hinged, it becomes more likely that you’ll lose control of your spine and start to round your back. It’s important to keep your spine as straight as possible to avoid unnecessary stress on your lower back.
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Keep your eyes and chest slightly up as you lower down to discourage your back from rounding. Squeeze your abs as much as you can. The mind-muscle connection is key here — keep reminding your lower body muscles to do the work so your spine doesn’t inappropriately round.
Drifting Dumbbells
Another common mistake is letting your dumbbells drift forward and away from you as you move through your deadlift. This can happen due to a lack of tension in your lats and scapula. Keep your weights close to your body as you lower down.
Try to squeeze your armpits and keep your shoulders depressed. This can help stop your shoulders from rounding forward and letting your weights get away from you.
Stiffen Up
The dumbbell stiff-leg deadlift will majorly stretch and strengthen your hamstrings while working your hip hinge. Stretching your hamstrings under load may help you improve your hip mobility and flexibility. As you work to keep your spine neutral and hang onto your dumbbells, you’ll be getting a major core workout while building grip strength throughout the movement.
So keep those legs stiff and get lifting.
FAQs
Have some lingering questions? Let’s get answers.
Do I keep my legs completely straight?
Although it’s called the stiff-leg deadlift, you will bend your knees very slightly. You should never fully lock out your knees and be extra careful with this if you have hypermobile joints.
Is the dumbbell stiff-leg deadlift bad for my back?
This exercise is not inherently bad for the back. But if you aren’t able to keep your core and lower back muscles engaged, it can feel bad for your back. When you lose tension and engagement through the rest of your body, your lower back and lumbar spine can take over and be at risk of injury.
What is the difference between the stiff-leg deadlift and the Romanian deadlift?
The Romanian deadlift versus dumbbell stiff-leg deadlift is a classically confusing battle. But there are significant differences between the two.
The Romanian deadlift has a slightly deeper knee bend. If you’re using a barbell for both lifts, the stiff-leg deadlift is meant to start and end on the floor, with the barbell coming to rest on the floor with each rep.
On the other hand, the Romanian deadlift starts from a standing position and you don’t lower the bar to the floor. Instead, you’ll stop the lift and reverse direction when the bar gets to knee or shin level.
References
- Alizadeh S, Daneshjoo A, Zahiri A, Anvar SH, Goudini R, Hicks JP, Konrad A, Behm DG. Resistance Training Induces Improvements in Range of Motion: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Med. 2023 Mar;53(3):707-722.
- Rodgers CD, Raja A. Anatomy, Bony Pelvis and Lower Limb, Hamstring Muscle. [Updated 2023 Apr 1]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2023 Jan-.
- Elzanie A, Borger J. Anatomy, Bony Pelvis and Lower Limb, Gluteus Maximus Muscle. [Updated 2023 Apr 1]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2023 Jan-.
- Jeno SH, Varacallo M. Anatomy, Back, Latissimus Dorsi. [Updated 2023 Mar 5]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2023 Jan-.
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