Straight Leg Dead Lift

Teaching points

• Stand with the feet shoulder width, holding the bar at thigh level, just wider than shoulder width with the palms facing backwards
  
  
• Before starting the exercise ensure your lower back is arched and you are holding your chest up high
  
  
• Keeping your legs straight, bend from the hips so you push your buttocks back, and then bend from your waist until your upper body is parallel with the floor (or as far as you can manage comfortably)
  
  
• Reverse the movement to bring your upper body upright
  
  
• This exercise places more emphasis on the hamstrings than the regular version

Variations and progressions

• Perform using two dumbbells

Muscles worked

• Biceps Femoris
  
  
• Semitendinosus
  
  
• Semimembranosus
  
  
• Gluteus Maximus
  
  
• Erector Spinae

Alternative exercises

• Dead lift
  
  
• Good morning
  
  
• Squat

Related injuries

• Quadricep strain
  
  
• Hamstring strain