 Today, I want to discuss two different deadlifting variations, one of them being the normal deadlift and one of them being the Romanian deadlift. So the Romanian deadlift is kind of just like a simpler version of the whole deadlift. If the whole deadlift starts from the ground and comes up, the Romanian deadlift generally starts from the top and comes down. So I lower myself into this stretching position like this and I try to hang on to that hamstring tension as I push through the ground, bring my hips forward and come back up. Whereas with the normal deadlift, I need to create some tension here at the bottom of the lift before I initiate a pull up off the ground and before I start to then drive my hips up and everything. So comparing and contrasting, the RDL is less complex. It starts with the stretching. The biggest difference to me is that point. It starts with the stretching. So starting from a concentric, starting from a shortening, starting from a pushing is more difficult. It's more difficult to do correctly at least, especially for somebody who's really hyper-mobile. You'll find a lot of difficulty in generating the active tension that they need to push with the right muscles. So two modifications that I might make if you are having trouble with that and you want to still do the deadlift. One is you can try to turn it into more of a squat and then initiate with the quads more on purpose. That little push into the ground will get you going. You kind of got to slow it down a little bit. You can't just rip it off the ground because you'll just load your back more. Your knees will come forward. The bar will get in the way. If you get really, really good at it, you can gradually speed it up. But I like to start this variation pretty slowly. Yes, generating tension. So the other thing is I can try to almost RDL all the way to the ground. Now the only reason I would do this is if I have a ton of hip mobility and I'm just trying to feel my hamstring, right? I am one of the people who could basically totally leverage myself this way without losing my back position. I've worked with a couple other people like that. Generally, though, for these types of people, these really mobile, these really flexible people, I'm going to start with a Romanian deadlift variation. So what happens is the muscles that I'm trying to load start off really short. And so when I'm getting ready, I don't really feel much. I might feel the weight push me into the ground, and that helps, too, right? That helps me turn on the right muscles. But then as I lower down, all that happens is I feel more and more and more and more. So coming down like this, I get a nice stretch all the way through the backs of my legs, and I try to hang onto them as I come back up off the ground. Both of these variations, the normal deadlift and the Romanian deadlifts, are very useful. And I wouldn't necessarily say you have to pick one or the other. Oftentimes, you'll use the RDL as an assistance exercise. Make sure you're focusing on feeling those hamstrings, finishing with the glutes, and then you're using it as actually an assistance exercise for your main lifts and for your main whatever your performance goal is, whether it's a sport or whether it's just physique or whether it's powerlifting or whatever. But I do like to, I think it's important to try, at least, to get toward deadlifting starting from the bottom, because I think it's important to learn how to pick stuff up, right? We pick stuff up all the time. I can move furniture if I practice my deadlift. But if I don't practice my deadlift and I find a couch that doesn't have those little sliders on carpet, then I am, I'm trying not to say the F word, I am F'd. So the concentric initiation, the finding good tension without overloading my back, I think those things are very important. Consider trying both of these things. Different types of movements. Make you good at different types of movement, right? So if you just practice the same thing, you're only really going to get good at that one thing and then you'll stop getting good. You plateau really quickly. So try to incorporate other variations. You can incorporate single leg variations. You can do an RDL, but only hold one weight. You could do the same thing with a deadlift. Possibilities are pretty much endless. If you have any specific variation you really like, feel free to leave it in the comments below. If you have other questions, also leave those below.