Conventional vs Romanian Deadlifts

aregensb

I've only started lifting in the past few months and so far, I've only done conventional deadlifts. I'm planning to start adding Romanian deadlifts to my workout today. My question is, should I use less weight for a Romanian deadlift than for a regular deadlift? It seems to make sense to me because I'm going to be working my back muscles more and my legs muscles less doing a Romanian rather than a conventional deadlift. Since my leg muscles are stronger than my lower back muscles, it stands to reason that I should start with a lower weight.

How do these two deadlifts compare to one another in difficulty? Thank you for your help!

aregensb

Any advice please?

Brandongood

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=2641871&page=1

aregensb

Thanks!

Brandongood

No problem

Just be careful, form is important or you can really screw up your back.

0RESET0

If you are lifting heavy on normal dead lifts then I recommend dropping a little weight. Both of those are relative terms but I think you should be able to figure it out. If you think you should drop weight then do it. Add the weight back slowly. Also, tense your ab muscles when you do it, it supports the lower back in case your back muscles really are "weak".

Brandongood

I agree. You are using your lower back more for Romanians so I would definitely go a bit lighter for safety to make sure youre comfortable with the weight.

kelseyhere

I'm no expert, but I would definitely recommend decreasing the weight based on experience. I too was doing conventional deadlifts just because that is what I had always learned, but recently switched to the Romanian because that's what NRoL4W says I should be doing. I kept the same weight at first, and really hurt my lower back. I could do it, but my lower back really paid for it the next day. I also find that my hamstrings are more sore doing the Romanian deadlift.

So yes, lower the weight (probably 10-20 pounds depending on where you are now) and slowly build back up.

And Restso makes a really good point, make sure you hold your abs tight and don't let your back collapse.

aregensb

NROLFW is why I asked! I just started the third stage where you do Romanian deadlifts/bent over rows. Kind of confusing. When I looked through the exercise earlier today, I thought it just said Romanian deadlifts, but when I got to the gym I saw we're supposed to incorporate bent over rows too. Took me a minute to figure that out.

I ended up doing about 75 pounds instead of my regular ~115 for deadlifts mostly because of the bent over row. My arms just aren't that strong yet. :blushing:

aregensb

Thanks for all your responses!

tamiesue2

I did my first Romanian weights today, I tried heavier first and I had a rough time, went a little light to start. I would rather start light then add and be fine that start heavy and hurt myself.

aregensb

I did a couple with just the bar at first and then added weights and tried a couple reps until it felt right.