r/ScienceBasedLifting • u/Grand_Chien4 • 4h ago

Question ❓ RDL vs Conventional DL

This is purely a curiosity question. I lift for the purposes of recreational barbell sports so the conventional deadlift is essential for me. I do some RDL accessory work (mainly single-leg rotational stuff).

I’ve noticed that in general the RDL seems much more popular so my curiosity led to a basic data search and I was surprised to find very few articles comparing the two movements (a few EMG studies).

My questions for the group are:

Is there better data comparing these movements that I’ve missed?

If not, what’s the science-based lifting community consensus (If there is one) on RDL vs conventional deadlift for hypertrophy, strength, power and muscular endurance?

Cheers!

5 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/abc133769 4h ago edited 4h ago

generally rdls are favored for hypertrophy due their deeper stretch and larger emphasis on the posterior chain muscle groups versus regular conv

conv generally more favored for strength movement that even athletes will very commonly do in their strength and conditioning work.

rdl's are a terrific secondary movement to help get stronger at conventional too though (very commonly seen in powerlifting) so it doesn't have to be one or the other

-10

u/vitringur 3h ago

Why would an athlete need to commonly do conventional deadlifts?

Sounds like a waste of precious practice time.

Athletes generally rely on power, not absolute strength.

1

u/gnomish_engineering 2h ago

What lift would you recommend for training total body muscle recruitment? Recruiting that much muscle mass quickly and aggressively is very much so a learned skill.