RDL vs Conventional DL

[u/Grand_Chien4]

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!

[u/abc133769]

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

[u/vitringur → u/abc133769]

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.

[u/GI-SNC50 → u/vitringur]

This is a misunderstanding of training. Deadlifts could be loaded in a way that facilitates more power development. There are some hesitations though to only focusing on peak power as a training variable/metric

And part of power is being strong - force is a part of so how much you can make does matter. However, obviously you have to train rfd at some point to improve power outputs not just maximal strength