FT Questions....

[732mikee]

Yes, I'm not a fan of rack deads for a Muscle Round simply from the practical reason that the exercise tends to cause lower back fatigue and then, when one is really pulling to a true failure point on that exercise, there is a high risk of injury if one less the low back "round."

This is just what tends to happen when doing higher rep range rack deads. When doing a straight set, before one gets terribly winded (getting close to "gassing out"), one can keep focus but the risk / reward (as Altamir noted) is just too high for this one, IMO, especially when trying to push the limits progressively overloading here.

Stiff-legged DL's don't have quite the systemic effect here and aren't really a compound movement in the sense that the torque is essentially only intended to be produced about a the hip joint. This one (whatever variation, BB or DB, call it SLDL or Romanian DL) - when actually doing them in the gym - is a relatively safer bet.

If going to a safe but deep range of motion, SLDLs can really be done such that the hamstrings (and glutes of course) are the weak link if form is strict, whereas rack deads load so much more low back (spinal erectors), and are driven buy the legs, too, meaning greater loads, that the low back can easily "give out" for many folks.

-S

Thanks for the detailed reply Scott. I haven't felt the risk/reward factor come up yet, but I'm new to doing these and the weight is still low. I would imagine this would come up as the weight goes up. I will put these into my loading rotation instead. I had a disc issue / sciatica years ago and need to keep the rest of my discs in place.

I've used SLDL as a MR and they feel great aside from taking more time to recover after doing them.