Unilateral training should be a non-negotiable in everyone’s training. It translates well into athletics and everyday living. The single-leg Romanian deadlift is one of the best exercises to train the posterior chain.
The hardest part about the single leg RDL is balance and hip control - especially if you don’t usually train this movement.
One common movement fault with the single leg RDL is the outward rotation of the hip. When the pelvis rotates out (and you can see it because the foot/toes likely also point out), we lose the tension needed in the hamstrings and glutes to reap the benefits of this movement.
A simple way to improve this is to use a foam roller for external feedback - it guides the foot as the hip goes into extension and makes sure the leg follows the path throughout the movement.
Hope this helps!
✅ The easiest place to start is to pull ourselves up from the ground. This variation gives us an opportunity to learn how to engage the back and core with a stable base support.
🆙 Elevating the feet removes the stable base and increases the demands on core and upper body. This can be difficult enough sometimes used for later stage progression.
🤙🏼 Hanging improves grip strength (can’t do pull ups without gripping the bar), scap pull ups develops scapular awareness and strengthens the stabilizers needed during pull ups.
⬇️ Bands take away some gravity while still maintaining the core demand. Perform these safely of course.
💪🏼 Even if we can’t do a pull up, we can still lower ourselves from the bar for a few seconds - this is because our muscles are stronger during the lowering part (the eccentric phase). Work on slow eccentrics to practice recruiting the muscles needed.
🚨 There are many things we can do to improve our pull up game, but nothing replaces practicing the actual movement. Frequency is key 🔑
Happy training!