A couple years ago, one of my regular clients started having knee problems. What started with a minor tweak outside the gym developed into a case of serious pain that required months of physical therapy.
While she was recovering, however, my client still wanted to get crazy strong and feel like a boss in the gym. Since many lower body exercises caused pain, we started spending a lot of time training single-leg deadlifts.
With single-leg deadlifts, my client was able to move lots of weight safely while also building strength in muscles which helped her recovery.
This is just one way to use gym workarounds to avoid pain and still chase your goals. A single awesome exercise can allow you to progress in multiple ways without restrictions.
This week’s blog post is the first in an occasional series I’ll write about great exercises you should perform more often. In this first edition, I wax poetic about why the single-leg deadlift is such a useful exercise and how you can master it despite its unique, challenging demands.
Why they’re awesome
Almost everyone can benefit from more posterior chain work. Years of sitting, running, or lower body workouts centered around squats, leg extensions, and leg presses consist of too much attention paid to your front side and too little attention paid to your back side. This can cause you to feel weak and stiff, and make you more vulnerable to injuries down the road.
The single-leg deadlift lights up the muscles on your backside like few other exercises. Beyond helping you feel better and get stronger, this builds muscle in your glutes and hamstrings. If you’re looking to build buns of steel and tree trunk legs, or just want to look more toned, you definitely need to include single-leg deadlifts in your training.
Single-leg deadlifts are also a great tool to help you improve your balance. Balance is important as we age, when recovering from certain injuries, and when training to maximize athletic performance.
Many people think they need to exercise on unstable and wobbly surfaces for balance training, however, the reality is that most situations that require balance happen on solid ground. Single-leg deadlifts teach you to stabilize your body on one leg without the risks of falling off a tool like a bosu ball.
Finally, as mentioned above, single-leg deadlifts are injury-friendly. I often use these with clients suffering from knee and back pain because they can usually be performed without pain. Readers with cranky knees may actually find performing single-leg deadlifts on a regular basis helps their knees feel better.
Learning the single-leg deadlift
One of the biggest obstacles to learning the single-leg deadlift is poor balance. Many people give up on this exercise after their first try because they hate wobbling around and feel they aren’t able to reap the full benefits of the movement.
Thankfully, there are several simple ways to practice single-leg deadlifts without taxing your balance. If you can master these variations, you’ll have a much easier time progressing to loaded variations.
You can use a slider to practice this exercise while keeping both feet on the floor. Start with this variation if you struggle with balance. Focus on feeling this in the stationary leg as much as possible by keeping a light touch on the slider.
After you’re comfortable with the slider, you can progress to lifting the back leg off the floor. I love this bench-assisted single-leg deadlift that I learned through Strength Faction.
Stand with one foot on the floor next to an incline bench. Place your opposite arm on the bench for balance. As you hinge backward, your arm slides down the bench in front of you. Reach your same side arm out in front of you to provide additional counterbalance.
Next, it’s time to nail down the position of the back leg. There are two variations I use to teach an active and straight back leg. First, position your back foot on a flat bench. Try to push your foot along the surface of the bench as you hinge backward.
You can also use a foam roller to guide the back leg through the movement. Hold the roller on top of your back foot. As you hinge, push the roller backward to guide your leg.
These two drills teach you to actively push your back heel to the wall behind you and keep your toes pointed at the ground beneath you.
Loading the single-leg deadlift
Once you’ve mastered the basic mechanics, it’s time to load the single-leg deadlift up with weights. I use a progression that moves from least balance demand to most balance demand.
The first way I load the single-leg deadlift is with a landmine. I love using the landmine as a teaching tool because it allows you to push into it to stabilize yourself if you lose your balance.
As you use more weight, or if you have small hands, it can become difficult to grasp the barbell. Lifting straps can help you load an appropriately challenging amount of weight.
Next, I have clients hold two dumbbells or two kettlebells at their sides in the suitcase position. If you want an extra challenge, you can also use a loaded barbell. Barbells and kettlebells can be set on the ground and done in a bottoms-up variation. To keep things simple, just hold the dumbbells and kettlebells in your hands and hinge back as far as you can without worrying whether or not you set them on the ground.
Finally, load the single-leg deadlift contralaterally by holding a weight in one hand on the side opposite the leg on the ground. This is the most challenging loading variation because you’ll need to use your core to resist rotation. Only attempt this variation if you feel confident in your balance and ability to execute the movement.
Want to get better at squatting and deadlifting? Download your FREE copy of my mini ebook Squat and Deadlift School below.