How to Do Straight Leg Dead Lifts

Video Transcript

"Hello, I'm Kyle Brayer and your next in-home leg workout will be the straight leg dead lift. Karie's going to pick up her dumbbells here. They're going to add a little resistance which will help with the hamstrings. She's going to let the dumbbells just hang naturally as she keeps her legs straight, and when we say straight, she's actually going to have a slight bend in her knees to just take the tension off the knees, but she doesn't want a full bend, so just about how she is now is just kind of a natural bend as if you were standing. She'll lean forward and she'll flatten out her back as she leans forward. She's going to look up and then come back up. That's one repetition, and down and back up. The key here is performing this exercise properly, actually pulling with the hamstrings rather than with the lower back. You'll get a little tension in the lower back, but you really want to feel it on the back side of the legs. So she turns around. She also wants to keep her chest as high as possible so as she comes down, she's going to keep her chest high and look up nice and high, which is going to help prevent injury to that lower back, and then she comes back up. Let's do one more, Karie. Down, and back up. The variation would be if she were to have a bend in her knees it would actually work her lower back more so you've got to make sure that those knees are as straight as possible without locking them, which is going to focus on those hamstrings. That is the straight legged dead lift. "