Single Legged Romanian Deadlifts

What you'll gain

• Builds glute and hamstring strength while exposing side-to-side imbalances.

• Trains the single-leg hinge pattern that carries over to running and jumping.

• Improves balance and ankle stability under load.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. 1

   Stand tall on one leg with a slight bend in the standing knee and arms hanging at your sides.

2. 2

   Brace your core and pull your shoulder blades down to set a tall, stable torso position.

3. 3

   Hinge at the hip by pushing the standing-leg hip back, letting the back leg float up behind you.

4. 4

   Keep the back leg, torso, and head in one straight line as you lower toward the floor.

5. 5

   Stop when you feel a deep stretch in the standing leg's hamstring, with the torso roughly parallel to the floor.

6. 6

   Drive the standing-leg hip forward to return to the start position, squeezing the glute at the top.

Common Mistakes

• Rounding the lower back as the torso lowers, which puts the spine at risk under load.

• Twisting the hips open as the back leg lifts, which loses the hinge alignment and balance.

• Bending too much at the standing knee so the lift becomes a single-leg squat instead of a hinge.

• Bouncing back up at the bottom instead of controlling the descent and the reversal.

About This Exercise

The single-leg Romanian deadlift is the single-leg version of one of the most-used hinges in strength training. Standing on one leg, the lifter hinges at the hip and lowers the torso while the back leg extends behind for balance, loading the glutes and hamstrings of the standing leg through a long, controlled stretch. It also exposes side-to-side balance differences that bilateral lifts hide. For app and content use, this clip is a strong fit for athletic-prep programs, glute-focused hypertrophy tracks, and rehab-adjacent content where unilateral hinge work is part of return-to-training. It's a smart pairing with bilateral RDL and hip-thrust content in any complete rear-chain library.

Looking for an exercise animation collection for your app, coaching platform, or content workflow? MoveKit gives you consistent quality across every movement so your product feels cohesive from first launch through scale.

Build faster with related MoveKit resources