sldl's

[mds_79]

when performing sldl's should i keep my knees completely straight, or bend them slightly?

thanks

[The_Chicken_Daddy]

Hmmm...if you bend your legs it would kinda take away the whole idea of 'Straight' leg deadlifts....

Do you agree?:)

[mds_79]

thats what i thought too, but some people say its dangerous to perform with legs completely straight. personally i keep my legs straight with no bend.

anyone else?

[The_Chicken_Daddy]

How can you achieve a good stretch of the hams with bent legs?

Who told you that it was dangerous?

[Chris Rodgers]

A SLIGHT bend in the knees is good. You don't really want to perform any exercise with your knees locked out. So, don't totally bend your legs, but keep your knees slightly bent and focus on your hams really hard. Also, I wouldn't bring the bar lower than mid-shin level. It could make you round your back to go any lower.

[The Old Man]

I agree with latman. I find that I slightly bend at the knee to take presure off the joint. I don't know that you want to perform to many exercises with your joints locked. I also go down to about mid shin and then back up.

I also have knee problems from prior football and wrestling injuries.

[Edited by The Old Man on 01-19-2001 at 10:20 PM]

[Joe Black]

I think you need to have a slight bend..

It would be dangerous in my opinion to lift the bar from the floor and up with locked out knees. Surely that would place unnessecary pressure on the knees..

Just give yourself enough of a bend as not to lock and and really feel the hams stretch..

[Albert]

You may already know this, but it made all the difference in the world to me: when raising the weight, don't lift with your back---thrust forward with your hips. ...yeah, you'll kinda look like you're doing what you're thinking about. In order to use the pelvic thrust efficiently, you have to have your legs fairly stiff at the beginning of the movement, but I flex my kness at the top and when lowering. If your backs hurt more than your hamstrings, you're doing them wrong.

Also, how does everyone hold their feet, together or a few inches apart? I've seen both ways performed by bodybuilders, I like a couple apart for stability.

[gino]

I keep my legs straight. As you mentioned, I thrust the hips forward and queeze the butt cheeks together on the way up, keeping the arch in my back perfectly stationary.

[Anthony]

The correct name is STIFF leg deadlift. Like the others have stated, a slight bend in the leg is good. Locked joints can result in injury.

[Go Stars]

Especially to those that are double jointed, OUCH!!

[xraygirl]

To add on to what 'da Latman said...You also want to keep the bar close to the body. I've seen a bunch of people bring the bar away from the body when lowering. That puts unnecessary strain on the back, so don't do it!!! :) As for foot width, it depends on the size of your pelvic girdle. If you have a larger, wider one, you'll probably need to have your feet slightly apart. Most men and few women have a fairly narrow pelvic girdle and can get away with having the feet together.

D.

[Edited by xraygirl on 01-23-2001 at 09:22 PM]

[Maki Riddington]

Most men and few women have a fairly narrow pelvic girdle and can get away with having the feet together.

Your absolutely correct,most woman have wide hips,because of this they usally end up hurting their knee joint(ACL)
Be carful especially around that time of month,due to joint laxity.

[breeze]

I recently started doing sldl as a regular routine. When I kept my legs straight there was massive pressure behind my knees. This prevented me from going heavy. Now I I do them with slightly bended knees. By bending my knees there is no pressure on them, and I can go heavy. Also, by bending my knees I am feeling pressure on the hams through out the entire movement. when I had my knees straight I was only feeling my hams in part of the movement. based on my hams, I would say that my hams are getting a better workout with my knees bended.