Stiff leg deads or deads from the floor?

HATE

New member
Anyone have an opinion on whats better in terms of safety and gains, stiff leg deads or deads from the floor? Also Im unsure on what is the best way to perform stiff leg deads, should i go to parallel or should I go down till the bar touches the tops of my feet? And I'm not in a hurry to throw around heavy weight, I know to start out light and work on form. I'm just unsure which variation will promote better strength/size in the long run.
 
They're two totally different excercises. I do stiff legged deads on leg day, and conventional deads on back day. And I personally do my stiff legged deads with 25lbs plates instead of 45ers on a 6" step to get a FULL stretch.
 
Ok I'll probably do both movements then. As for the stiff leg though how safe is it on the spine? I've done stiff leg deads before without problems but then again I wasnt using serious weight either. I've heard that using "Heavy" wieght puts alot of strain on the discs because at the bottom of the movement the muscles surrounding the lower spine disengage.
 
HATE said:
Ok I'll probably do both movements then. As for the stiff leg though how safe is it on the spine? I've done stiff leg deads before without problems but then again I wasnt using serious weight either. I've heard that using "Heavy" wieght puts alot of strain on the discs because at the bottom of the movement the muscles surrounding the lower spine disengage.
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The concern when doing stiff deads is your breathing has to be on point. You can NOT do that often taught (but totaly wrong) breath in on neg and out on pos breathing. You have to keep air in your diaphram (sp?) And create the pressure to support your spine and hold it in line. I would advise a belt also.

If you look at my YouTube page (thedunhill225) I got a vid doing stuffs with 5 and it was no problem (well short of failure on that set, was having unrelated injury issues so I didn't push it). If you touch and go, keep diaphragm full of oxygen, wear a belt and let your abs push against the belt causing the pressure to support your spine you will be fine.
 
kanakafarian said:
They're two totally different excercises. I do stiff legged deads on leg day, and conventional deads on back day. And I personally do my stiff legged deads with 25lbs plates instead of 45ers on a 6" step to get a FULL stretch.
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I heavily caution against this since its not the hamstrings that are being stretched, but rather the spinal erectors. The hamstrings have no action on the vertebrae - all their action is at the hips. In stead, by performing SL's like this, you are entering serious spinal flexion.

I second The Professor and Austrianoak on using RDL's. Much better exercise - back is kept flat and all the movement is hip flexion/hip extension vs. spinal felxion/extenion.

Br
 
I prefer romanian deadlifts - can keep back flat through this movement - also try dumbell rdl if you don't like barbell as I tried this for a change yesterday and it added some new challenges but barbell or db both feel good for hams - I find higher reps (10-15) will make them ache for longer but favour low reps 4-6 for as heavy as I can go.
 
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