How to Do Glute-Biased Hyperextensions and Romanian Deadlifts

Glute-Biased Hyperextensions & Romanian Deadlifts?

Hyperextensions and Romanian Deadlifts (RDLs) have been blowing up on TikTok and Instagram as some of the best exercises to grow that shelf and your glutes overall. But it’s also the two exercises that people have been posting the most to say they’re not sure how to target their glutes and hamstrings instead of feeling it in their lower back.

Here are a few queues and tips to make sure you’re biasing your glutes properly during these movements!

Hyperextensions – Setup

Make sure the pad of the hyperextension is set up to where your hip crease is, and to push your heels up on the footplate. During the movement, maintain a neutral spine with your chin tucked, and stay within the top half of the range of motion to target the glutes more.

Hyperextensions – Form Queues

Some queues to keep in mind are to “drive” your hips into the pad, similarly to hip thrusts, and focus on that mind-to-muscle connection in contracting the glutes to get your torso up from the bottom. By turning your feet out a bit, you can ensure that you’re fully shortening the glutes during the movement as well. Some people round their back more than others for the glute-biased version, but do what you feel the most in your glutes.

Romanian Deadlifts – Setup

RDLs can be a mix of hamstring and glute – depending on how you set it up. Slight knee bend and mostly stiff-leg RDLs tend to target more of the hamstrings – instead introduce more of a knee bend whilst still keeping your shins vertical, to get more of a stretch in your glutes.

Romanian Deadlifts – Form Queues

During the movement, make sure you’re pushing your hips back while maintaining a neutral spine and to keep the barbell close to your shins instead of warping out. Place your feet right under your hips and push your hips back as far as you can, whilst not lowering the barbell too far.

Leg Press

Another glute-bias version of a classic exercise is the leg press. Place your feet higher on the footplate whilst having a narrower stance, and push through your heels to feel it more in your glutes and hamstrings. Wider and lower stances work more of your quads and adductors on the leg press.

Final Thoughts

All of these exercises are great additions to your?leg day, and if your goal is to target more of your glutes and hamstrings, these simple queues and tips can help to target them more effectively. One of our favourite pages to follow for form and exercise tips is?Pheasyque! Their graphics explain different movements and concepts in detail, taking the guessing out of your workout as to whether you’re performing an exercise correctly!

To learn more, visit?Train Fitness.