Originally published December 19, 2016. Updated February 2026 with peer-reviewed research and historical sources.
In This Article
- The Problem With the Name
- How the RDL Got Its Name
- The Logical Proof
- Why This Isn’t Just Semantics
- NASM Calls It “A Form of Deadlift”
- 3HL: A Better Name
- References
NASM describes the Romanian deadlift as “a form of deadlift with noticeably less bend in the knee.”1 But there is a fundamental problem with that description. In a deadlift, the weight starts dead — motionless on the ground. In an RDL, the weight never touches the ground. If the word “dead” in “deadlift” means anything at all, then the RDL doesn’t qualify.
The Problem With the Name
The problem is that there is nothing dead in the Romanian Deadlift. The lift does not start from dead and the weight never goes dead during the set. This is yet another reason people think a hip hinge is called a deadlift — which it’s not. If you haven’t read it yet, I make the full case in What Is a Deadlift? Why the Fitness Industry Got It Wrong: a deadlift is a starting condition (weight at a dead stop on the ground), not a movement pattern (hip hinge).
If you know me personally and are following my videos or blog, then you probably know that I’m a fan of correct exercise naming — I said “fan,” I didn’t say I’d get obsessive about it, well maybe sometimes. You might have read my article on exercise naming ambiguity where I talk about naming kettlebell cleans correctly for what they are, rather than using “Clean” for many different types of cleans.
The Romanian Deadlift has the same problem. It uses the word “deadlift” when the defining characteristic of a deadlift — the dead weight on the ground — is completely absent.
How the RDL Got Its Name
Here’s the thing: the Romanian deadlift was never supposed to be called a deadlift. The exercise didn’t even have a name.
In 1990, Romanian weightlifter Nicu Vlad — an Olympic gold medalist and multiple world champion — was in San Francisco with his coach Dragomir Cioroslan, conducting a clinic at Jim Schmitz’s gym, The Sports Palace. Vlad was training for the Goodwill Games. After a heavy clean and jerk session, he loaded 250 kilos on the bar and started doing an exercise that looked like a cross between a stiff-legged deadlift and a conventional deadlift.2
The American lifters were intrigued and asked what the exercise was called. Vlad and Cioroslan looked at each other and said they didn’t have a name for it — it was just something Nicu had developed to make his back stronger for the clean.3
Jim Schmitz, who was president of USA Weightlifting at the time, suggested calling it the “Romanian Deadlift” in honor of Nicu’s nationality. The name stuck. Schmitz later told the editors of MILO, a strength sports journal, about the exercise, and they helped publicize it to a wider audience.3
Source: Schmitz, J. “RDL: Where It Came From, How to Do It.” IronMind.
Source: Heffernan, C. (2016). “Who Created the Romanian Deadlift?” Physical Culture Study.
So the name was a spur-of-the-moment decision at a gym in San Francisco. It wasn’t based on the mechanics of the exercise. It wasn’t based on any classification system. It was a nickname — and it accidentally cemented the confusion between “deadlift” as a starting condition and “deadlift” as a movement pattern.
The exercise itself was designed as a supplementary back strength exercise for Olympic weightlifting. That’s what it is. Calling it a “deadlift” implies it belongs in the deadlift family, when it actually belongs in the hang lift family.
The Logical Proof
Let’s spell it out clearly.
Step 1: A deadlift means the weight starts dead on the ground. No momentum, no pre-tension from a previous rep. You generate force from zero. (Full explanation and scientific backing in the master deadlift article.)
Step 2: The Romanian deadlift uses the same hip hinge movement pattern as a conventional deadlift. Same muscles. Same joint actions. Same mechanics. A systematic review of EMG literature on deadlift variants confirmed that exercises sharing the hip hinge pattern — including conventional deadlifts and similar stiff-legged variations — show comparable posterior chain activation patterns involving the erector spinae, gluteus maximus, and biceps femoris.4
Step 3: But in the RDL, the weight never returns to the ground between reps. You start from standing (or from a rack), lower the weight to approximately knee height, and bring it back up. The weight stays in your hands throughout the set. It is never dead.
Conclusion: The RDL shares the movement pattern of a conventional deadlift but not the starting condition. If “deadlift” described a movement pattern, the RDL would be a deadlift. But “deadlift” describes a starting condition — and the RDL’s starting condition is a hang, not a dead stop.
This is the same logical framework that proves “deadlift” is a starting condition. If two exercises use the same pattern but one is a “deadlift” and the other isn’t — then the name can’t be describing the pattern. It has to be describing the thing that’s different: where and how the weight starts.
Why This Isn’t Just Semantics
The difference between a deadlift and a hang lift isn’t just naming. It changes the training stimulus.
In a true deadlift, you release tension at the bottom of each rep. The weight goes dead. Your muscles disengage, even for a fraction of a second, and then re-engage from zero. Every rep is a fresh start. This is what makes deadlifts uniquely demanding — there’s no stretch reflex, no stored elastic energy, no momentum to help you. You have to generate force from nothing, every single time.
In an RDL, you maintain tension throughout the entire set. The weight stays in your hands. Your posterior chain stays loaded from the first rep to the last. There is no release. This creates a different stimulus — continuous time under tension, eccentric emphasis, and a different fatigue profile.
These are different training tools that produce different adaptations. The RDL is excellent for building time under tension and eccentric strength. But it’s doing something fundamentally different from a deadlift. Calling them the same thing hides that difference and makes it harder for trainees — especially beginners — to understand what they’re actually training.
This is why the exercise naming convention matters: when names are accurate, programming decisions become clearer.
NASM Calls It “A Form of Deadlift”
This is where the institutional confusion becomes visible. NASM, one of the most widely recognized personal training certification bodies, has described the Romanian deadlift on their blog as “a form of deadlift with noticeably less bend in the knee.”1 They also note that the exercise “works the hamstrings and glutes” through a “hip-hinge pattern.”
Notice what’s happening: they’re defining a “form of deadlift” by its movement pattern (hip hinge) and its muscle targets (hamstrings and glutes). But if “deadlift” is a starting condition — which the evidence supports — then calling the RDL a “form of deadlift” is incorrect. It uses a deadlift’s movement pattern, but it doesn’t use a deadlift’s starting condition.
This is exactly how the confusion perpetuates itself. A certification body teaches it. New trainers absorb it. They pass it to their clients. Social media amplifies it. And the wrong definition becomes the consensus. We covered this misinformation cycle in detail in the master deadlift article.
3HL: A Better Name
In January 2015, I decided I had enough of calling it the Romanian Deadlift. I first mentioned this in a video I posted on YouTube back in 2014 covering deadlifts.
The RDL is now the Hip Hinge Hang Lift, or 3HL for short.
Here’s why this name works:
Hip Hinge — identifies the movement pattern. The RDL is always performed with a hip hinge. Unlike the deadlift, which can be performed with a hip hinge, squat, lunge, or single-leg stance, the RDL is specifically a hip hinge movement. Including the pattern in the name makes this clear.
Hang — identifies the starting condition. The weight is hanging in your hands, not dead on the ground. This is the critical distinction. The only time “dead” comes into play with a hang lift is when you deadlift the weight up to the starting position before the set begins.
Lift — it’s a lift.
The acronym 3HL is short, clean, and actually describes what the exercise is. Compare that to “RDL,” which describes the nationality of the person who popularized it and incorrectly categorizes the starting condition.
If we all keep calling it the RDL, it will continue to cause confusion among beginners who are trying to understand the difference between a deadlift and a hang lift. Accurate names make better coaches and better trainees.
The 3HL is an awesome exercise — particularly if you’re lacking flexibility for a full deadlift from the ground, or if you’re specifically looking to increase time under tension and eccentric strength in the posterior chain. It deserves a name that tells you what it actually is.
If you don’t agree, please feel free to use the comment section below and explain why. If you do agree, I’d like to hear from you as well.
Related Articles
- What Is a Deadlift? Why the Fitness Industry Got It Wrong — the full scientific case for the deadlift as a starting condition
- Kettlebell Deadlift Form — 3 Things to Get It Right — proper technique for the hip hinge deadlift specifically
- Hip Hinge Deadlift vs Squat Deadlift — when to use each pattern
- Exercise Naming Convention — the full naming system
- Correct Exercise Naming and The Ambiguity of It — why naming precision matters across all exercises
References
- NASM (Mahaffey, K.). “Romanian Deadlift Basics.” NASM Blog.
- Heffernan, C. (2016). “Who Created the Romanian Deadlift?” Physical Culture Study.
- Schmitz, J. “RDL: Where It Came From, How to Do It.” IronMind.
- Martín-Fuentes, I., Oliva-Lozano, J.M., & Muyor, J.M. (2020). “Electromyographic activity in deadlift exercise and its variants. A systematic review.” PLOS ONE, 15(2): e0229507.
- Cavemantraining. “What Is a Deadlift? Why the Fitness Industry Got It Wrong.”
- Cavemantraining. “Exercise Naming Convention.”
The problem is that there is nothing dead in the Romanian Dead Lift. The lift does not start from dead and it’s yet another reason why people think that a hip hinge is called a deadlift, which it’s not.
If you know me personally and are following my videos or blog, then you probably know that I’m a big fan of correct exercise naming —I said ‘fan’, I didn’t say I’d get obsessive about it, well maybe sometimes—, you might have read my article here where I talk about naming Kettlebell Cleans correctly for what they are, rather than using “Clean” for many different types of Cleans.
In January 2015 I decided that I had enough of calling the Romanian Dead Lift (RDL) and as of that day I’m going to call the RDL for what it really is, which is a “Hip Hinge Hang Lift”, I won’t be calling it a Romanian Dead Lift anymore, as the weight does go dead to the ground. I first mentioned this in an older video I posted on Youtube back in 2014 covering Dead Lifts which you can view here. If we all keep calling it RDL it will just continue to cause confusion among newbies.
HHHL or 3HL
Romanian Dead Lift is now known as the Hip Hinge Hang Lift AKA 3HL.
For a lift to have the word DEAD in it, the weight needs to be dead on the ground upon each repetition, i.e. not moving and needing to be lifted without momentum, and RDLs never hit the ground.
The only dead that comes into play with the hang lift is when you ask your client to initiate the hang by Dead Lifting the weight up to starting position.
An acronym I propose to replace RDL with is 3HL (Hip Hinge Hang Lift), the RDL was never performed with a squatting movement, only hip hinging, therefore it’s quite appropriate to include the movement into the name and acronym.
If you don’t agree, please feel free to use the comment section below and explain why, if you do agree, I’d like to hear from you as well. But heck, ya’ll had since two thousand and fourteen to speak up and didn’t!
RDL is dead, 3HL or Hip Hinge Hang Lift is the new name of this awesome exercise that should be used instead of deadlifts if you’re lacking flexibility or looking for an exercise to increase time under tension.
Barbend.com has some great info on the Romanian Deadlift worth checking out.
