How to Do the Split Stance RDL: Equipment, Benefits & More

This move is a perfect way to attack the muscles of your posterior chain (more on this later!). It targets your hamstrings, glutes, and lower back for a stronger bottom half.

In this article, we’ll guide you through how to ace your split stance RDLs for balance, strength, and better posterior chain health. 

How to Do a Split Stance RDL?

Let’s walk through the basics of this exercise. 

Set-Up: Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Grab a dumbbell or kettlebell in each hand, keeping your arms down by your sides. 

Take a small step back with one foot (about 1-2 feet) so that your back toe is lightly touching the ground and you’re balanced on the ball of your foot. Most of your weight should be on your front foot, with the back leg providing balance.

Action: With a slight bend in your front knee, hinge at the hips by pushing your hips back.

Keep your back flat and your chest up as you lower the weights toward the ground. The movement should come from your hips, not your lower back.

Lower the weights until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings or until your torso is almost parallel to the floor.

Reverse: Engage your glutes and hamstrings to reverse the movement, driving your hips forward to return to a standing position.

Keep your back leg still and your spine neutral throughout your movement.

Reps: 8-12 reps on one side before switching to the other leg. Do 3 sets per leg.

Pro-Tip: Traditionally, dumbbells or kettlebells are the most accessible options for beginners to this exercise. If you want to spice things up, use a barbell or trap bar as your weight source. This offers heavier weight options. 

The opening in a trap bar lets you easily split your stance without worrying that your foot placement will interfere with your equipment. 

Differences Between Split Stance RDL and Traditional RDL

You may already be familiar with traditional RDL, but what makes Split Stance RLD different? 

1. Foot Placement

Traditional RDL: Here, you stand with both feet on the ground, hip-width apart, distributing your weight equally.

Split Stance RDL: One foot sits slightly behind the other. Most of your weight is on your front foot. The purpose of the split stance is to shift your emphasis to only one leg. This makes it a unilateral (single-side dominant) exercise.

Foot position can dramatically impact all kinds of leg workouts. For example, leg press foot placement and hack squat foot placement can be deciding factors in whether you’re working your glutes or your quadriceps. 

When you decide how to place your feet, always understand what your key goal is during any exercise. That way, you can strategically use the ideal placement for your key goal. 

2. Balance and Stability

Traditional RDL: A traditional RDL requires less balance and stability since both of your feet are planted evenly. This is a bilateral move, so you get equal weight distribution between both sides of your body, focusing on hamstring and glute engagement.

Split Stance RDL: Using a split stance demands more balance and stability since your feet are staggered. This helps you engage your core and smaller stabilizing muscles around your hips.

3. Targeted Muscles

Traditional RDL: Primarily targets the hamstrings, glutes, and lower back on both sides equally.

Split Stance RDL: While it still targets the hamstrings, glutes, and lower back, the split stance allows for greater focus on one side at a time. This helps address any muscle imbalances between the left and right sides.

4. Range of Motion

Traditional RDL: Generally, a standard RDL lets you get more range of motion since both legs are equally involved.

Split Stance RDL: The range of motion might be slightly less since your emphasis is on one leg. It can give you a deeper stretch and greater muscle activation on the working side.

Benefits of Split Stance RDL

So now that we understand the split stance vs. traditional RDL, how does changing up your foot position affect the integrity of your movement? 

Here are some of the key benefits of split stance RDLs. 

1. Unilateral Strength

Using a split stance allows you to correct muscle imbalances between your left and right legs. Split stance RDLs add a balance component to your regular RDL. This can make them a bit more challenging if you struggle with stability, but they’re also beneficial if it’s a skill you’re looking to build up!  

Effects of unilateral vs. bilateral resistance training are significant. Training with emphasis on one leg, like in a split stance, allows you to help regulate muscular imbalances. 

This makes them a great RDL alternative to improve hip stability and address any muscle imbalances. If you find you’re stronger on one side than the other, splitting your stance offers you a chance to make tweaks to even out both sides of your body. 

That way, you can make evenly distributed strength gains. 

2. Enhances Hip Stability 

In a split stance, you challenge your balance more than you would with a regular stance. 

This lets you build up your hip stability and also use more core engagement.

3. Injury Prevention

When you focus on one leg at a time, it’s easier to address weaknesses and stop injuries related to muscle imbalances before they happen. 

This method of training can be more preventative because you build up equal strength in both sides of your body, so you’re less susceptible to hurting yourself. 

4. Posterior Chain Health

RDLs and their variations help open up your entire back body— also known as the posterior chain. 

In an electromyographic analysis of Romanian, step-Romanian, and stiff-leg deadlifts, these exercises and variants were shown as one of the best ways for bodybuilders to improve posterior chain strength and health. 

Although the step-Romanian deadlift proved most effective in this study, all deadlift variations have some positive impact on the posterior chain. 

What Muscles Does the Split Stance RDL Work? 

This lower body move certainly packs a punch— based on the benefits, it’s clear that a lot is going on in your body! 

Split stance RDLs target several muscle groups in your lower body and the posterior chain (the pathway along the back side of your body). On top of this, they help to work smaller stabilizing muscles in your core.

Here's a breakdown of the muscles worked:

Primary Muscles Targeted

1. Hamstrings

Located at the back of your thighs, your hamstrings are the main muscles that the hip hinge in your RDL activates. Hamstrings flex your knees and extend your hips.

2. Glutes 

Your gluteus maximus is your largest butt muscle muscle and is a key player when extending your hips during an RDL. When you come back up to standing after hinging over, you engage your glute muscles.  

3. Erector Spinae

These lower back muscles run along your spine and help you stay neutral and in alignment the whole time during your movement. If you have a tendency to round your back or slouch when you do any kind of deadlift— including RDLs— strengthening your erector spinae is a key goal to aim for. 

These muscles stabilize your lower back and prevent the rounding to save you from costly back injuries.

Secondary Muscles

1. Adductors

The adductors sit on the insides of your thighs. These muscles help stabilize your legs when you split your stance. They help draw your thighs toward the midline of your body, which contributes to your balance.

Your adductors also help keep your pelvis stable and stop your knees from collapsing inward during a split stance RDL.

2. Core 

Your abdominal and oblique (waist) muscles make up what’s known as your core. This area activates to help you stay balanced and stable in your RDLs. 

When you use a split stance instead of a regular stance, you’re off-center, which means you’re more likely to wobble or tip over. 

The core allows you to keep more of that control that will help you balance comfortably when you split your stance. 

3. Quadriceps

The front thigh muscles, or quadriceps (“quads”), come into play, but to a lesser extent. They help stabilize your front knee and keep you balanced balance.

4. Calves (Gastrocnemius and Soleus)

Your calf muscles work to stabilize your back ankle and foot, especially in a split stance position. Many of us have notoriously weak calves, so it’s important to get as much volume as you can in other calf workouts too!

For more ways to work your calves, here’s a quick guide to help: Soleus Exercises. 

5. Hip Flexors

The hip flexors of your back leg engage slightly so you can hold your split position. They also help control your movement.

Stabilizing Muscles

Along with your main muscles, this balance exercise is great since it requires you to do a lot more work to stay stable than you would in a standard stance. 

Here are the muscles that help. 

1. Gluteus Medius and Minimus

These smaller gluteal muscles, which sit on the sides of your hip, help stabilize your pelvis, particularly when your weight is on one leg in a split stance.

Muscle Activation

During a split stance RDL, your muscles on the working side (the leg in front) are more heavily engaged than the back leg. 

Your back leg mostly helps you balance. This variation lets you focus more on one side of the body so you can address muscle imbalances and boost your unilateral strength and stability.

Big Picture

Split stance RDLs can make or break your workout routine and can complement the traditional RDL by adding variety and addressing different aspects of lower body strength and stability. 

This simple move is easy to do whether you use dumbbells, kettlebells, a barbell, or a trap bar. 

The main muscular emphasis is on your hamstrings, glutes, and lower back, but it also works the other muscles of your legs, like the calves, as well as your core and adductors. 

If you’re someone who struggles with larger muscles or strength discrepancies on one side, split stance RDLs can be a great way to regulate. That way, your legs are growing and getting stronger on an even timeline.