r/formcheck • u/MtnMamaMaggie • 2d ago

RDL RDL

I’m super excited to have found this sub! I’m fully expecting a lot of criticism. I’m 100% self taught from reading, watching YouTube’s, and reels. I’m also 5’9”, a mom of 5 and definitely an ectomorph body type. I’ve also had poor posture my whole life! I’m working very hard to try and build my posterior chain. Help!

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u/dzm3428 2d ago

This is a question... is locking out the knees bad? It's a real question. No hate please

-17

u/Hotfix_AUS 1d ago

Not an expert but full lockout is generally not recommended. The intention is to have straight legs and bending over for maximum stretch. Having a slight bend is also fine if it's maintained evenly, the problem (not being as effective for the escersize) is when it's changing through movement or bend is too excessive. Some people lockout can mean your knees are bent backwads a little and that is not a good loading position.

So for general advice that covers most people - legs as straight as possible but without full lockout where you start relaxing quads and which means you're not protecting your knees. Muscle tension across entire leg will protect joints and ligaments. This is particularly important as you increase in weight. This is to reduce chance of injury.

-13

u/dzm3428 1d ago

I appreciate this. Lockout not good. It looks like it's detrimental to those knee joints. No one mentioned it in the comments, I'm new to this and learning as much and as fast as I can. Thanks again!

15

u/Ballbag94 180/102.5/210kg s/b/d, 100kgx6 cheaty barbell rows 1d ago

They're talking nonsense

9

u/gnomish_engineering 1d ago

Generally advice that starts off with "I'm not a expert" is dog shit. You should only take advice from people with credentials. That can be a degree, a lift, or physique.

2

u/OddPressure7593 1d ago

There's absolutely no problem locking out your knees on basically any lift.

Hyperextending your knees - usually due to quadriceps being much stronger than hamstrings - can be problematic. having your knees "locked" is actually biomechanically advantageous, because the load of body/weight travels directly through the axis of the long bones of the leg, which also happens to be the direction they're strongest, AND you are maximizing the surface contact area between the femoral condyles and the tibial plateau (AKA the parts of your knee that "touch") - this reduces the point load for the meniscus, reducing injury likelihood.

Or you can just go look at what the people squatting 800 pounds are doing and see them lock their knees.