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You Don’t Have To Deadlift
In this blog, I explain why you don’t have to deadlift, and provide you with practical modifications and alternatives that
Abdelrahman Refaey
12 فبراير، 2026
Let me be very clear up front – I am NOT anti-deadlifts, and I am NOT saying that you shouldn’t perform deadlifts. However, there are times when temporary, or permanent, changes to your training routine can be helpful. Being flexible in your approach is likely beneficial for consistency, longevity, and long-term progress.
For now, when I say “deadlifts,” I am referring to what most people think of – conventional and sumo deadlifts with a barbell.
Conventional deadlifts typically involve a narrower stance, feet pointed forward, hands outside the feet, and more of a forward trunk lean.
On the other hand, sumo deadlifts usually require a wider stance, feet rotated outward, hands inside the feet, and a more upright trunk.
Obviously there can be individual differences, such as variability in stance width during sumo deadlifts. Your preferences might depend on your anatomy, range of motion, strength, etc.
If you’re a powerlifter or someone who enjoys conventional or sumo deadlifts, but are currently limited by pain, there are a variety of modifications that you can implement.
Here are 8 considerations:
1. Weight/Intensity. The easiest thing you can do is reduce the load or use a lower percentage of your 1 rep max.
2. Volume. Decrease the number of daily or weekly sets.
3. Frequency. Either spread out your weekly volume over more days to minimize the chance of overdoing it within a session, or deadlift less often to allow for appropriate recovery between sessions. These first three considerations all have to do with load management, which is important for any exercise or program.
4. Effort. Don’t push as close to failure. This might tie in with intensity by using higher rep ranges with lighter weights.
5. Range of Motion. You can reduce the range of motion by lifting off of blocks or plates.
6. Speed. You can lift with a slower tempo or incorporate pauses at different ranges of motion. This would likely go hand-in-hand with reducing the load.
7. Technique. You can re-evaluate your technique or alternate between conventional and sumo deadlifts.
8. Exercise Variation. If you need to take a temporary break from conventional or sumo deadlifts secondary to pain, you’ve decided that they aren’t necessary for your goals, or you just feel like you can’t get them to work for you, you can attempt other deadlift variations, like trap bar deadlifts, kettlebell deadlifts, or dumbbell deadlifts.
Personally, I’d highly recommend considering Romanian Deadlifts, or RDLs.
Unlike conventional and sumo deadlifts that start from the ground, RDLs start from the standing position, which means you get to choose how far you lower the weight based on your body proportions, flexibility, and comfort.
If you haven’t read our previous blog on the topic, let me quickly take you through a 5-step process, beginning with the set-up.
Generally, when using a barbell, you would lift the bar from a height that requires a small bend in your hips and knees, take a few steps back, and then begin your first repetition.
If you don’t have a rack available to you, you would deadlift the bar from the ground and then start your first repetition.
Your feet should be roughly hip-width apart, and they can be facing forward or slightly turned out.
Your hands should be slightly wider than the position of your legs and the bar centered over the middle of your feet.
Brace your trunk like you’re preparing to get punched and then imagine bending the ends of the bar toward you to contract your lats and upper back.
There is no need to overarch during the set-up, so you can maintain the natural lordosis of your low back.
The next step is the descent, or lowering portion of the exercise.
Initiate at the hips by driving your butt back, while keeping the shins fairly vertical. As you lower down, you will have a slight bend in your knees.
You should not be actively reaching down with your arms. Instead, the bar is lowering as a result of the movement from your hips.
Focus on keeping your trunk braced, your lats and shoulders engaged, and the bar close to your legs.
While keeping the low back relatively flat and knees slightly bent, you are trying to tap into a stretching sensation of the hamstrings by increasing the distance between its attachments at the pelvis and knee.
The easiest way to do this is by attempting to lift your butt up and back. This small anterior tilt of the pelvis should help you feel the hamstrings working more.
The third step, which is the bottom of the movement, is more of the same.
If you’ve lost tension or focus, you can go through your mental checklist of what you should be doing, such as bracing your trunk and keeping your back muscles engaged. More importantly, you may need to cue yourself to lift your butt up and back again to feel that stretch in your hamstrings.
Since the goal is to keep the low back relatively flat while hinging at the hips, the bottom portion of the movement usually ends when this stretch is felt, just before the low back begins to round.
An expert lifter may try to maximize the stretching sensation, while a novice just touches on it.
Step four, the ascent, is just a reversal of the descent. Think about pushing the floor away from you with your feet and driving your hips forward, while keeping the bar close and maintaining the rigidity of your trunk and shoulders.
The last step is returning to the upright position. You can finish driving your hips forward by squeezing your glutes at the top. Once again, there is no need to overextend your low back.
An advanced technique involves stopping the range of motion before you are fully upright to maintain constant tension on the glutes and hamstrings.
With novices struggling to perform consistent technique and range of motion, external feedback in the form of plates or blocks can be used. You would just set the height appropriate for you and then tap those objects as if they were eggs you didn’t want to crack.
This can actually be really useful in rehab for people experiencing low back pain or nerve symptoms with bending forward because they can work within a tolerable range of motion and then gradually increase that range of motion over time as symptoms improve.
Using a tempo can also reinforce technique. When you’re first learning the movement, try descending over the course of 2-4 seconds and pausing at the bottom for 1-3 seconds. It’s a long repetition, but that time gives you the ability to practice all of the cues I mentioned earlier.
If you’re someone who is more flexible, you can perform deficit RDLs by standing on plates or blocks. This is not necessary for most people.
If you have access to a Smith Machine, the fixed track decreases the complexity of the exercise.
If you’d prefer to use dumbbells, they are a great alternative as your arm position is more modifiable. I like to start with the dumbbells at my side, angle them in front of me as I lower down where the tension matters, and then return back to the starting position.
If the dumbbells are directly at your side the entire time, they can bump or rub your thighs. Plus, you typically want the weight in front of you at the bottom of the movement.
Likewise, I find that holding dumbbells directly in front of me through the entire exercise can feel a little clumsy at the start and when passing my knees.
However, you can play with what feels best for you. Just know that your arm position can influence how light or heavy dumbbells feel compared to a similarly weighted barbell, and you may not feel like your strength transfers perfectly between the two variations.
Other RDL variations include a kickstand stance, in which one leg is in front of the other, and a single leg RDL.
The kickstand RDL, also known as a B-stance RDL, is a way to target one leg at a time without compromising your balance.
A single leg RDL can be done with a barbell, dumbbells, or kettlebells, including using a weight in only one hand. I tend to feel single leg RDLs more in my glutes, especially when holding a weight in the opposite hand, as it biases the gluteus medius.
However, if balance or fatigue in your ankle and foot compromise your ability to load the exercise, you can use a smith machine or your free hand to help with stability.
Recently, I’ve been performing RDLs on the belt squat machine once per week, which I’ve found to be quite effective and easy to progress.
As I stated in the introduction of this blog, you don’t have to deadlift. Aside from powerlifters who are competing in a specific sport, many people deadlift with the intention of increasing the strength and muscle mass of their hamstrings, adductors, glutes, and spinal erectors. If for some reason you can’t perform any deadlift variation or you simply don’t want to, there are plenty of exercise alternatives to train for those adaptations.
Two of the best devices or machines at the gym are the Roman Chair and GHD.
These can be performed:
Similarly, you can do Reverse Hyperextensions using the machine built for them or with the GHD, a box, a bench, etc.
Other options include:
Keep in mind that this is not an all-inclusive list and I’m not suggesting that these exercises are perfect 1-to-1 alternatives for conventional or sumo deadlifts. What I’m suggesting is that you can build a program that improves the strength and muscle mass of your hamstrings, adductors, glutes, and spinal erectors without ever performing a deadlift variation, if that’s what you need or what you prefer.
Here’s a 2 day per week lower body training program as an example:
Monday
Thursday
This is a random example. You’d have to tailor the program to your individual needs. You could incorporate bridges, hip thrusts, or even RDLs. The point is that you can be flexible with your training program and still accomplish most of your rehab or training goals without having to include a specific deadlift variation, if needed or desired.
This blog can be summarized with the following: You don’t have to deadlift, but you can if you want to. This is true of almost any exercise or activity. There are so many modifications and alternatives you can try, so discover what works best for you. And what works best for you right now might be different than what worked best for you in the past or what works best for you in the future. Training and rehab are all about never ending learning and growth.
Thanks for reading. Check out the video and please leave any questions or comments below.
In this blog, I explain why you don’t have to deadlift, and provide you with practical modifications and alternatives that