Wide Stance Stiff Legs
The wide stance stiff-leg deadlift is a barbell hip hinge performed with your feet set wider than shoulder width and your knees held nearly straight throughout the lift. The wider stance shifts some of the work onto your inner thighs while keeping the main load on your hamstrings and glutes. It suits lifters who already have a solid grasp of a normal-stance hip hinge and want a variation that stretches the hamstrings from a different angle.
Why it works
Keeping your knees nearly locked turns the lift into a pure hip hinge: the bar travels down as your hips fold backward, which lengthens your hamstrings under tension before they contract to pull you back up. Spreading your stance wider than usual rotates your thighs out slightly, which pulls your adductors into the pattern as secondary stabilizers, and it shortens the distance the bar has to travel because your hips sit a little lower at the bottom. Your lower back and glutes work isometrically and dynamically to keep your spine in position and finish the hip extension.
Set up
- Set up a barbell on the floor or on blocks a couple inches off the ground.
- Stand with your feet 1.5 to 2 shoulder-widths apart, toes turned out slightly.
- Grip the bar just outside your shins with your arms hanging straight down.
- Pull your shoulder blades back and brace your core before the bar leaves the floor.
How to do it
- Push your hips back while keeping your knees almost straight, letting the bar track down close to your shins.
- Lower until you feel a strong stretch through your hamstrings, usually around mid-shin or just below the knee.
- Keep your lower back flat and your chest lifted through the entire descent.
- Drive your hips forward to stand the bar back up, squeezing your glutes at the top.
- Avoid locking your knees out hard or hyperextending at the top; stop at a tall, neutral stance.
- Reset your brace between reps if you're pausing the bar on the floor.
Form cues
- Hips travel back first, not down.
- Knees stay soft, not bent or locked.
- Bar stays close to your shins the whole way.
- Flat back, chest lifted through the stretch.
Breathing: Inhale and brace before you push your hips back, then exhale as you drive your hips forward to stand up.
Common mistakes
Bending the knees like a regular deadlift instead of keeping them nearly straight.
Fix: Only allow a slight, fixed knee bend and let the movement come almost entirely from the hips.
Rounding the lower back to reach further down.
Fix: Stop the descent at the point where your back starts to round, even if that means not touching the floor.
Letting the bar drift away from the shins on the way down.
Fix: Keep the bar brushing your legs for the whole range of motion to keep the load over your midfoot.
How to program it
- This is a loaded hip hinge under near-straight legs, which puts real stretch-based stress on the hamstrings, so one focused session a week is plenty unless it's the only hamstring work on your schedule that week.
- Three sets of 6 to 10 reps with a weight well below your regular deadlift is enough; the wider stance and locked knees make this a stretch and control drill, not a max-effort pull.
- Place it after your main squat or deadlift work for the week, since it adds extra hamstring fatigue on top of whatever hip hinging you've already done.
- Build up load slowly here; the straight-leg position stretches the hamstrings more per pound than a bent-knee deadlift, so jumps that feel fine on a regular deadlift can feel heavy here.
Safety notes
- Stop the descent the moment your lower back starts to round, regardless of how far you planned to go.
- Use lighter loads than your regular stance deadlift until you've tested how your hamstrings respond to the wider stance.
- Skip this variation on a day your hamstrings already feel tight or fatigued from running or another hip-hinge exercise.
Exercise profile
- Force
- Pull
- Mechanics
- Compound
- Category
- olympicWeightlifting
Frequently asked questions
How many sets of wide stance stiff-leg deadlifts should I do?
Three sets of 6 to 10 reps with a weight you can control through a full stretch is enough. This variation is about the stretch and the hip hinge pattern, not about moving maximum weight.
Can I do stiff-leg deadlifts without a barbell?
Yes. A pair of dumbbells or a single heavy dumbbell held with both hands works the same hip hinge pattern; just keep the weight close to your legs the way you would with a bar.
Wide stance stiff-leg deadlift vs sumo deadlift, what's the difference?
A sumo deadlift lets your knees bend deeply and pulls the bar from the floor using your legs and hips together. The stiff-leg version keeps your knees nearly straight so almost all the work goes into your hamstrings through a hip hinge. Both use a wide stance, but they load different things.
Why does my lower back hurt during stiff-leg deadlifts?
Lower back strain here almost always means the bar drifted too far forward or you kept descending after your back started to round. Stop a few inches higher and keep the bar against your shins.
How far should I lower the bar on stiff-leg deadlifts?
Go only as low as you can while keeping your lower back flat, usually to about mid-shin. Hamstring flexibility, not a fixed height, decides how far you go.