Teaching 1-leg SLDL (or progressing to it)

Teaching 1-Leg SLDL

Teaching the single leg deadlift can provide some challenges since I find that most people have some trouble simply hip hinging even on two legs. At Endeavor, we call the warm-up version of these inverted reaches and incorporating these into the warm-up everyday can have great carryover to the actual 1-leg SLDL. There are many cues that you can use with athlete’s such as…

Reach your heel back
Get as long as you can from your heel to your arms
Push your butt back and stay on your heel

Sometimes these cues are not successful so there are other ways ideas that we may need to come up with. One way is to incorporate a med ball as the weight creates a reflexive balance. Another way is using the medicine ball and setting up just far enough so when you reach, the ball or hands can touch the wall. A third way is to have them reach their heel back and touch the wall. The fourth option, if necessary, is to use both a box and the wall, set up between them and reach and touch both. No matter what way works, we are trying to create make them shift their weight back onto their heel, keeping the hips pointed down, and keeping the entire spine neutral (this is what the “reach” part helps with). Here is a short video with the medball.