But if you stretch your hammys with "a barbell in your hands," how do you get back up with that "barbell in your hands?" All the individual muscles of the posterior chain (spinal erectors, glutes, hamstrings) are involved to some extent in getting you upright again. To what extent each of these muscles are involved can be an issue of mind and muscle connection. To some that comes more naturally than others like how some guys automatically use their biceps more heavily than their upper back muscles in pullups and rows at first. The SLDL movement is supposed to heavily work all the muscles of the posterior chain. Continue missing the mind and muscle connection with the glutes and hammys, and you'll find yourself hitting a plateau in the movement sooner than need be and may also increase your risk of injury to one of those muscles. Try this: when coming back up focus on driving your feet into the floor and back while squeezing your glutes.
Also, I too prefer Romanian Deadlifts for working these same muscles.
Thanks alot for the tip bro!! I tried this today while deadlifting and finally got my hams and glutes involved in the movement. If i knew how to give karma I'd hook you up man.
When you guys do SLDL, do you stand on some sort of incline? or just do them on the floor like regular DL's but keep your legs straight. For me doing it the latter way, doesn't do much, maybe because im so flexible? I dont know.