Straight Leg Deadlift: Mike Boyle on Posterior Chain
Summary
Mike Boyle builds his posterior chain training around the one-leg straight leg deadlift, which he calls the rear foot elevated split squat of the posterior chain. Most of his recent thinking has gone into the loading problem: kettlebells cap out, a straight bar drags the shin, and grip fails before the muscles do. Once he…
Based on Episode 87 of the Just Fly Performance Podcast, a conversation between host Joel Smith and strength coach Mike Boyle.
The straight leg deadlift is the lift Mike Boyle has quietly built his posterior chain training around, and he is blunt about both the name and the version he cares about. Boyle, co-founder of Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning and among the most influential coaches in the field, works almost entirely from the one-leg version, and most of his recent thinking has gone into a problem that sounds mundane and turns out to decide everything: how to load it heavily enough to matter.
Key Takeaways
- The one-leg version is the priority. Boyle calls it the rear foot elevated split squat of the posterior chain.
- Loading is the bottleneck. Kettlebells and dumbbells run out long before the muscles do.
- Grip fails first. Past a certain load the exercise becomes a holding contest instead of a hinge.
- Athletes are stronger than expected. Boyle found minor league pitchers handling 225 on one leg.
- Heavy sleds do similar work. He treats sled pushing as a posterior chain leg press.
Why the one-leg straight leg deadlift
Boyle’s framing puts this lift in the same structural role for the posterior chain that his best-known lift occupies for the front side, and he gets his objection to the usual name out of the way at the same time.
It’s really coming down to getting good at the one-leg straight leg deadlift. The one-leg straight leg deadlift, or what some people call one-leg RDL, I hate them. I’m totally anti-Eastern European names for exercises. A one-leg straight leg deadlift to us is the rear foot elevated split squat of the posterior chain.
That analogy is the argument in miniature. He is not treating it as an accessory or a balance drill; it is the primary way his athletes load the back of the body.
The loading problem
What has changed in his programming is not the exercise but the implement, because the standard options cap out well below what athletes can actually handle.
That’s an exercise that I keep trying to get people to go heavier. We’ve started to use the U-bar a little bit, which allows us to, so imagine a trap bar without a back. And that allows you to load that unilateral pattern.
He works through a defined progression before that becomes relevant, and is clear about what forces the change.
We start with a cone reach, to try to get people to be able to have the balance to be able to do it. And then we eventually worked to single kettlebell, double kettlebell, and we finally get to the U-bars when it really becomes a loading issue.
The failure mode he describes is one most coaches will recognize, where the exercise stops training what it was meant to train.
I got up to a 70-pound dumbbell for the one leg straight leg deadlift, and then my concentration shifted much more to holding the dumbbell than it did to doing the exercise.
A straight barbell does not solve it either, for a practical reason: the bar drags on the shin. The U-bar, in his account, removes both problems at once, letting the athlete set up cleanly and load the pattern properly.
Athletes are stronger on one leg than anyone expected
Once the loading constraint was gone, the numbers surprised him, and they echoed something he had already seen in split squats.
When we were doing it with our baseball guys, we had minor league pitchers who were doing 225. It was the same bilateral deficit thing that we saw in split squat that we were seeing in the one leg straight leg deadlift. Guys were way, way stronger than we ever envisioned they would be.
That is the practical case for chasing the loading problem rather than accepting the exercise as a light accessory movement.
Heavy sleds as posterior chain work
The other shift in Boyle’s thinking is toward the sled, which he frames through an old reference rather than a new one.
I’m becoming a bigger and bigger fan of pushing heavy sleds. When you start thinking about posterior chain, sled pushing to me is very akin to the Charlie Francis idea of the reverse leg press. I’ve always said to people that heavy sled work is almost like a posterior chain leg press.
He credits Cameron Josse’s work in the same breath, positioning the heavy sled as a complement to the one-leg work rather than a substitute for it.
Pattern matters more than where the load sits
A useful aside for anyone arguing about exercise classification: Boyle has stopped defining squats and deadlifts by where the weight is held.
We used to define squat and deadlift: deadlift, the weight was in your hands; squat, the weight was on your shoulders. Now we have squat pattern and deadlift pattern, and it’s more the patterning than it is where the load is.
His example is the trap bar, which two athletes can perform as two different lifts. A more back-dominant lifter will hinge it like an RDL, while a lifter who would be a sumo deadlifter in powerlifting will produce something that looks like a half squat with the bar in their hands. As he puts it, some people squat their deadlifts and some people deadlift their squats.
Frequently asked questions
What is a straight leg deadlift?
It is a hip-hinge deadlift performed with the legs kept relatively straight, loading the posterior chain rather than the quads. Boyle works primarily from the one-leg version and prefers that name to “RDL,” which he says he dislikes.
Is the single leg straight leg deadlift the same as a single leg RDL?
Boyle treats them as the same movement and simply prefers the English name. He describes the one-leg straight leg deadlift as the posterior chain equivalent of the rear foot elevated split squat.
How do you load a single leg straight leg deadlift heavily?
Through a progression from cone reach to single kettlebell to double kettlebell, and then to a U-bar, which Boyle describes as a trap bar without a back. He moves to the U-bar specifically when loading, not balance, becomes the limiting factor.
Why does grip limit the single leg straight leg deadlift?
Because the athlete ends up concentrating on holding the weight rather than performing the hinge. Boyle describes hitting that point himself with a 70-pound dumbbell, which is why he moved to an implement that removes the grip constraint.
How much can athletes lift on a one leg straight leg deadlift?
More than most coaches expect. Once loading was no longer the constraint, Boyle reports minor league pitchers working with 225 pounds, which he attributes to the same bilateral deficit effect he had already observed in split squats.
Related on SimpliFaster
- The Posterior Chain: A Modern Approach and Perspective
- How (and Why) We Elevated the Single Leg RDL to a ‘Main Lift’
- Reconsider the Romanian Deadlift
- Deadlift Technique: Justin Moore on Posture and Hamstrings
- Acceleration Exercises for Athletes, With Cameron Josse
About the authors
Mike Boyle is a co-founder of Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning and one of the most influential figures in modern strength and conditioning. He is an author and educator best known for advancing unilateral lower-body training and for a long record of work with collegiate and professional athletes.
Joel Smith is the host of the Just Fly Performance Podcast and the founder of Just Fly Sports, a former collegiate strength and track and field coach focused on speed, power, and athletic development. Listen to the full episode with Mike Boyle on Just Fly Sports.
