Cable Romanian Deadlift
The cable Romanian deadlift is a hip hinge where you hold a bar from a low pulley and lower it along your legs with soft knees. It trains the hamstrings and glutes, with the lower back stabilising. The cable pulls slightly forward and loads lighter, which makes it a good teaching tool or a high-rep hamstring finisher.
Muscles worked
The cable romanian deadlift trains the hamstrings and glutes, with lower back helping.
Primary
Helpers
- Lower Back
Weekly sets for hamstrings
Hard sets per week that Swole.fit plans for hamstrings, counting every exercise that trains it. Start a cycle near the growth line and climb toward the recovery limit before a deload.
How to do the cable romanian deadlift
- 01Set the pulley at the lowest position and attach a straight bar or two D-handles.
- 02Grab the attachment with an overhand grip and stand tall about a step back from the stack.
- 03Bend your knees slightly and brace your midsection with your shoulders pulled back.
- 04Push your hips back and slide the bar down your legs until you feel a strong hamstring stretch.
- 05Drive your hips forward to stand back up, keeping the bar close to your legs.
Coaching cues
- Hips back, chest long
- Bar stays close to your shins
- Stretch the hamstrings, then stand
Common mistakes
- Rounding your back to reach lower uses your spine for range, so stop where your hips stop moving back.
- Bending the knees deeply turns the hinge into a squat, so keep the slight knee bend fixed from the start.
- Standing far from the stack lets the cable pull you forward, so start close and keep your weight over your mid-foot.
How Swole.fit programs it
Log it once and the app plans the next session for you.
- Most sets land between 8 and 15 reps, the range the plan steers compound lifts toward for size.
- Week one starts around 2 to 3 reps in reserve. Each week you train a little closer to failure, ending around 0 to 1 in reserve before a deload week.
- Hit the top of the range on every set and the next session adds the smallest real jump in weight, rounded to the plates, dumbbells or stack you actually have.
- Sets for this exercise count toward your weekly volume for every muscle it trains: a full set for the primary muscles, half a set for the helpers.
The full method, with the maths, is in how mesocycles work.
Cable Romanian Deadlift alternatives
Same muscles, different tool. Swap in one of these when the equipment is taken or your joints want a change.
- Dumbbell Romanian DeadliftDumbbell, hamstrings, glutes
- Glute Ham RaiseMachine, hamstrings, glutes
- Cable Pull-ThroughCable, glutes, hamstrings
- Barbell DeadliftBarbell, back, glutes, hamstrings
- Barbell Romanian DeadliftBarbell, hamstrings, glutes
- Kettlebell SwingKettlebell, band and specialty bar, glutes, hamstrings
Log it. Let the app plan the next one.
Track your cable romanian deadlift free. Swole.fit picks the next weight, counts your weekly sets and tells you when to deload.