Deadlifts, RDLs, and the Fake Risk/Reward Ratio

by Jack Bissett, SSC | December 17, 2025

Vast quantities of hot air are emitted by coaches and influencers up
and down the country every single day on the deadlift and its poor
risk to reward ratio. The deadlift, so they say, is an inherently
risky and dangerous movement with the potential to inflict serious
injury on the person performing it. This obvious truth, coupled with
the fact that you can get an equally effective stimulus from the
deadlift’s much safer cousin, the Romanian Deadlift (RDL), means
that the juice just isn’t worth the squeeze when it comes to
pulling from the floor. This is yet another example of a widely
accepted and acknowledged idea in the fitness world being completely
and utterly wrong, as I will now demonstrate.

The
Risk

The idea that the
deadlift is a dangerous movement is very common, but the data does
not support this claim. Injury rates among competitive powerlifters
and Olympic weightlifters remain low when compared to most other
professional sports. The anecdotal data from competent coaches who
coach the deadlift every single day also suggest that it’s
perfectly safe when programmed and executed correctly.  

The very few deadlifting tweaks I’ve seen have always come down to
sloppy technique and over-ambitious weight selection on the part of
the lifter. Indeed, most back issues I’ve dealt with in my own
experience had more to do with that individual being overweight
and/or sedentary. Yet you don’t see many coaches or influencers
going around claiming that being sedentary is inherently dangerous
for your spine.

As for the RDL, there
is no evidence, anecdotal or otherwise, that it is safer than the
conventional pull. I think the perception that the RDL is safer comes
in part from the idea that it places less stress on the lower back.
To that I would say two things: first, your lower back is not
special, it responds and adapts to stress just like every other part
of your body.

Second, when people
talk about “stress” on the lower back they’re very seldom
talking about tension or compression forces. Normally, they’re
talking about moment force. It is the rotational forces on the spine
that are generally perceived as the most dangerous ones. Well, the
RDL typically produces a more horizontal back angle than the deadlift
does, meaning the RDL puts a greater moment arm on the lower back
than the deadlift does. So, wouldn’t that make the RDL “riskier”?

All of this is to say
that the suggestion that the deadlift is risky is just that: a
suggestion, based mostly on vibes, received opinion, and confirmation
bias – not reasoning or data.

The
Reward

“Okay, the deadlift
isn’t risky. But still, why should I bother with it when I can get
an equally good training stimulus from performing RDLs?” This idea
can only be true if you don’t think about it at all. When training
for strength you want to prioritize exercises that use the greatest
amount of muscle mass, over the longest effective range of motion, to
lift the greatest amount of weight. If you apply this analysis to
these two movements the argument falls apart quickly.

The deadlift uses more
muscle mass since the quads are largely removed from the RDL. The
deadlift also uses a longer range of motion (I know some people can
RDL down to the floor but that’s not the typical way they are
performed), and uses far heavier loads than the RDL too. In addition,
if you consider that RDLs are typically programmed for higher reps
than the deadlift the problem becomes even worse.

Once again, the
argument really comes down to feelings and perceptions. The RDL
provides a deep stretch for the hamstrings, coupled with the pump
generated by higher rep work, and it’s easy to feel the
localized effect of the RDL. The fatigue produced by the deadlift is
far more general. It manifests as whole body exhaustion, not local
muscle soreness or burning. To the uninitiated and the ignorant it is
therefore easy to conclude that the RDL is providing a greater
stimulus and is the more effective “hinge” movement, but this
simply does not stand up to scrutiny. Whichever way you slice it the
deadlift provides a far more powerful strength training
stimulus than the RDL – because the weight is heavier

The
Truth Behind the Ratio

The deadlift is no more
or less “risky” than the RDL and it provides a much more powerful
training stimulus, so why does this idea persist in weight rooms
around the world? The answer is simple; coaches and lifters taking
the easy way out.

Heavy deadlifts are
hard. They’re stressful, scary, and often suck. They demand a lot
from you, mentally and physically, and that’s why they’re so
damned effective. They also require knowledge, experience, and a
little bit of effort to coach correctly. RDLs, on the other hand, are
easy. They’re nowhere near as stressful to perform because they
don’t challenge your mind or body in the same way. They also
require minimal instruction and input to coach. Why do something hard
when you could do something easy, right? The only problem is that
“easy” doesn’t work.

I don’t mean to dish
on the RDL here. It’s a perfectly fine assistance exercise and it
does have a place in your training arsenal. The problem isn’t the
RDL. The problem is coaches and lifters avoiding hard work and rather
than acknowledging their cowardice they try to hide behind
intellectual sounding claims about risk-to-reward ratio, as if
they’ve made a seriously considered analysis of the situation. They
haven’t; they’re lazy morons, and they’re just coping. What’s
worse is that their bullshit feeds into the negative narrative about
a perfectly safe and incredibly powerful strength training tool.

If anyone ever talks
about the risk to reward ratio of deadlifting, you have my permission
to strike them. Or just link them to this article and politely ignore
anything else they have to say on the topic. Don’t let negative
attitudes and ignorance scare you out of deadlifting. Put in the
effort, learn to do them right, hire a coach to help you, and then
see for yourself just how powerful a tool they are.