maratoolRickshaw Deadlift
How to do the rickshaw deadlift
- Load the frame with the desired weight. Center yourself between the handles. You feet should be about hip width apart. Bend at the hips to grip the handles, allowing your shoulder blades to protract.
- With your feet and your grip set, take a big breath and then lower your hips and flex the knees. Look forward with your head, keep your chest up and your back arched, and begin driving through the heels to move the weight upward. As the weight comes up, pull your shoulder blades together as you drive your hips forward.
- Lower the weight by bending at the hips and guiding it to the ground.
Muscles worked
The prime movers are the quadriceps across the front of the thigh, which straighten the knee and, just as importantly, control it on the way back down.
Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the forearms hold the grip, which is often what gives out first; the glutes finish hip extension; the hamstrings assist hip extension and slow the knee down.
The lower back and traps take a share of the work as well.
Every exercise for:QuadricepsForearmsGlutesHamstringsLower back
How this movement works
The load travels toward you and several joints bend to bring it there. The arms finish work the back starts, so grip and elbow flexors sit in the path of every repetition: when people stall on a compound pull, it is more often the hands giving out than the primary muscle running out of force.
It is filed under strongman, where the load is deliberately awkward rather than balanced. Most of the difficulty goes on holding on and staying braced.
What you need
These train the quadriceps too, using equipment this one does not:
- Rocket Jumpbody only
- Rowing, Stationarymachine
- Side Squats with Barbellbarbell
- Smith Machine Hack Squatsmith machine + machine
- Split Squat with Dumbbellsdumbbell
Difficulty
Listed at intermediate level. It assumes you already own the underlying pattern and can hold position under load — if the position breaks before the target muscle tires, drop back to a beginner variation until it does not.
Of the 173 quadriceps exercises in this database, 62 are listed at intermediate level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.