Single Leg Deadlift: How To, Benefits, & Variations

The reigning king of all exercises, the deadlift is a powerhouse compound move that trains both the upper and lower body. It’s also spawned a bunch of variations, and one of the most useful is the single leg deadlift (also called the one leg deadlift).

This unilateral hinge lights up the posterior chain, builds strength and muscle, and forces your balance and stability to level up fast. In this guide, you’ll learn what it is, how to do it correctly, how it differs from a conventional deadlift, and the best variations for every level.

In this post, we'll discuss:

• What is a single leg deadlift?
• How-to instructions
• Traditional deadlift vs. one leg deadlift: What are the differences?
• Benefits and common mistakes
• Variations of the single leg deadlift

Quick Answer

A single leg deadlift is a unilateral hip hinge where you balance on one leg while pushing your hips back and keeping a neutral spine. It trains the glutes and hamstrings hard while improving balance, coordination, and side-to-side strength. Start with bodyweight or light dumbbells and prioritize control over depth.

Key Takeaways

What Is A Single Leg Deadlift?

A single leg deadlift is just as it sounds. It's a deadlift done on one leg, making it a true unilateral leg exercise.

A unilateral exercise is performed one side at a time. This allows you to identify muscular imbalances as well as improve your balance and athleticism.

Proper Form For The Single Leg Deadlift

We will go through several variations of the single leg deadlift below. However, the main movement for all of them is basically the same. Master the movement pattern, and then add weights based on your abilities.

For this how-to, we'll focus on how to perform the single leg deadlift using two dumbbells.

How to perform the Single Leg Deadlift:

• To get in the starting position, stand with feet hip-width apart, bend forward, and pick up two dumbbells, one in each hand.
• Stand up with the proper form, letting your dumbbells hang in front of your legs. Keeping one leg straight on the ground, kick the other leg to the rear. While your back leg doesn't need to be in a straight line, keeping it relatively extended will greatly improve your balance.
• With a Romanian deadlift, you will have a soft bend in your knee that is minimal and exists to allow the hips to be pushed back. Push your hips back and let your torso lean forward by bending at the knee. Again, have a slight bend in the knee and attempt to load the glutes and hamstrings as you lean forward.
• Allow your dumbbells to hang naturally with your arms straight and fully extended, your palms facing your legs. Keep your shoulders pulled back and core tight during the entire movement.
• Continue to lean your torso forward as far as you can. There is no specific point for your dumbbells to reach, but it should hit somewhere around mid-shin. Stop descending when you feel that your form is about to break. Emphasis on "about" to break.
• Begin pulling your weights upward by extending your hips. To do this, focus on driving your hips forward and squeezing your glutes. Continue until your hips are fully extended. However, you will not stand on both legs until you finish your set.
• Repeat for the desired reps.

Common Mistakes & Form Tips:

Mastering this move is essential to gaining all of its potential benefits. Use these tips to keep your reps clean and your joints happy.

1. Because you stand on only one leg, most people can get lower while keeping good form. But even though you can get lower, you still need to keep your torso straight. Don't twist your body just to get your dumbbell lower. That won’t help and it raises your risk of injury.
2. Don't bend your knee more to allow greater depth, as that ruins the point of the movement. Your focus is to load the posterior muscles, not go as low as you can. Therefore, we want to emphasize a slight bend one more time.
3. The range of motion will be greater when using one leg. If you can get your torso parallel to the floor, go for it as long as you don't sacrifice form.

What Muscles Does The Single Leg Deadlift Work?

The single leg deadlift trains the upper and lower body while concentrating on the posterior chain muscles. Here's a closer look at the muscles worked.

Hamstrings:

The hamstrings are one of the primary muscles for this movement. This muscle group, which includes the biceps femoris (both long and short head), semitendinosus, and semimembranosus, crosses both the knee joint and hip joint. This means that their actions include flexing the knee joint and extending the hip.

During a single leg deadlift, the hamstrings help the glutes pull the hips forward, making it a great hamstring exercise.

Upper Back:

While the single leg deadlift is primarily a lower body exercise, it relies on some upper body work as well, particularly the back muscles. By concentrating on pulling your shoulders back and together, your back muscles are activated.

The single leg deadlift requires a lot from your back muscles, specifically your scapular muscles (your traps and mid-back). While a tad unconventional, you could even add this move to your back workout as a hinge-based accessory.

Core (Including Lower Back & Abs):

If you talk about core muscles, people tend to mean abs. While this is correct, the core also includes the obliques and lower back (some even consider the entire torso as the core).

Together, these muscles create stiffness through the trunk to protect the spine. During the single leg deadlift, they work overtime to keep the torso from twisting and collapsing.

Glutes:

The glutes, along with the hamstrings, are the primary muscles used in a deadlift movement pattern. While there is some knee flexion (meaning some quad work), this is primarily hip extension.

In the single leg deadlift, the gluteus medius gets special activation as it's a key muscle for balancing on one leg and keeping the pelvis stable.

Benefits Of The Single Leg Deadlift

As mentioned, the single leg deadlift will increase muscular strength and build muscle mass. But there are several benefits that go beyond improving your strength and muscle.

1. The Single Leg Deadlift Trains The Posterior Chain.

The posterior chain is made up of several muscles all linked together to stabilize the back and extend the hips. The primary muscles are the glutes, hamstrings, and erector spinae, all of which are crucial to overall health, human performance, and injury prevention.

The single leg deadlift is a strong choice for training these muscles because it’s a true hip hinge with a big stability demand.

2. Unilateral Training Exposes Imbalances.

One side at a time means your stronger side can’t “cover” for the weaker side. Over time, that can help clean up asymmetries and improve how you move under load.

3. The One Leg Deadlift Improves Balance.

The balance component of the single leg deadlift is one of the variables that make this movement pattern unique and valuable for any leg workout. Everyone needs balance for sport and life.

4. It Carries Over To Unilateral Sports Movements.

Very few sports, or daily actions, take place on both legs. Walking, running, and cycling all happen one side at a time.

While bilateral exercises are crucial for maximal strength development, single leg training helps replicate real-life demands.

5. Big Training Effect Without Max Loads.

This may seem odd, since lifting heavy is a classic benefit of conventional deadlifts. But you don’t always need ultra-heavy loads to get a great stimulus.

Because balance becomes the limiter, many lifters get a challenging set with lighter external weight, which can be useful during rehab, certain stages of periodization, deload weeks, and at-home workouts (assuming you have some weights to use)².

Single Leg Deadlift Vs Conventional Deadlift

Taking away one leg during the deadlift changes the exercise’s demands. Here’s how they differ in the real world.

1) Strength vs Hypertrophy:

The traditional deadlift is primarily a strength movement. While some will use high reps for deadlifts, most lifters stay under the 5 rep mark.

With the one leg deadlift, you’ll use less load and most lifters lean toward higher reps (often 8-12), making it a strong accessory for hypertrophy and movement quality.

2) Weight Used:

People often assume a unilateral lift means 50% of the bilateral load. In practice, it’s not that clean, because your bodyweight, balance, and coordination all change the equation.

The main takeaway is simple: don’t chase a percentage. Chase great reps and progressively add load as your balance improves.

3) Hormonal Response:

The body's hormonal response to resistance training is complex, and one commonly discussed hormone is testosterone.

Interestingly, research has shown that unilateral lower-body heavy resistance training can produce testosterone responses similar to bilateral work in the short term¹. That said, acute hormone spikes do not automatically equal more muscle growth, so treat this as a cool bonus, not the main reason to do the lift.

Single Leg Deadlift Or Single Leg Romanian Deadlift?

Romanian deadlift vs. deadlift: Which one does the one leg version most closely resemble?

The truth is that there's a grey area regarding which one it falls under. But generally speaking, when people perform a one leg deadlift, it's more similar to a Romanian deadlift (RDL).

You rarely see a person begin the movement from the floor. Instead, lifters start from standing, like in the RDL. At the same time, while there isn't as much flexion in the knees, people can still go lower than they expect because the trailing leg changes the balance and range of motion.

Further, most people do a single leg deadlift to improve balance, coordination, and hypertrophy, not to pull maximal weight. That aligns better with an RDL-style hinge than a heavy pull from the floor.

Also, standing on one leg will increase the activation of your stabilizer muscles but will decrease your stability. As a result, you won't be able to exert as much force, meaning less weight is used.

Single Leg Deadlift Variations For Beginners

There are several single leg deadlift variations for lifters of all levels. Even if you're a strong deadlifter following a powerlifting program, starting with an easier version of the unilateral variation is still a good idea. Performing the movement on one leg is different, and it requires significantly more balance.

Here are 4 variations that work for almost anyone.

1. Elevated Rear Foot Single Leg Deadlift:

This is not a Bulgarian split squat, but it is similar. You will extend your rear leg back so it's in a similar position to the Bulgarian split squat.

Your rear foot rests on a bench, step stool, or platform. The rear leg acts mainly as support, not as the prime mover.

2. Single Leg Deadlift With Support:

This version uses support like a rack, doorframe, or wall. You can use a wall or door to support your back foot as you practice the hinge, or hold a rack with one hand while you move through the full range of motion.

As you progress, your goal is to use less and less support.

3. Body Weight Single Leg Deadlift:

Once your balance is sufficient, perform the movement with just your bodyweight. This is a great way to master the pattern before adding load.

4. Single Leg Deadlift With Resistance Band & Knee Drive:

Once you can perform the single leg deadlift with no support, start adding resistance. A great first step is resistance bands.

You can attach the band to something like a squat rack, or place the band under your standing leg while holding the ends in your hands. Remember that this will pull your arms back slightly when you hinge.

To further challenge your balance, once you've mastered this variation, try adding a knee drive at the end.

Advanced Single Leg Deadlift Variations

You should move through the progressions above fairly quickly, depending on your fitness level. When ready, move on to the two dumbbell variation we discussed earlier, or one of these options.

1. Single Leg Deadlift With Kettlebell:

Using a kettlebell is a favorite for many lifters because it’s easy to hold and stays centered under your hand.

If you use one kettlebell, hold it on the same side as your standing leg. For example, left leg planted means kettlebell in your left hand. Two kettlebells means one in each hand. In either version, the weight should travel down in a straight line just in front of your foot.

2. Barbell Single Leg Deadlift:

This is definitely an advanced option. You can use a barbell, but we only recommend it for experienced lifters with excellent control and balance.

Also, the barbell deadlift is the only version where you could try starting from the ground, but that’s still a high-skill variation and not necessary for most programs.

How To Program The Single Leg Deadlift

• For muscle: 2-4 sets of 8-12 reps per side, controlled tempo, 60-90 seconds rest.
• For strength and control: 3-5 sets of 5-8 reps per side, slightly heavier, longer rest.
• For warm-ups and stability: 1-2 sets of 8-10 reps per side with bodyweight or very light load.

Place it after your main lower-body lift (squats, deadlifts, leg press) as an accessory. If balance is the limiting factor, use a supported variation and build up from there.

Safety Notes

• If you have current back, hip, or hamstring pain, talk to a qualified professional before loading this movement.
• Stop the set when your torso starts twisting or your low back begins to round.
• Choose the variation that lets you keep control. That’s how you progress without playing injury roulette.

Every Training Program Needs The Single Leg Deadlift

Not enough people are performing single leg exercises. But now you can.

The single leg Romanian deadlift is an awesome exercise for building leg muscles because it has the perfect blend of challenge, progression options, and effectiveness. That’s why you see it in training plans for athletes and lifters of all backgrounds.

The one leg deadlift is great for hypertrophy, and when light weights and high reps are used, it can be used for muscular endurance as well.

If you don't currently have any unilateral training in your fitness program, we highly recommend including the single leg deadlift. That’s assuming you want to optimize your training (and we're assuming you do!).

Related:

• How To Do The Dumbbell Deadlift Correctly
• The Ultimate Guide to the Sumo Deadlift
• Sumo Deadlift Vs Conventional: What's The Difference?

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References:

1. Jones MT, Ambegaonkar JP, Nindl BC, Smith JA, Headley SA. Effects of Unilateral and Bilateral Lower-Body Heavy Resistance Exercise on Muscle Activity and Testosterone Responses. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2012;26(4):1094-1100. doi:10.1519/jsc.0b013e318248ab3b
2. Appleby BB, Cormack SJ, Newton RU. Specificity and Transfer of Lower-Body Strength: Influence of Bilateral or Unilateral Lower-Body Resistance Training. Journal of strength and conditioning research. 2019;33(2):318-326. doi:10.1519/JSC.0000000000002923