Stop obsessing over your squat depth for a second. Seriously. While everyone in the gym is busy fighting for the squat rack to build "big legs," the real athletes—the ones who actually move well and don't have chronic back pain—are usually over in the corner focusing on lower body pull exercises. It’s the stuff that happens in the back. The posterior chain. Your hamstrings, glutes, and spinal erectors.
Most people treat the "pull" day like an afterthought. They'll throw in a few sets of leg curls at the end of a workout and call it a day. That’s a mistake. A massive one.
If you aren't prioritizing the pull, you're basically building a house with no foundation. You've got all this "show" muscle on the front (quads) and nothing to stabilize the hip or protect the knees. It’s why so many lifters end up with that annoying "anterior pelvic tilt" or knees that cave in the second things get heavy. Let's talk about what actually works and why you’re probably doing your deadlifts wrong.
Why Lower Body Pull Exercises Rule Your Movement
Basically, a lower body pull is any movement where the primary action is hip extension or knee flexion. Think about picking something up off the floor. That's a pull. Think about sprinting and digging your heel into the turf to propel yourself forward. Also a pull.
✨ Don't miss: Why Far Side Push Pull Exercises Are the Missing Piece of Your Training
The posterior chain is the engine room. Research, like the stuff published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, consistently shows that glute and hamstring strength is the biggest predictor of sprint speed and vertical jump height. Quads are for braking; the posterior chain is for going.
But it’s not just about being fast. It’s about not breaking.
When you perform lower body pull exercises correctly, you're teaching your body to hinge. The hinge is a primal movement. If you lose the ability to hinge at the hips, your lower back starts trying to do the job instead. That is a recipe for a herniated disc and a very expensive physical therapy bill. Honestly, most "back pain" in the gym isn't a back problem—it's a "my glutes are asleep and my hamstrings are tight" problem.
The Deadlift: Not Just One Exercise
People say "deadlift" like it’s one thing. It isn't.
You’ve got the Conventional Deadlift, which is the king of moving raw weight. It’s a full-body pull. Then you’ve got the Romanian Deadlift (RDL). The RDL is probably the single most effective tool for building massive hamstrings and teaching hip tension.
The difference? It’s all in the shin angle. In a conventional pull, your shins can move forward a bit. In an RDL, the shins stay vertical. You're pushing your butt back toward the wall behind you until you feel a stretch that makes you want to quit. That stretch is where the growth happens.
"The RDL is the ultimate diagnostic tool. If you can't do it without rounding your back, you have no business putting 405 on a bar for a standard deadlift." — This is a sentiment shared by coaches like Dan John and Mark Rippetoe for decades.
💡 You might also like: What Age to Get Medicare: The 65 Rule and the Exceptions That Actually Matter
Then there’s the Stiff-Legged Deadlift. It’s meaner. You start with the bar a bit further away, knees almost locked, and pull. It puts an ungodly amount of stress on the erectors and upper hamstrings. Use it sparingly.
Don't Forget the Single-Leg Stuff
Balance matters. We all have a dominant side. If you only ever do bilateral (two-leg) lower body pull exercises, your strong side will just keep overcompensating for the weak one.
The Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift (SLRDL) is humbling. You will wobble. You will look like a baby bird trying to stand up for the first time. But it forces the glute medius—the muscle on the side of your hip—to fire like crazy to keep you from falling over. This stabilizes the knee. If you're a runner or a field athlete, this isn't optional. It’s the price of admission for staying healthy.
The "Secret" Pulls: Beyond the Barbell
Look, barbells are great. I love them. But they aren't the only way to pull.
- Glute-Ham Raises (GHR): If your gym has a GHR machine, use it. It’s one of the few movements that works the hamstrings at both the hip and the knee simultaneously. It’s brutal. Most people can't even do one full rep with good form.
- Nordic Curls: The "poor man’s GHR." You hook your ankles under a bar and lower yourself to the floor as slowly as possible. It’s eccentric loading at its finest. Studies, including a well-known meta-analysis in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found that Nordic curls can reduce hamstring injury rates by up to 51%. Fifty-one percent! That’s insane.
- Kettlebell Swings: This is a high-velocity pull. It’s not about "lifting" the weight with your arms; it’s about snapping your hips forward so hard the bell flies up. It’s cardio for people who hate cardio and power training for people who want to be explosive.
How to Actually Program This Without Dying
You can't just do 10 sets of heavy deadlifts every day. Your central nervous system (CNS) will check out.
A smart way to organize your lower body pull exercises is to split them by intensity and "flavor." Maybe Monday is your heavy day—low reps, high weight, conventional deadlifts. Then, Thursday or Friday is your "accessory" pull day. This is where you do RDLs for sets of 8-12, or maybe some single-leg work and cable pull-throughs.
Cable pull-throughs are underrated, by the way. They feel silly. You're standing with your back to a cable machine, reaching between your legs to grab a rope, and standing up. But because the resistance is pulling you back rather than down (like a barbell), it’s much easier on the spine while still torching the glutes.
Common Mistakes That Kill Your Gains
- Squatting your deadlifts: If your hips are dropping as low as your knees when you pull from the floor, you're trying to squat the weight up. A pull should have a higher hip position.
- Looking at the ceiling: Stop it. You’re crunching your cervical spine. Keep a "neutral" neck. Look at a spot on the floor about six feet in front of you.
- The "Shrug" at the top: You see guys do this all the time. They finish a deadlift and then shrug their shoulders. Why? Your traps are already working to hold the weight. Shrugging at the top adds nothing but unnecessary neck strain.
- Rounding the upper back: While some elite powerlifters pull with a rounded upper back to shorten the range of motion, you probably shouldn't. Keep the lats tight. Imagine trying to crush oranges in your armpits. That tension protects your spine.
Real-World Application: The "Pull" Checklist
Next time you hit the gym, don't just wander over to the leg press. Try this instead.
✨ Don't miss: Fish oil: does it work or are you just wasting your money?
Start with a thorough hip warm-up. Some 90/90 stretches or bird-dogs. Then, pick one "heavy" pull. If you're feeling beat up, use a Trap Bar (Hex Bar). It’s much more "user-friendly" than a straight barbell because the weight is centered with your gravity, not out in front of you.
Follow that with a single-leg movement. Even just 3 sets of 10 SLRDLs with a light kettlebell will change how your hips feel the next day.
Finish with something for the "pump." High-rep face pulls (wait, that's upper body) or high-rep banded ham curls. Getting blood into the area helps with recovery.
Actionable Insights for Your Next Session
- Prioritize the Hinge: If you can't touch your toes without your knees bending significantly, work on your hamstring mobility before loading up heavy RDLs.
- Film Yourself: Perspective is a liar. You might think your back is flat, but the camera doesn't lie. Look for "butt wink" or excessive arching.
- Vary the Rep Ranges: Your hamstrings have a high percentage of fast-twitch muscle fibers. They respond well to heavy, explosive loads, but they also need the time-under-tension that comes from 10-15 rep sets to actually grow.
- The Grip Factor: Don't let your grip be the bottleneck. If your hamstrings can pull 315 but your hands give out at 275, use straps. This is a leg workout, not a forearm workout. Save the grip training for another time.
- Consistency over Intensity: You don't need to hit a PR every week. You just need to move the needle slightly. Add 5 pounds, or do one more rep than last time, or just focus on making the reps look "prettier."
The posterior chain is the foundation of human movement. Whether you want to look better in jeans, jump higher, or just be able to pick up your kids without your back "going out," lower body pull exercises are the answer. Start treating your hamstrings like the powerhouse they are, and stop treating the back of your legs like a secondary muscle group. Your body will thank you in ten years.