The Smith Machine Sumo Romanian Deadlift is a intermediate-friendly machine strength exercise that targets the glutes, with the hamstrings working alongside. Here's how to do it right — and what to stop doing.
Primary musclesGlutes
Secondary musclesHamstrings
EquipmentMachine
LevelIntermediate
TypeStrength
3D demo in the EGON app
01 Execution
How to do the Smith Machine Sumo Romanian Deadlift
Set the Smith bar to about mid-shin height and stand with feet wider than shoulders, toes turned out.
Grip the bar with hands inside your knees and palms facing the body, then unrack by rotating the wrists.
Stand tall with the bar against your thighs, brace your core, and pull your shoulder blades down.
Hinge at the hips by pushing them back, letting the bar travel down the front of the legs.
Stop when you feel a deep stretch in the glutes and hamstrings, with the bar at about mid-shin height.
Drive the hips forward to stand back up to full lockout, squeezing the glutes hard at the top.
02 The payoff
Why it earns its spot
Bias-loads the glutes and inner hamstrings with a wide sumo stance.
Allows safe heavy hinging on a guided bar path.
Reinforces strong hip-hinge mechanics for lifters newer to the deadlift family.
03 Don't do this
Common mistakes
Rounding the lower back as the bar lowers, which puts serious risk on the spine.
Squatting the bar down instead of hinging back, which removes the glute-and-hamstring stretch.
Letting the bar drift away from the body, which loads the lower back instead of the rear chain.
Letting the knees cave inward, which strains the joint and loses the wide-stance bias.
EGON Put it on record
Track it in EGON.
Log every set of the Smith Machine Sumo Romanian Deadlift, get your PRs detected automatically, earn aura for the work — and climb five leagues of statues, from Stone to Ego.
