Watch Kate Upton Tackle Some Quality Single-Leg Romanian Deadlifts

Katie Dupere
·4 min read
Photo credit: Ben Bruno - Instagram
Photo credit: Ben Bruno - Instagram

From Men's Health

In a new video posted by personal trainer Ben Bruno, model Kate Upton takes on a series of landmine single-leg Romanian deadlifts with 80 pounds on the bar. In a caption accompanying the post, Bruno took a moment to hype his client's latest achievement—along with the progress she's made. “This is more weight than most men do, and she makes it look easy," Bruno wrote.

To complete the movement, Upton lifts the bar with two hands, raising one leg as she lowers the weight. She then slowly stands up straight, returning her leg to a standing position. Single-leg Romanian deadlifts, when done correctly, strengthen the posterior chain, which include your glutes and hamstrings, and your core. Upton goes for six reps before Bruno challenges her to complete just one more. Before he can finish his request, however, Upton drops her grip on the bar. “Too late,” Upton says cheekily. “My mind already told me to put it down.”

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This is nuts. @kateupton crushed these single leg RDLs with 80 pounds on the bar. That’s not a typo. This is more weight than most men do, and she makes it look easy. I showed this video to our mutual friend yesterday and he goes, “how the hell has she gotten so strong?”. My answer: “it’s pretty simple, but it ain’t easy. She trains six days a week and brings her best effort every day. We follow simple progressive overload, and every time I give her the option to keep the weight the same or go up, she wants to go up. Do that consistently for a few years and you end up really, really strong”. I love Kate’s attitude toward training and it’s really cool to see her progression over the years. PS- she’s gonna be so sore from this I think...

A post shared by Ben Bruno (@benbrunotraining) on Aug 7, 2020 at 8:58am PDT

Bruno says he showed the video to a mutual friend, who was equally impressed with the progress Upton has made since stepping up her training. Her secret? Bruno says it's simple—but it ain't easy. “She trains six days a week and brings her best effort every day,” he wrote. “We follow simple progressive overload, and every time I give her the option to keep the weight the same or go up, she wants to go up. Do that consistently for a few years and you end up really, really strong.”

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Okkkkk @kateupton, new personal record for hip thrusts—205 pounds for 12 reps. She pauses each rep for a second at the top too, which makes it much harder, but also makes it more effective. Seriously impressive work. Kate has been working her ass off during this quarantine, and she’s getting really strong. I love it. To the people who still say that lifting weights will make women bulky, well, I don’t know what to tell you. Her hip thrust form is spot-on, so I just want to highlight a few coaching points if you want to do this exercise on your own. *** - Pause each rep for a second at the top. This ensures that you’re controlling the weight and not going too heavy, and you’ll also feel it more in your butt. *** - Engage your core as if your doing a mini crunch. This helps to ensure that you don’t overarch your back and helps encourage a slight posterior pelvic tilt, which puts maximal stress on the glutes and also protects the lower back. Along these lines, it helps to look straight ahead rather than up at the ceiling. *** -Use a full range of motion. Between each rep you should come all the way down so you’re almost sitting on the floor. No half-repping. *** - Placing a mini-band around the knees is optional, but for people who have a tendency to go into valgus (knees caving in), it’s a good reminder to keep the knees pressed out. And anecdotally, a lot of people feel it more in their glutes doing it this way. Your call, but definitely try it.

A post shared by Ben Bruno (@benbrunotraining) on Jul 23, 2020 at 9:23am PDT

The clip is just the latest in a series of videos Bruno has posted in recent weeks, which have included Upton crushing several reps of a 110 pound landmine deadlift during a previous session, as well as setting a new hip thrust PR. She's definitely been getting a ton of leg training done throughout the quarantine.

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