to sumo or not to sumo?

[Terrymundo]

hey guys and gals,

if your like me than the dead lift is your favorite lift, you look forward to it all week and fantasize about lifting that next plate. however i have been curious as to how changing my stance can up the 1rm. currently standing fairly narrow shoulder width apart i peeked at 225kg and have made no improvements in strength since then.

should i experiment with moving my legs apart? being tall (6'3) i always suspected that a wider stance could reduce my levers and increase torque. will wider stance only prop my numbers up in the short-term but fall flat soon after? is worth investing time and energy to sus out the sweet spot in the sumo stance?

[drizzt]

Trouble with Sumo is that it can be quite a technical lift, so unless you've got someone well versed in it, I'd be a bit cautious about how you start out? Give it a crack, and post up some vids here, the sumo masters around here can give you plenty of advice :nod:

Just from watching others make the switch, it looks as though it can be a long - and at times, frustrating - process to nail it down, but you can definitely reap the rewards once you've sussed it out :nod:

I prefer conv as there is less to think about :pfft: But that's just me.

[Big john]

Conv all day babeeeeee! :grin:

but it boils down to your leverages i guess?

[steak]

Give it a go mate. Im am pretty confident that after my short time doing sumo that Id be able to pull what I could conventionally. It would just have to a real good set up on the right day

Take the time to learn it as a skill anyway as I found it had a good carryover to my squat despite it being a technical lift to learn. Getting the set up right is critical and spreading the floor with your feet to get a quick lock out at the knees woudld be the next thing to concentrate on. :wink:

[Mike Zero]

Do some light weight sumos before or after you regular deadlifts for a while to learn the movement pattern without any pressure to go heavier. Then once you have that sorted you could sub out your working sets ov conventional deadlifts for sumo deadlifts and see how it goes. I wouldn't rush into a straight swap though as you will build bad form habits. As drizzt said, it's a fair bit more technical.

[Darkmanx]

Being quite tall myself i found that when i changed my deadlift style from the normal stance to sumo i could lift more. This worked for me but might not for you.

[startinfromscratch]

http://articles.elitefts.com/articles/t ... structure/ :nod:

[timeoutmode]

go to japan and try sumo wrestling

[drizzt]

^Wow, that was dry :-s

[Old Bull]

Do some light weight sumos before or after you regular deadlifts for a while to learn the movement pattern without any pressure to go heavier. Then once you have that sorted you could sub out your working sets ov conventional deadlifts for sumo deadlifts and see how it goes. I wouldn't rush into a straight swap though as you will build bad form habits. As drizzt said, it's a fair bit more technical.

Right there MZ, most end up doing a Conventional Sumo, which gets them into trouble. Drizzt hit it on the head, it is very technical, where by in a Conventional lift, if you make a mistake you can muscle your way out, Sumo does not have that component. It is usually from the floor were the problems start.

I would take my time, find some one on YouTube with the same leverage's and body weight as yourself, and watch their style. Even post your training attempts up, for critique.

[Terrymundo]

Cheers guys,

I will take Mikes advice add in a few sumos after my conventionals. It seems you all agree its more technical lift kinda surprises but hey never done them. il keep yeah posted maybe with some videos. hopefully pull some new numbers before the new year.

[Wookie]

Not kidding, I had less technical issues working out a decent sumo than I did conventional. But in the end lifted the same with both.

Good advice above. Throw some in at the end.

A nice cue I got told... "Drive hips forward towards the bar and push the feet out to start the lift. Lock the knees as quick as possible, and then keep pushing the hips/pelvis forward till lockout."

It's a weird motion if you're used to conventional lifting.