Draw a straight line or line up a credit card with the end cap of the barbell and your shoulder blade (specifically T3 or the spine of your scapula). Bend slightly forward and grab a large barbell at slightly less than shoulder width using only an overhand grip or a mixed grip (one hand over and the other … Packing the lats and engaging as much of the upper back as possible has the obvious purpose of engaging that necessary musculature in the pull, but, contrary to what many believe, the lats don't actually have the ability to keep your back from rounding themselves (check out the attachment sites in the drawing below). The other is little old me. It is brutal because you have to lift a heavy weight from a dead stop, starting in a disadvantaged position, but it is so beneficial because it improves ALL of your other lifts!. Find related exercises and variations along with expert tips Ideally, you want to have created so much tension throughout the entire system that by the time you are ready to pull, only a tiny bit more force is needed to break the bar from the floor. We want high hips. By repositioning the scapulae further down the back, we are able to decrease the required hip and spinal extension demands of the deadlift. You may hear this compared to drawing back the string of a bow (4). Escamilla, R. F., Francisco, A. C., Fleisig, G. S., Barrentine, S. W., Welch, C. M., Kayes, A. V., ... & Andrews, J. R. (2000). With sumo deadlifts, your shoulders are in line with the barbell when you initiate the movement. Prior to initiating the … I included one of each to show that the concept is the same either way, though the actual start position may look a little different. A knee angle greater than 90 CAN work for a lifter with exceptionally strong knee extensors compared to posterior hip extensors (, I hope you found this piece helpful! For others, it could be a recipe for disaster. When executing a sumo deadlift most beginners will start the pull by not pushing the feet and knees out to the side, causing your hips to come up much too fast. Rob King is a Competitive PowerLifter, Coach and Writer. Hips as close to bar as possible (shortening moment arm) She is strong & tough. Escamilla, R. F., Francisco, A. C., Fleisig, G. S., Barrentine, S. W., Welch, C. M., Kayes, A. V., ... & Andrews, J. R. (2000). Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 32(7), 1265-1275. THE SUMO DEADLIFT IS A COMMON VARIATION OF THE DEADLIFT USED IN POWERLIFTING COMPETITIONS. Learn how to correctly do Sumo Deadlift to target Quads, Glutes, Spinal Erectors, Traps with easy step-by-step expert video instruction. She broke her pinky toe 2 reps before & kept lifting! If you are not familiar with the basic biomechanical/physics concepts of force, segments, moment arms, and levers, here's a good place to start: Click here and here. The Deadlift Starting Position: ROM Explained Comparing the range of motion requirements at the starting position, or ‘lift-off’, both the sumo deadlift and hex bar deadlift will lead to a more upright torso compared to the conventional deadlift (3). Recap. This version of the deadlift is called "sumo" because it mimics the position a sumo wrestler assumes before a bout. Shoulder Blades in Back Pockets/Creating a "Short" Back. A three-dimensional biomechanical analysis of sumo and conventional style deadlifts. The starting position in a trap bar requires you to set a shoulder width stance and maintain a less vertical starting position. How do you execute a seated deadlift? If your start position does not allow for optimal use of your knee extensors, you are likely leaving some pounds on the ground. A three-dimensional biomechanical analysis of sumo and conventional style deadlifts. For the rest of us, we have to work harder at them. Starting Positions & Movement. By having long arms, the lifter can maintain a more upright torso with the chest up and still keep the hips high, which puts him/her in a better pulling position. Neutral Spine (doesn’t have to be perfectly neutral for some people), Congrats Rebecca with a 300 lb. deadlift PR!! Check it out! 8 – Start to straighten your knees. 3. The upside is that long femurs generally come with long arms--to your advantage. Sumo Deadlift Setup. #HW, #HeavyWeights, #Deadlift, #strong, A video posted by Women Who Lift Weights (@womenwholiftweights) on Dec 29, 2016 at 1:58pm PST, .u083b0716ab5aae2c527c3704c8795408 { padding:0px; margin: 0; padding-top:1em!important; padding-bottom:1em!important; width:100%; display: block; font-weight:bold; background-color:#eaeaea; border:0!important; border-left:4px solid #34495E!important; box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); -moz-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); -o-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); -webkit-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); text-decoration:none; } .u083b0716ab5aae2c527c3704c8795408:active, .u083b0716ab5aae2c527c3704c8795408:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; text-decoration:none; } .u083b0716ab5aae2c527c3704c8795408 { transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; } .u083b0716ab5aae2c527c3704c8795408 .ctaText { font-weight:bold; color:inherit; text-decoration:none; font-size: 16px; } .u083b0716ab5aae2c527c3704c8795408 .postTitle { color:#000000; text-decoration: underline!important; font-size: 16px; } .u083b0716ab5aae2c527c3704c8795408:hover .postTitle { text-decoration: underline!important; } READ 11 Simple & Quick Deadlift Tips For Beginners. Of course, it's not the ONLY way, but it is a solid set up technique that can benefit most lifters. The lift trains pretty much every muscle in your … How To Properly Use Your Feet When You Deadlift? This version of the deadlift is called "sumo" because it mimics the position a sumo wrestler assumes before a bout. The goal of “breathe and brace” is to stabilize your spine. The starting position of picking up an atlas stone, sandbag, duck walk, and the now popular Ukrainian deadlift are all in sumo positions. The Sumo deadlift is a variation of the conventional deadlift often adopted by powerlifters.. So while closing the horizontal distance to the bar appears helpful in the sagittal plane relative to the torso, there is still a second factor to this plane of motion in which the distance from your hip joint to the barbell is still roughly the same (see photos below). It’s an extra-wide leg stance that resembles the starting position of sumo wrestlers (hence the name). An easy way to position your feet properly for this exercise is to look into a mirror, get into your starting position, then play around with different foot widths. Getting into position for Sumo is a matter of bending the knee whilst pushing the thighs out as close to parallel to the bar as you can. And if you find it hard to get a wide sumo position, try a closer one! You can slow the video down and screenshot the point in which you initiate the pull. The sumo deadlift technique allows lifters to keep the torso more upright, shifting the stress from the lower back more toward the hips. Anytime the bar path deviates from vertical, the lift becomes less efficient (basically, you're exerting extra energy to move the bar horizontally rather than vertically). My own coach, Brian Minor, helped me make this switch a couple of years ago, and after using it myself, watching great deadlifters use this technique, and doing lots of research, I'm pretty confident that it's worth trying for ALL sumo deadlifters. Arms straight down from the shoulders. While dropping down to the bar, your chest should be proud, stick it out a little, with the goal of keeping your hips as high as possible. Try This, 5 Things Women Can Do To Build Lean Muscle, 10 Simple Tips For A Better Kettlebell Swing For Women, Is Your Grip On Deadlifts A Problem? (Video), Women In The Weight Room - How Things Have Changed, Allmax Hexapro Protein Powder Review – By Coach Robert King, 7 Questions with IPF World Champion Rhaea Stinn, 7 Questions With IPF PowerLifting World Champion Maria Htee. Motivating, Educating and Empowering Women on the Benefits of Strength Training and Lifting Weights. The trap bar resembles a conventional deadlift more than the sumo. Let’s examine why this is the case. It is called the seated deadlift. "Cranking" as I affectionately call my own deadlift set-up, is certainly not something I came up with on my own. The sumo deadlift is all about technique and set up. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 32(7), 1265-1275. The Deadlift is one of the most brutal and beneficial lifts there is. However, my sumo deadlift helped immensely in strongman despite what most say. But now there is a drill to prevent this. Find the one where your shins are at 90 degrees to start the movement.For the sumo deadlift, you also have to point your toes out. Ideally, you want your knees lined up with 1st or 2nd toe, so keep that in mind when setting your feet. If you are not familiar with the basic biomechanical/physics concepts of force, segments, moment arms, and levers, here's a good place to start: Click, While there are a minority of lifters who benefit from an ultra-wide or ultra-narrow (hybrid with knee angle greater than 90) sumo stance in which the shins are not vertical or perpendicular to the floor, those folks generally have a certain anthropometry, significantly stronger quadriceps compared to posterior chain musculature, or outlier muscle attachment sites (or would actually benefit from an adjustment to their starting position and haven't figured that out yet). Here are some simple tips to improve your Sumo Deadlift Start Position. But one thing is for sure if you don’t have a plan and if you’re n… That’s right, rounding your back is probably the single best way to improve your leverage in the starting position of the deadlift. If your start position does not allow for optimal use of your knee extensors, you are likely leaving some pounds on the ground. When first learning how to sumo deadlift, most lifters have trouble finding the "sweet spot," the point at which their hips and torso are in the optimal position to pull the most weight. The more your toes are turned out, the shorter your feet become (from front to back, second photo below), creating a less stable foundation. Foot angle contributes a lot to balance, so keep that in mind. You can start to stand just outside of your regular conventional deadlift and successively train to get a little wider as long as it feels okay for you." THE EXERCISE USES EXTENSION OF THE BACK, HIPS, AND KNEES IN UNISON TO LIFT A LOADED BARBELL FROM THE GROUND TO A FULLY ERECT STANDING POSITION. 1. Escamilla, R. F., Francisco, A. C., Fleisig, G. S., Barrentine, S. W., Welch, C. M., Kayes, A. V., ... & Andrews, J. R. (2000). Incredble. A correctly performed sumo deadlift requires the legs to produce both vertical (pushing down on the floor with the feet) and lateral (spreading the floor apart with the feet) force to initiate the lift. Keep in mind that the femurs are the same length no matter how much they are abducted and externally rotated. When the bar is gripped with the lifter's hands inside their legs, the form is considered "Sumo". There’s a shit ton of funky looking “mobility drills” out there for hips, hamstrings, groins … Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training, 3rd Edition. For one, rounding the back depresses the shoulders which allows the arms to hang lower. Rather, we will discuss the conventional deadlift, where the feet are placed almost directly belo… 2. You don’t need to stand with your toes as wide as possible. While there are a minority of lifters who benefit from an ultra-wide or ultra-narrow (hybrid with knee angle greater than 90) sumo stance in which the shins are not vertical or perpendicular to the floor, those folks generally have a certain anthropometry, significantly stronger quadriceps compared to posterior chain musculature, or outlier muscle attachment sites (or would actually benefit from an adjustment to their starting position and haven't figured that out yet). [Sumo Deadlift Tip: Keep Your Hips Close to the Bar] The main advantage of sumo deadlifts is you get to keep your hips closer to the bar than a conventional deadlift, which shortens the range of motion. I prefer to create as much tightness through the torso as possible before initiating the "cranking down" of the hips. A sumo position shortens the distance of the lift by moving the feet out wider. A video posted by Women Who Lift Weights (@womenwholiftweights) on, 11 Simple & Quick Deadlift Tips For Beginners, Tip: Do Face Pulls Before You Bench Press, Do Your Shoulders Ache On Bench Press? The deadlift involves moving heavy weight from the ground until the hips and knees are extended. Driving your knees out is an excellent way to get the bar slightly closer to your hips at the start of the pull, in addition to priming the hip extensors that also serve as external rotators (hello, glutes!) But one thing is for sure if you don’t have a plan and if you’re n… And if you find it hard to get a wide sumo position, try a closer one! to create force. A correctly performed sumo deadlift requires the legs to produce both vertical (pushing down on the floor with the feet) and lateral (spreading the floor apart with the feet) … Deadlift Starting Hip Position Recently I’ve had Rob and Payton switch to sumo for the time being to test their strength on their opposite stance and see if we can handle higher training volumes. A correctly performed sumo deadlift requires the legs to produce both vertical (pushing down on the floor with the feet) and lateral (spreading the floor apart with the feet) force to initiate the lift. As well most lockout issues on sumo are fixed with a better set up or start position. #300poundclub!! Kinesiology, The Skeletal System and Muscle Function, 2nd Edition. Instead of being about hip-width apart, with sumo the feet are positioned wider than your hands. Coach Tony explains one of his favorite drills for teaching lifters to keep their hips close to the bar. Likewise, those starting with their feet all the way out at the plates may be doing the opposite (starting with quads in a shortened position where they can contribute less force and the hamstrings in a stretched position where they are potentially able to produce more force but also more susceptible to injury). To do a sumo deadlift, position your feet wider than hip-width, toes pointing out just slightly. Sumo Deadlift Start Fix Attached to this blog article is a video breakdown of one of our powerlifters (Molly) and a set of her deadlifts from a recent training session. When setting up for the sumo deadlift, you want your scapulae over the bar as it breaks the floor, NOT your shoulders. THIS COLUMN OFFERS A DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PROPER SUMO DEADLIFTING TECHNIQUE. 1. You are basically pulling yourself down into position, and many lifters choose to set their back and/or core "on the way down" if you will. 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