Quick Sumo Check

[LexAnderson]

Quick check on last nights sumo's of 320.

[ape288]

A front-ish view would be helpful in addition to the side views, but it looks pretty good. You obviously know how to deadlift properly. The only real advice to give is to try to open your hips up more. You're pulling "sumo," but basically doing a conventional deadlift. You have your feet externally rotated, now you need to drive your knees out so you can drop your hips down a smidge, move them in closer to the bar, and get your chest up. This will involve the hip/leg musculature to a much greater degree than it is involved now, which is kind of the point of a sumo deadlift. You will find it uncomfortable, awkward, and perhaps cumbersome. You may pull less that way initially, or possibly even forever, but at least that way you'll know what stance you're better suited for.

[LexAnderson]

A front-ish view would be helpful in addition to the side views, but it looks pretty good. You obviously know how to deadlift properly. The only real advice to give is to try to open your hips up more. You're pulling "sumo," but basically doing a conventional deadlift. You have your feet externally rotated, now you need to drive your knees out so you can drop your hips down a smidge, move them in closer to the bar, and get your chest up. This will involve the hip/leg musculature to a much greater degree than it is involved now, which is kind of the point of a sumo deadlift. You will find it uncomfortable, awkward, and perhaps cumbersome. You may pull less that way initially, or possibly even forever, but at least that way you'll know what stance you're better suited for.

Ok, so just push my knees out more at the start position and drop my hips a little more? My foot width seem good? Thanks for the response!

[ape288]

A front-ish view would be helpful in addition to the side views, but it looks pretty good. You obviously know how to deadlift properly. The only real advice to give is to try to open your hips up more. You're pulling "sumo," but basically doing a conventional deadlift. You have your feet externally rotated, now you need to drive your knees out so you can drop your hips down a smidge, move them in closer to the bar, and get your chest up. This will involve the hip/leg musculature to a much greater degree than it is involved now, which is kind of the point of a sumo deadlift. You will find it uncomfortable, awkward, and perhaps cumbersome. You may pull less that way initially, or possibly even forever, but at least that way you'll know what stance you're better suited for.

Ok, so just push my knees out more at the start position and drop my hips a little more? My foot width seem good? Thanks for the response!

Well, it's hard to say much about your stance width from that camera angle, but ultimately that comes down to preference, anthropometry, and mobility more than anything else. The wider the stance you can manage while maintaining position, the more upright your torso will be, the closer you'll be able to get your hips in to the bar, and the more hip/leg dominant you'll be able to make the movement. But go wider than your body can handle or is prepared to handle and you'll bleed power off the floor.

[LexAnderson]

Well, it's hard to say much about your stance width from that camera angle, but ultimately that comes down to preference, anthropometry, and mobility more than anything else. The wider the stance you can manage while maintaining position, the more upright your torso will be, the closer you'll be able to get your hips in to the bar, and the more hip/leg dominant you'll be able to make the movement. But go wider than your body can handle or is prepared to handle and you'll bleed power off the floor.

Understand. Thanks for the feedback! I'll work on it tomorrow.

[Sumo]

Ok, so just push my knees out more at the start position and drop my hips a little more? My foot width seem good? Thanks for the response!

Don't drop the hips, the idea is to get the hips closer to the bar on the horizontal plane, not vertical.

[ape288]

Ok, so just push my knees out more at the start position and drop my hips a little more? My foot width seem good? Thanks for the response!

Don't drop the hips, the idea is to get the hips closer to the bar on the horizontal plane, not vertical.

That's true, but the latter necessitates the former to a certain degree, otherwise your shoulders would end up in front of the bar and you'd never get it off the ground. You would also be overly reliant on the lower back muscles, in which case, you might as well just pull conventional.

[Sumo]

I agree with you, I really wanted to clarify for Lex because generally when someone says "get your hips closer to the bar" most people take that to mean sitting down instead of what the actual cue means in sumo, which is bringing the hips in towards the bar.

[LexAnderson]

Gotcha!

[ape288]

I agree with you, I really wanted to clarify for Lex because generally when someone says "get your hips closer to the bar" most people take that to mean sitting down instead of what the actual cue means in sumo, which is bringing the hips in towards the bar.

Ah, I see.

[LexAnderson]

Last night I was in the gym training my wife, and I just walked up to the bar and got in my stance, pushed my knees out and it did allow my hips to come in closer to the bar. This also had the affect of lowering my hips just a little as they came in. So I feel like I know what you guys are trying to say. I'll figure it out better tonight when I use this set up when I pull.

[LexAnderson]

Session from last night. I feel like I did a good job of pushing my knees out, and bringing my hips closer to the bar @ape288

[ape288]

Session from last night. I feel like I did a good job of pushing my knees out, and bringing my hips closer to the bar @ape288

It does look like you got your knees out a little bit and your chest appears to be a smidge taller as well, which is good. Now you just want to try to work those in hips as close to the bar as you can over time (on the horizontal plane like that other guy mentioned - it never occurred to me until he said that that someone might mistake that cue to mean just keep squatting down lol). I like the cue of trying to drop your nut sack onto the bar when you're setting up haha. Watch people like Yuri Belkin, Cailer Woolam, or Gerald Dionio pull. You don't have that kind of body type so you won't be able to mirror that technique, but just observe when they actually initiate their pulls how close there hips are to basically just being on top of the bar. That's the ideal and you should strive for that as much as possible. The closer they can get, the more mechanically efficient you become.

Why the random touch and go, if I may ask? Imo, there's no place for touch and go work when it comes to improving the sumo. Once you get good at it you'll already be more proficient at repping a higher percentage of your 1rm even on dead stop reps. If you rely on touch and go I can see your max hitting a huuuuuuge wall at some point.

[LexAnderson]

@ape288 thanks for the feedback. I'm going to keep working on bringing my hips in closer. The touch and go kinda just happened really, wasn't planning for it or anything.

[LexAnderson]

03/26/2018 5x1x365

[Dan]

Hey, this is cool! That's Gold's Gym in Greensboro. I was just there in February. I travel for work there once or twice a year and lift on Monday mornings around 6AM. It's a friendly place, as I talked to no less than 3 locals, including a guy who is probably in his 60s on my last visit. We traded off on sets of deads right where you are.

No advice on the sumo, though. I should leave that for the experts.

[LexAnderson]

Hey, this is cool! That's Gold's Gym in Greensboro. I was just there in February. I travel for work there once or twice a year and lift on Monday mornings around 6AM. It's a friendly place, as I talked to no less than 3 locals, including a guy who is probably in his 60s on my last visit. We traded off on sets of deads right where you are.

No advice on the sumo, though. I should leave that for the experts.

Ha this is awesome. Sorry for the late response, just now seeing this.