How Do I Know if I Should Switch DL Stance for My Next Meet?

Not exactly the situation you’re asking about but I trained DL for years exclusively conventional. Did 3 meets that way and worked up to a 474#/215kg competition pull. 9 weeks out from my last meet in November I decided to give sumo a shot. First workout I pulled 415 for about twice as many reps as I did conventionally a week prior. At the meet I went for 505#/230kg but missed due to a hand injury. Occasionally I’ll pull conventional and it feels like it has improved but I feel the sumo is ultimately stronger.

Didn’t see this until after I posted my above reply. @chris_ottawa I personally have observed this to not be at all true. My most impressive rep PRs have all been sumo yet the only time I’ve pulled conventional in competition was 16 lbs above the most I’ve done sumo. Of course this is very much an N=1 observation that could just be unique to my specific situation.

At the end of the day, your stronger stance is the one you can lift more weight with under competition conditions. Anything else is just trying to extrapolate a 1RM from a less specific situation.

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At the end of the day, your stronger stance is the one you can lift more weight with under competition conditions. Anything else is just trying to extrapolate a 1RM from a less specific situation.
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One thing I’ve wondered about is the accumulated fatigue of a meet and how sumo tends to feel heavier off the floor. As I mentioned above I’ve only pulled sumo at one meet and my right hand was so jacked up (trigger finger tendinitis) that I couldn’t hold on long enough to even move the bar 1mm on my last attempt. I wonder if some people lose the will to grind the first few inches off the floor sumo style.

Did you get trigger finger tendinitis from shooting? Just asking because I recently took up shooting myself and my hand kinda ached my first day

Meet fatigue definitely plays a part, but could kind of go both ways. On one hand, sumo might take some load off the low back, which might get beat up in the squats. On the other, like you said, breaking the floor with a near maximal weight might be more sensitive to fatigue than grinding up a conventional. Keep in mind that you rarely see a top lifter hit a big, PR pull if they had a tough squat attempt earlier. Most big pullers look quite conservative on their squats.

As for the fingers…maybe hook grip? Once you learn it it really does reduce grip issues to nearly nothing. I’ve got a list of tips that helped me switch if you’re interested.

That’s why I said “probably”. I hear some people say they can do more reps with sumo, but it’s not the same for everyone. If it’s not blatantly obvious that one is stronger then oyu can probably just choose whichever one you like better.

Another option would be to work up to a heavy single, not actually max out but something like RPE 8. That would give you a fairly good idea of which is stronger, just don’t do both on the same day.

I’ve been shooting most of my life but I did this deadlifting. The short version of the story is that when I was pulling conventional my right pinky finger was getting pinched to the point of lasting numbness when using a mixed grip. When I switched to sumo I started to learn hook grip on the lighter sets. A couple weeks before the meet I grabbed the bar too high in my palm and something popped connected to my middle finger. It didn’t really hurt at the time but ever since my middle finger has been intermittently tender and it gets stuck if I make a fist. I’ve been using hook grip until it’s too painful then switching to straps fro training.

Yeah that’s pretty much what I do for hook grip. My deadlift is poverty and my grip is even more poverty, so I strap up on anything that’s more than one rep. On anything more than 315, I can’t rep on hook grip, so I just hook grip on warmup sets. Been doing double overhand on the warmups in the off season though

I’d be grateful for these tips if you don’t mind please? I started the journey to hook grip last year which resulted in numb thumbs but I’m determined to see it through this time.

Just for reference, since learning hook grip I’ve used it to pull the most I’ve ever done in training, somewhere around 640 (I’m bad about recalling training lifts). Not super impressive (was walking around at 240ish at the time), but I figure if you can desensitize your thumbs enough to hook 600+ without pain, the same tips would probably help lifters at most experience levels.

As with most things lifting related, the main thing is time, patience, and persistence. I spent about 6 months working on hook grip before being able to pull maximal weight without pain. Here’s what I did…

First off, I was in my last semester of graduate school, so all my gym work was really just maintenance. I actually wasn’t doing any of the main lifts, just more bodybuilding style accessory work. So more direct pulling/back work than I would normally do.

Everything that was a pull or a hold, I did with a hook grip and I did until discomfort or loss of grip made me switch. For example, I might be doing RDLs with something like 315 for 10+ reps, the first 5 with hook grip then switching to a mix or double over for the rest of the set. Same for cable rowing, dumbbell rowing… basically anything I could get into a hook grip with. Outside of the gym, hook grip everything… the steering wheel, your grocery bags, the shopping cart handle… if it’s something ridged you spend a lot of time with your fingers clasped around (hey now!), hook it.

If you are going to be deadlifting heavier during this time (I wouldn’t recommend taking 6 months off just to learn hook grip) then you basically need to hook grip all your warm ups and as much of your working sets as you can. A couple things to consider… first off do not let limits to your hook grip ability reduce the amount of deadlift (or any other) work you do. Once this grip starts to fail, switch to another grip to finish the work, even if it’s in the middle of a set. Second, don’t let pain during hook grip distract you from proper form/cues during your heavy work. I’ve found in myself a direct relationship between deadlift form and grip pain. The last thing you want to do is hurt your back because you were too focused on your thumbs feeling like they’re exploding.

You will probably start developing new/painful/weird callouses in places on your hands you’ve never had them. Don’t let this limit the amount of work you do, use straps as needed if they get too bad. Your body will eventually acclimate and new callouses will harden and be fine. This could take several months though so be patient.

Beyond this, keep your expectations in check for what you can use hook grip for. For myself, I can now any day of the week pull multiple singles at high percentages with no grip pain or other issues. Basically, if it’s a single rep my only limit is my actual strength. However, my ability to deadlift multiple reps with a hook grip is still hit or miss. When I do reps, I’ve found that every time the weight hits the floor my grip shifts a little into an increasingly more painful position. This is true even if I fully reset my grip. I think it has to do with sweat and chalk, not sure though. I just know that most of the time, unless things just feel good, I use straps or mix grip on all sets of more than one rep.

Thanks

In my opinion, if your similar in strength in both lifts it comes down to how sumo/conventional effects other lifts. If you pull sumo do you feel more fatigued when you try to squats/bench or vise versa.