Sumo Deadlift Question

I’ve started pulling sumo and while it feels good I know it is very different to conventional so I’ve had to play around with a few things, namely approaching a pull in a more measured, technical manner rather than simply getting as tight as possible, gripping and ripping.

This going to sound moronic, but how do you break from the floor? I know one of the main cues for sumo is ‘spread the floor’, and I know that the goal is to generate torque in the hips. I also know it is essential to start with the shoulders just over or even behind the bar (which is also recommended by some for conventional, but I find starting with my shoulders over the bar easier).

My issue is that I’m not sure how breaking off the floor should feel for sumo. Last Monday I hit a 5 kg PR with my shoulders over the bar a bit. Then on Saturday I tried some heavy pulls (and yes, I know that was a dumb idea so a lot of my issues that day probably came from the fatigue since I managed two singles at 10 kg off my PR) and really struggled.

The things I did differently between PR day and struggle day were mainly that on PR day I didn’t really try spreading the floor and I started with my shoulders a bit over the bar and broke off the floor pretty much like I do for conventional in that I stood up with a high chest; but on struggle day I made a concerted effort to spread the floor and break more with my legs. I did feel tension in my inner thighs, but if anything that seemed to make breaking off the floor harder, and I even found getting upper back tightness harder to maintain.

I know I was probably fatigued from earlier in the week, not to mention I was a bit ill but the whole movement felt much more awkward that before.

I’m pulling again on Wednesday and my focus is going to be spreading the floor, keeping my head up, getting overall really tight and pushing my hips forward through the bar as soon as I start pulling. Does that sound like a decent approach?

This is one of my heavier pulls from PR day (15 kg below PR). On struggle day I had a hard time getting singles 5 kg over this weight. I know the angle isn’t great, but I still think it shows my shoulders too far forward. I think my hip height and back angle as well as stance width aren’t to bad (I might be wrong, please tell me if so) so I’m thinking my issue is more likely to be how I initiate the pull more than anythnig.

Should I

Oh, and also focusing on keeping shoulders behind the bar from the start

I personally focus on locking in my lats hard more so than having a completely vertical upper back, I want to be directly over the bar if I am over the bar I get pulled forward on my toes and have a very hard time locking out if at all, Spreading the floor, keeping knees out hard and then slamming glutes forward.

Hardest part is learning to be patient. For me personally if I go and try to grip and rip essentially or be aggressive off the ground I get pulled out of position almost immediately causing hips to rise, upper back to fall, and making lockout much harder. The video above is 600lbs a 25lbs meet PR. My opener was 570 and I was way to aggressive and I damn near missed lockout. I was smoother waited for the bar to break the floor and then gave it hell and looked about as smooth as I have ever pulled.

In the past I would set up by first taking a deep breath and getting my upper body tight while standing up, second going down to reach the bar while keeping my chest up and squeezing my lats hard, and finally pulling from there. My main focus was to get my upper body as tight as possible because I wasn’t consistent in doing that in the past. By only focusing on upper body tightness, I didn’t really think about hip position and preloading my legs. When the weights got heavy I had a tendency to lean forward and that would eventually overload my back.

Over the past 6 months whenever I did mat pulls using straps, I noticed that I felt a lot stronger when setting up by instead gripping the bar first, taking a breath and then pulling myself into position while opening up my hips and pushing my legs into the ground. By pulling myself into position and keeping my center of gravity behind the bar, it felt much easier to generate load into the bar in a smoother manner, rather than just gripping and ripping. My goal is basically to pull myself into position, keeping the lats and chest as tight as possible, and lower my hips until I feel my shoulders directly above the bar and then initiating leg drive to lift the bar from there. This allows me to hold a better position and torso angle from the start. I haven’t pulled heavy for conventional in a long time but I applied the same approach to pull moderate weights and it felt a lot better compared to how I pulled conventional in the past. I’m sure that in the past I couldn’t keep my center of gravity back with my shoulders above the bar because I couldn’t generate enough full body tension to maintain that position.

You can see it in Reed’s video as well where he pulls himself into position and keeps his center of gravity behind the bar.

It’s similar to what arramzy described in another sumo deadlift technique thread where he termed it “levering off the bar”. Whatever it’s called, I think it’s just a way to pull slack out of the bar while maintaining good position.

Thanks guys, and video is great, shows exactly what I was thinking of doing when I next train (tomorrow). It gave me exactly the angle I wanted to see for shoulder position relative to bar.

I’m going to make use of the cue ‘if you let go of the bar when in position to pull, you should fall on your arse’ and really work on patiently levering it up (I like that term). Definitely going to take my air at the bar once I’m in position too, instead of when standing.

I think patience is going to be the thing, and the adjustment for me. For conventional aggression is essential once you can get into good starting position quickly, so I’m going to have to reeducate myself and approach sumo like I do squat and bench: with care, patience and precision.

Tried the new cues today, here are the results of the last two pulls

Sumo deadlift single at 195 kg: Sumo deadlift single at 195 kg - YouTube

Sumo deadlift single at 205 kg: Sumo deadlift single at 205 kg - YouTube

I ramped up to these, and one thing I did notice as below 180 kg (396 lbs) the bar comes up so nicely

[quote]MarkKO wrote:
I ramped up to these, and one thing I did notice as below 180 kg (396 lbs) the bar comes up so nicely [/quote]

Nice work!

Thanks! I was a bit surprised to see how I shook a little coming to lockout with the 205 kg pull, but I’m going to put that down to getting used to the technique as well as being a bit tired

Great write-ups and videos; very helpful. I’m ‘starting over’ lifting wise; only did my first real attempt at Sumo last week. Looking forward to putting these tips into practice Thurs/Friday.

Thanks,
ERIC D.