Wanna Be Powerlifter

debating on trying out sumo for a bit after this meet.
Anyone that has some experience with sumo can tell me if i should or if i should just stick with conventional?

I used sumo for a while and have swapped back to conventional just now. Try it is what I say.

I think the general conensus among powerlifters is that you should train variations of both stances. For one, your non-competitive stance may help to highlight weaknesses that can translate to gains in your competitive stance.

I know @MarkKO has had success with pause sumos

1 Like

I think it’s a good idea to train both styles, but get good at one first. Your conventional looks OK, but you could drop your hips more and drive through your heels more - it looks like you get pulled forward onto your toes really early in the pull and get your shoulders in front of the bar.

That being said, sumo can help those two cues provided you get sumo right. That’s the rub, because quite a few people pull ‘sumo’ but in reality just pull conventional with a super wide stance. Sumo is a much more technical lift than conventional, and is about patience in a weak position more than sheer strength.

1 Like

Tomorrow’s comp day!
Have to travel to the other side of the country so i’ll be up early.
Really excited!! Feeling good. Little bit of a scare yesterday hit my knee pretty hard in a store, and it felt terrible. Has bin feeling OK so far.

Weight-
I’ve bin weighing 76 so far this entire week.
dipped under today, 75,6kg in the morning.
Havent drunken more then 2L today, nor have i had much food.
Had a salt bath just now, And i weigh 74,6 right now.

Hoping to weigh 74kg in the morning.

Wish me luck guys! Video’s will be up later tomorrow.

4 Likes

meet:
Weighed in at 72,9KG.
Squat first attempt 115KG (lowered it from 120kg due to knee feeling off after hitting it.)
Bench first attempt 77,5KG (lowered it on recomendations of coach down from 80KG)
Deadlift First attempt 130kg

Made all first attempts.

Second attempts:
125kg squat
85kg bench
135KG deadlift

Made all second attempts.

Third attempts:

135KG squat . I could have maybe done 5kg more, but i wanted to go 9/9.
90Kg bench
140KG deadlift. I could have possibly done 2,5kg/5kg more. But coach said it was good.

Made all third attempts.

9/9 365KG total. Less then my goal. But i’m satisfied. Had an amazing day, met lots of great people, got to meet my new coach who is very nice and knowledgeable. And i got to do what i like.

Now it’s on to some long training, The only meet i’m currently looking at is 8 months out, so im now leaving my programming and all technique improvements in the hands of my coach.

4 Likes

Good job.

1 Like

Deload week:
Warm up:
Stretches/legg swings/band stuff

Main sets:
highbar beltless squat 3x8 . 80kg
Bench 3x8 . 60kg

thats it.
gonna be seeing my new programming end of this week hopefully.

today’s training:
Sumo deadlift try outs:
I’ve got no clue how to do sumo, Watched josh hancotts tutorial, watch some off @Vincepac1500’s video’s since i think he’s an awesome deadlifter.
And i just tried something.

Anyways,
warm up foam rolling those abductors, stretching abductors, legg swings
30kg,40kg,60kg,70kg,80kg,100kg,110kg

“main sets”
130KG, and 143KG

The only thing i can say about sumo is, it was slow off the floor for me, but once i broke the floor, and got it to about knee level i got it.

Think i’m making the switch.

Video:

5 Likes

Needs some work, maybe a view from a few different angles only thing that stands out right away is careful with that jerk into the bar. You bring yourself down and lose all tension before that jerk.

Thanks,
Yeah i got the same response of my coach. Sumo’s a totally different technique then conventional.
I’ll get more deadlift footage next time, side front, full front, etc.

Suppose i need to pull the slack out of the bar, and pull slowly

Not so much. You’ll see I tend to pull the slack out fast at the start but it looks almost like you start your pull from pushing at the bar. How I pull you’ll see the whip hit me at the top sometimes and screw up my pull.

today’s training:
Warm up:
my usual warm up, abductors, stretching,
front squats, bar x5, 40kgx 8, 60kg,x8

Main sets:
Front squats 70kg 3x8

Bench:
Warmup
Supertraining warm up

Feet up bench, bar x20, 40kg x 5,

Main sets:
50kg 3x8

SLDL
3x8
pendlay Row 3x8

And bicep and tricep

next week i’m starting new programming,

1 Like

Does this front squat look good?

It looks OK, but watch the buttwink. Also, what’s that head movement before each rep? I haven’t seen anything like that before.

2 Likes

Is buttwink really that dangerous? or is just bad form?

I subconsciously started doing this when i take in a big sip of air before i go down.
I recon i should probably unlearn it since it looks ridiculous.

It isn’t ideal. It’s not the end of the world, but if you can minimise it that would be a good idea.

1 Like

I’ll do, thanks for taking a look!

1 Like

Your buttwink is minimal. Proper lifting shoes would probably eliminate it for you. If you keep lifting in the flat soles (and even if you do get lifting shoes), best to work on your ankle/hip mobility. It’s not the most dangerous thing since front squats are an anterior-load and you’re not going too heavy, but you should seek to eliminate it eventually, if not to have perfect form then to signify that your body is more structurally sound.

Edit: what I mean by the anterior load not being too dangerous is that the buttwink (result of the pelvic tilting posteriorly) is putting, among other things, your lower back in a vulnerable position. This is more dangerous on a back squat because of the bar position and the heavier loads.

1 Like

I’ll do. I usually use the hip abduction machine to warm up.
What would be some other things i could do for ankle/hip mobility?
Besides stretching/