freeflowme
Level 4 Valued Member
Hey all,
I've recently fiddled around a bit with pulling both conventional and sumo. My sumo is considerably weaker than my conventional, if for no other reason than that I've never properly trained it.
Watching the video of my sets, however, I noticed just how different my back angles were setting up for conventional vs. sumo, and it got me to thinking whether it might be a good idea for me to try to train sumo up to be my primary stance.
The main sticking point for deadlift training has been my hamstrings and lower back just getting completely roasted. With sumo, I feel some of that burden shift to my inner quads (off the floor) and glutes (at the top), as tends to be the case for people with using that stance. Maybe I could run cycles more efficiently without as much burnout?
One other benefit is that unless I pull conventional rather "duck-stanced" (feet pretty close together with toes pointed nearly 45 degrees out), my right foot will continue to rotate out during the pull, no matter what I do about it. I suppose I have some kind of imbalance, or the way my right hip travels through the socket just doesn't agree with the conventional ROM. I do have an SI issue on that side.
I suppose the worst that happens is that I lose some strength off my conventional pull because I'd be training with lower %s of my conventional 1RM / 5RM, at least initially while my sumo catches up.
Honestly, though, the biggest barrier for me is all the things I hear said about sumo all the time - "it's cheating," "it should be banned from powerlifting," "LOL at the ROM," "way to move the weight 2 inches," etc. etc. I've definitely always viewed it as inferior from seeing those kinds of statements all around.
FWIW, this is a "narrow sumo" (i.e. about what you'd use for double kb cleans).
I'm also curious - do most people's sumo and conventional set ups vary this much in back angle?
I've recently fiddled around a bit with pulling both conventional and sumo. My sumo is considerably weaker than my conventional, if for no other reason than that I've never properly trained it.
Watching the video of my sets, however, I noticed just how different my back angles were setting up for conventional vs. sumo, and it got me to thinking whether it might be a good idea for me to try to train sumo up to be my primary stance.
The main sticking point for deadlift training has been my hamstrings and lower back just getting completely roasted. With sumo, I feel some of that burden shift to my inner quads (off the floor) and glutes (at the top), as tends to be the case for people with using that stance. Maybe I could run cycles more efficiently without as much burnout?
One other benefit is that unless I pull conventional rather "duck-stanced" (feet pretty close together with toes pointed nearly 45 degrees out), my right foot will continue to rotate out during the pull, no matter what I do about it. I suppose I have some kind of imbalance, or the way my right hip travels through the socket just doesn't agree with the conventional ROM. I do have an SI issue on that side.
I suppose the worst that happens is that I lose some strength off my conventional pull because I'd be training with lower %s of my conventional 1RM / 5RM, at least initially while my sumo catches up.
Honestly, though, the biggest barrier for me is all the things I hear said about sumo all the time - "it's cheating," "it should be banned from powerlifting," "LOL at the ROM," "way to move the weight 2 inches," etc. etc. I've definitely always viewed it as inferior from seeing those kinds of statements all around.
FWIW, this is a "narrow sumo" (i.e. about what you'd use for double kb cleans).
I'm also curious - do most people's sumo and conventional set ups vary this much in back angle?