Improve Your Sumo Deadlift Positioning
The good ‘ole Sumo deadlift. A topic I and many other Powerlifters are passionate about, potentially for different reasons. Sumo is the loyal companion for me, it’s stayed with me through some dark times, hard lifts, pre-breakthrough moments as an athlete, and continued increasing throughout that entire process. It’s gotten me to PRs, higher-level meets, emotion-inducing moments, providing both phases of extreme, jumping-off-a-bridge, climbing your own version of Everest highs, and diving-headfirst-into-a-rock, rolling-down-that-cliff pitfalls. I could gush about our relationship all day, but that’s not what we’re here for today.
The Sumo Deadlift is a far more technical, challenging lift than most give it credit to be. It’s not inherently “easier,” (but that’s a topic for a different day). However, for many who find it impossibly difficult, painful, uncomfortable- they’re probably not doing it right. In my professional opinion, it’s easier to butcher than a Conventional pull. There’s generally more intention, thought, and process involved- and nailing the combination of all three takes hundreds of reps, practice, feedback, and revision. Once you do, though? You knock on the door of your next deadlift PR, creating a legitimate opening for continual growth.
Seriously, your setup and execution off the floor during sumo can skyrocket or rapidly reduce your RPE scale on a given deadlift attempt. In your next deadlift session, dedicate time to analyzing your current process, how it’s working for you, and ways to improve upon it.
Tip #1: Focus on external rotation
The number one difference between Sumo and Conventional are the planes of movement in which you’re creating pressure.
Conventional is purely a sagittal-plane exercise: you’re moving “up and down” (pushing down into the floor, to move the bar up). Your hips move forward and back with the bar, you’re never deviating from your little self-imposed box.
On the contrary, with Sumo deadlifts, you are not only moving in the Sagittal plane, but the Frontal, too. The wider stance forces you to generate tension from your hips, creating force side-to-side. While you’re obviously not actually moving to the side while Sumo deadlifting, the lift works the same muscles you’re engaging, if you were.
With this in mind, many athletes approach the Sumo Deadlift the same way as Conventional: just bend over and pick the bar up. In doing so, you’ll be quickly humbled, learning that the “grip and rip it” and “just stand the bar up” technique doesn’t work the same way in this lift.
Without knee/hip alignment, glute engagement, and abduction from the hip, you’re pulling a wide-stance Conventional, which is just a less efficient way to Conventional deadlift. At that point, just bring your feet closer together.
In order to break the floor, decrease your range of motion, and maintain proper upper body positioning, you must open up through your hips and knees. Joints act as levers, and without this position, your knees will cave inside of your hips, your hips will be further from the bar, and you’ll be unnecessarily overcoming a lot of additional torque. Your hips are stretched in a sumo position, and without actively engaging them & setting up your positioning, there’s nowhere to push from.
Instead, begin the lift with your toes slightly facing out. Imagine that there’s a crack in the middle of the ground, and you want to “spread it apart” with your feet. Think about pushing your hips and knees to opposite walls, on either side of you. Open your legs up. Whatever cue helps you the most.
Additionally, optimize your stance width so that your knees stack directly over your toes, as your hip mobility allows for it. Your knees should never cave inside of your legs. The widest stance possible isn’t the best for everyone, but starting with your feet just inside of the knerlings is a good place.
Stop trying to Conventional your Sumo, and embrace the unique technique this lift entails.
Tip #2: Get your shins right against the bar
Another classic Conventional-puller fault. With the Conventional deadlift, your shins can be too close to the bar. This is not the case for sumo.
If you’re deadlifting the inferior way, from standing, you want to start with the bar over mid-foot. Then, as you hinge over, set up to pull, you get your shins closer to the bar, optimizing efficiency. Starting too close will cause your knees to be behind the bar, increasing the torque on your lower back & hips, preventing you from pushing with your quads.
With sumo, because your hips are already closer to the bar, the bar should remain close, too. Additionally, because more pressure is created outward, and you’re in a more squat-like, upright position, you don’t need as much “room” to hinge over the bar, which is what the mid-foot technique with Conventional provides.
Before you even reach down to grip the bar, begin with it literally touching your shins. When you pull, it should scrape against them- you might even get a few battle scars- and that’s how you know you’re doing it right. This helps you maintain lat tension, keeping your chest upright, which is another key aspect of Sumo.
Tip #3: Find your proper hip position
A common misconception by Sumo Haters all around (they hate it because they suck at it) is that the hips should be excruciatingly low, like a squatty frog stance. What happens when you go to pull? Your hips immediately rise, your tension is lost, you potentially struggle to lock it out, again overcoming your unnecessary shortcomings that made the lift harder for you.
This is a fundamental similarity between Sumo and Conventional: your hips should be somewhat higher than your knees. The exact height will differ depending on lifters’ anatomy, femur length, stance width, external rotation, etc., but you will rarely ever see someone optimally sumo-ing with their hips either in line with, or below the knee, from a side angle.
To find your proper hip height (if you’re someone who struggles with setting them too low), once you feel like you’re in the “right spot,” set your hips slightly higher in the air. Take more time in your setup, and play around with where you place them. Your best hip height is the one in which your hips stay set- they don’t rise immediately (Wandering Butt Syndrome) when the bar leaves the ground.
Additionally, you want your hips close to the bar, too. A common fault in Sumo is overly extending your hips backward, a Kim-Kardashin-esque lordosis position (again, bad Conventional habits). This will make it nearly impossible to get the bar off the ground, and you’ll likely see the hips rising, knees caving, and/or the back rounding, here, too. It’s overcomplicating the entire rep. Instead, you want your hips as “wedged in” as possible, while ensuring a) your hips aren’t too low, and b) you stay upright, maintaining lat tension. The first step in reaching this is proper external rotation as mentioned above. Once you open up through your knees and hips, they’ll naturally come closer to the bar. Then, think about pulling yourself into the bar, tucking your butt “inward.” Use your slack pull, and the bar against your shins, to help you pull your hips forward. Decrease the distance between your ass and the barbell. Getting here takes some practice, and again, lifter mobility and anatomy will play a role- so use your warm ups to work on it, film yourself from the side to compare angles, and experiment with cues that click.
Tip #4: Maintain An Upright Position
The final fundamental component of a well-executed sumo deadlift is your upper body positioning. Again, this is significantly different from the technique of Conventional, where you’re more hinged over, your shoulders are in line with the bar, and your torso faces the ground. With sumo, this will cause you to lose balance, round through your upper back, and/or end with the bar further away from you.
Your goal is to get your entire bodyweight behind the bar, pulling the bar into you, rather than putting yourself into the bar, if that makes sense. Allow me to elaborate.
Your chest should remain upright during the entire movement, facing forward. Think of your nipples as ‘headlights,’ think about “shoving your tits forward,” and “leading with your chest”- initiate the movement by reaching your chest up to the sky. This is how you keep the bar close and ensure an efficient lockout. Your shoulders should be slightly behind the bar at all times, keeping it locked in, against your shins.
Two key aspects to creating this position are a) a good slack pull, and b) setting up with the bar close. Focus on your setup, take plenty of time to get yourself in the right spot, and focus on patience.
That’s another key aspect of sumo: patience. With Conventional, the “grip-it-and-rip-it” technique may work okay, but with sumo, you’ll lose your shit and fail at the top. It takes a lot of intention and focus to even set up for your pull, and once you’re there, don’t let your mind wander. Stay connected to your body, in your movements, and work as hard as possible to maintain everything. Don’t let it fall apart once the bar leaves the ground, it defeats the entire purpose. You must continue applying pressure in your unchanged position, and eventually, it will move & you’ll finish the lift.
-
Now that you know what your sumo should look and feel like, let’s figure out how to program accordingly, to really drill these habits into your body.
5 Variations to Help Your Technique
Pauses
Pauses are a phenomenal variation for helping to cue tension maintenance, focus, and clean lockouts. The pause will immediately tell you if you’ve lost your barbell, let it astray, throwing your lats out of position. Use the pause to help you remain upright, opening up through your chest into the pause, as well as keeping your hips set. Pauses can be anywhere from right off the floor to right below the knee, and for lifters who particularly struggle, double pauses are a great option- 1-2 cts off the floor, then below the knee.
2. Eccentrics
As Powerlifters, most of the time we just put the bar down, rarely, if ever, training the eccentric part of the movement. For this reason alone, they can be a powerful Deadlift builder in your toolbox. Additionally, they can help lifters maintain lat tension and cue that starting position. To perform them, slowly lower the bar to the ground, keeping it pulled into your shins, chest staying upright, opening up through your hips, and lowering down until it reaches the floor. Don’t treat this like an RDL, that defeats the purpose. Hinge first, then bend the knees to find your perfect starting position, then reset and go again. That way, you can intuitively find the “right” spot for your hips to go.
3. Block Pulls
While Block Pulls are a fun ego-booster, they can also be specifically helpful for creating your optimal Sumo wedge. The decreased range of motion can help you figure out how to get your hips closer to the bar, as they’ll naturally be pushed forward, and there’s less mobility required in this position. Start with 1 or 2 blocks (2-4 inches, any more than that is ridiculous), elevating the bar off the ground. Focus on creating lat tension in your setup, staying upright, and use that slack pull to get your hips through. Stay really patient off the block, maintaining everything, and those lockouts will fly faster than you can anticipate.
4. Boris Deads
Named after the great Boris Sheiko, this variation further emphasizes your practice in pulls off the floor. There are a few versions of it, but when I program it, one rep = two pulls to the knee (like, where you’d go if you were performing a paused deadlift), and one to lockout. You’re tripling the time to focus on that first half of the movement, where your position determines your success in a Sumo deadlift. When doing these, fully reset in between reps, or at least, fully stop the bar on the ground. Tap-and-go defeats the whole purpose. Focus on spreading the floor, setting your hips in the right spot, keeping the bar close, staying upright, every damn time you go to move that bar. Eventually, you’ll find your groove, and your whole setup will start to feel more natural.
5. Deficit Deadlifts
The final variation I suggest for improving your Sumo position is a deficit deadlift. With this, you’re standing on the deficit, increasing the range of motion, and therefore, the difficulty off the floor. It’s harder to maintain lat tension and set your hips in the right spot with this position, making you better at both of those aspects. Your hips should be set slightly higher, and you’ll need even more patience than with a typical deadlift. 1 or 2 inches is all you need (that’s what she said), any more than that, and the carryover is limited, with a greater stress on your lower back.
When the goal is improved sumo positioning, I like 2 sumo days per week, if your hips can tolerate it. That primary day could be your typical rep work, and the secondary one could include any of these variations. They can also be used in place of regular sets (in a volume block, or off season), or afterward, as backoff sets. Execution is key, and load doesn’t need to be heavy to be effective.
-
Sumo Deads are notorious for many reasons, not least of which (although most don’t care to admit it)- their technical challenge. There are so many cues, positional changes, setup techniques, etc. to focus on at once. A sumo deadlift can quickly become a wide-stance conventional pull, removing kilos off of your potential. Embrace this deadlift’s unique differences, what’s required from it, to maximize your execution and gain from the movement. A few key positional aspects are external rotation, proper hip position, wedging into the bar, keeping it close, and staying upright, and while some of these are similar to any Deadlift principles, applying them to Sumo can prove difficult. Choosing variations that inherently help you master this position can be helpful- such as Pauses, Eccentrics, Deficits, Boris, and Block pulls. If a strong sumo is your goal, commit to the process, be patient (both during your lift, and in the long run), and constantly ask for feedback, both within your own body and from those around you, and eventually, it will all come together. It’s a slow burn, but if you can get it down, it’s worth it.
