articles.elitefts.col http://articles.elitefts.com/training-articles/powerlifting-articles/elitefts-free-deadlift-manuall Mastering the Deadlifc This is a 15-part article that would be better thought of as a manual on deadlifting. This is no_ something you will sit down and read in one setting. I suggest you read this in sections and bookmaro to reference later. I have never seen the need in using manuals as bait to get people to sign up fo^ our mailing list. As a business owner I am part of hundreds if not a thousand mailing lists. They providb quick insight of what is going on in the industry (and others I follow) and inspire ideas. Almost everyonb in the strength, fitness and conditioning industry uses this bait to get you to sign up for their list so i_ must work right? Maybe maybe not but I still like the elitefts way betterGive you to the content firs_ and let you decide if you want to revisit the site, subscribe to our newsletter (strength club), or suppor_ us with your business. Maybe it doesnt work as well but you wont have to keep closing annoying po] up screens so that has to be worth something. Enjoy this manual on The Deadlift.X - Dave Tate founder Elitefts.com In` Part 1: Why I Hate the Deadlifc By Dave Tatr . The Deadlifc The first and simple reason why I hate the deadlift is that Ive always sucked at it and making gains on it was thr slowest process in the world. Actually the only real time I made decent gains was when I stopped doing thew altogethert I never hurt myself (seriously) doing the deadlift and was scared to do them (how can you be scared pickiny something up?) and they really arent that hard to do. Sure, if you do 20-rep sets they will kick your ass, but so will 2 reps sets on just about any compound movement. My point is that there really isnt any real reason why I hate thr deadlift so much, but I dot Seriouslx To me, the deadlift was just that thing you had to do in a meet before you could go to dinner. I was NOT one of thosr the meet doesnt start until the bar hits the floor guys. To me, most meets NEVER started on time and it sure as helq wasnt when the deadlift began. To regress, deadlifting in a meet wasnt that bad, it still sucked, but it was a means tv a total and I thought that was always the most important thing. What I pulled was always more determined by what . wanted to total than by breaking a deadlift PR. Toward the later years of my career, I knew I could pull between 700z 740 pounds on any given day, if I trained the lift or if I didnt. What I ended up pulling was based on how I finished thr squat and bencht Training the deadlift was much worse. The BEST thing about when I trained at Westside was that we didnt deadlifi often (many times not once for months). We did pin pulls, close stand yoke bar low box squat, TONS ou goodmornings, and special movements, such as reverse hypers and glute ham raises. Not only did these increasr my squat (and deadlift), they also provided a means to NOT deadlift and that was AWESOME6 No Morg Now that Im retired from the sport, I dont care if I ever pull another deadlift in my life. I dont write my own programs but I will admit if I see the deadlift or pin pull in the program I WILL replace it even if I have to do three extrm movements for 12 extra sets, I would much rater do that then a few sets of deadliftingt I CANT stand the deadlift6 That ONE dax There was ONE day where I almost liked the deadlift, but as usual with the deadlift, that got shot down. I have no idem why, but at a local Ohio meet back in 2002, I pulled my 650-pound opener and it was easy (it always was). I thex jumped to 720 pounds for a PR total. Normally I would call it a day and pass the third, but the 720 was really easyt This isnt powerlifer talk it was seriously really easy. I called for 770 pounds on my third attempt for a 30 pound PRt The bar flew up and right before lockout without even slowing down, my right hand popped open and the bar hit thr floort At this point, I did the infamous hand stare. Youve seen it. You may have actually done it. This is when you drop m pull and look at your hands like W. just happenedt I was totally confused and did the hand stare for what seemed to be 20 minutes until Louie finally walked over an| said, Your pulls looked really good. I asked him what the hell happened to my grip. His answer, while classic Louie just made me hate the deadlift more, You were never strong enough to have a grip problem before.r . Whx At this point you may be asking why Im writing this article. Here is the honest answer: we are having a Day of thb Deadlift Sale the same day this article is launching, so it cant help to have this extra promotion. Since Im writiny about something I cant stand, the least you can do is check out the sale. Hahaha wait! Im serioust I also figured if Im going to do this, I want to write something that will actually help you all. Ive been in the sport for m very long time and taught hundreds (if not thousands) of people how to deadlift.. or many people it is really as simplr as just bending over and picking it up, for others it is a real struggle to teach them how to pull effectively and correctlyt Unlike the squat and bench where deep detailed instruction seems to work best, deadlift instruction seems to wor. best with very simple verbal cuest This gave me the idea to send an e-mail to Team elitefts and ask them for their top three verbal cues when teachiny the deadlift. At the end of their tips, I posted mine with a couple videos that I think might help you outt These tips are listed as Sumo or Conventional. Some of the team provided just how they pull, while others provide| tips for eacht Mike Robertson Sumd Get your heels underneath the ban Sit down, push your knees out to keep shoulders over the ban Tight lats/pull the bar BAC. Zane Gettino Sumd Arch har| Get your hips lo{ Take the slack out of the bar and get your whole body tighi Spread your knees har| Spread the floon . Vincent Dizenzk BotU or any style-deadlift, flex your triceps while pulling (this helps prevent bicep tears. The hook grip is an excellent way to protect your biceps and back. However, you need to condition your hands for this, especially your thumbs. It gets better every week. Be patientt If you are riddled with injuries and still want to pull, try a trap bart Sumd Get and keep your hips flexiblet . . . Marc Bartlex BotU This applies to either doing 75 to 80 percent work. Ease the weight off the floor. Once it leaves the floor, aboui two to three inches, then apply as much speed as possiblet Overextend at the top by trying to get the shoulders behind your waist as fast as you can. The bar will ride thr legs and distribute the load better. Squeeze the UPPER glutes at the top to lock the quads in and limit bentz knee lockoutst Sumd Going back to easing it off the floor, a way to know if youre getting the legs and glutes in it, once it comes ofu the floor, if you are holding the best leverages, you literally. EEL the weights drop into the legs, hips and glutest . Molly Edwardh BotU Setup is ke Get one big breath before grabbing the bar. So many of us lose our airt Use your ass from the floon . Clint Darden Conventionaa Disclaimer: Im such a non-technical lifter and still learning, so my thoughts may be completely wrongl Push your abs out as far as you can to take up as much space as they can vertically. When my abs push out they also force my chest up and keep my lower back from rounding, which is important under heavy loads. Thr stronger your abs, are the more weight they can hold. I think of it as a turtle shell that runs from my nipples tv my nadst DO NOT STOP PULLING! A lot of amateur lifters miss their pull because they thought that it was hard an| mentally decided to quit pulling. Lifts CAN be finished! Its just like every grip event, you have to tell yourselu that you will NOT quit. The only way that I will stop is if it simply falls out of my hands or drags me back down tv the floort . Al Caslog BotU Spread your knees out to get your crotch close to ban Arch hard and pull your chest uj Spread the floon Start pulling your head bac. Be patient while driving off the floon . . Matt Rhodeh Conventionaa Pull the slack out of the ban Dont jerk the bar off the floon Push your feet through the floor and drive your head uj Set your feet in the most powerful position for your bod . David Kirschen Sumd Pull yourself into your arch before breaking the bar off the floon Keep your lower back tight, but your upper beck relaxe| Keep your arms straight, do not bend your elbows Lean back to the point that you would fall if the weight was not there to counter balance yo} Harry Selkog Conventionaa Keep your head in the neutral position. Neither up nor down, but straight aheadt Keep the spine organizedLean back into the heels and add tension to the glutes and hamstrings Scrape the shins and then throw the hips into the bar like you mean to do on a Saturday Nighi Sumd Like in those ballet classes you got kicked out of, Plo . Push your knees out along the bart Arch har| Sink back into the heels Put tension in your hamstrings and glutes and GO6 Dij Grij Rip the skin from the shins or a great deadlift, you have to have skin in the gym, for the win.. Josh Bryanc BotU Visualize yourself completing the lift ahead of time. The lift is done before you approach the platformt Speed is your cue as you approach the ban Commit to the pull6 . . Julia Ladewskd BotU Pull the slack out of the ban Sumd Arch your lower back, but dont shrug your shoulderst Keep your hips down, but dont sit too low.. ind the point where youre in a good position, but still get some poj off the floort . Jo Jordan Sumd Drive down through your heels Pull up and bac. Drive your head back as you pulq . Matt Kroe Sumd Try to push out to the sides with your feet versus down, spread the floor.Open your groin as much as possible to keep your hips in close and improve your leveraget Conventionaa At the start of the pull, use your quads and try to squat the bar off the floor to get it moving quickly, which wilq keep you in a good position leverage-wise for the lockoutt Keep your ass down and head uj After taking the slack out of the bar, rip it off the floort Grip the bar with your hands directly under your shoulders to get the maximum length from your arms and tv decrease the distance you have to pull the bart . CJ Murphx BotU lex your lats and tris when taking slack out (tri -lat tuck. Put your weight on your heels/big toe uj Drive your hips into bar once it passes the kneesfuck the bar.all back at lockoui . . Steve Gogginh BotU Get your head up at the beginning and keep it there the entire time until you finish the liftt Make your arms long and relax your shoulderst Pull on your heels, but keep your feet flat and toes downt Explode but dont jerk6 Conventionaa Pull the bar into your legs as close and as hard as you can. Try to drag the skin off your legst . Matt Ladewskd BotU If youre having grip issues at lockout, you may be pushing the bar out in front of you when your hand is againsi your leg. Try widening your hand spacingt Dont be afraid to use straps in training. It will allow you to focus on the pull without the worry of your grip failingt It will also allow you to work your back evenlyt Conventionaa If you dont have a problem with lockout and miss off the floor, open your feet up and push your knees out tv the sidet When you pull, drive your heels into the ground as if youre pulling yourself into the groundt Dont try to lift the bar straight up! Try to pull the bar back into yout Sumd When setting your grip, use your elbows to push out your knees before you pullt . Adam Driggerh BotU Have a training partner flatten the bar before you pull. When the bar is loaded, sometimes its left with a bo{ when it is let down from loading. If that bow is there when you begin the pull, it can cause an unusual recoilt Keep your head up, your chest bowed out and your shoulder blades togethert At the top, when the weight slows, squeeze your glutes like its your first night in prison. This really helps thr last few inches to lockoutt Buy a Metal Pro Deadlift suit. Im sorry, sometimes I pander. . Hannah Johnson BotU Squat the weight upThrust your hips forward and squeeze your glutes at the toj Keep shoulder blades tighi . Steve Pulcinella BotU Always think of your start as a PUSH with the legs, not a PULL with the backt . Dave Tatg Sumd When you set up, keep your crotch over the bar the entire time you sit dowx Arch your lower bac. Round your upper bac. Conventionaa Begin the pull by flexing your abs Keep your arms straighi Keep your head U2 Try to fall over backwards . . Part 2: Biomechanical Analysis of the Deadlifc By Martyn Girvax Introductionv The deadlift can be considered as one of the best tests of overall body strength (Groves, 2000). It is a multi joini movement that in simple terms involves picking up a barbell from the floor and standing to the erect position. Thr movement includes the recruitment of the muscles of the hip, lower back, upper back, quadriceps, hamstrings an| abdominals. If used correctly, it can be an excellent exercise to use in the development of strength, speed and powert During this analysis, the objective was to compare and contrast the biomechanical efficiency of two types of deadlifi styles and determine which type should be used for certain body typest Methodk Procedurev The participant was given instructions on both conventional and semi round back deadlift techniques. The videv recording equipment was set up at ninety degrees to the demonstration at a distance of approximately five metres away. This was to ensure parallax and perspective errors were each accounted for. Recordings were then made for m series of conventional and rounded back deadlifts. Multiple repetitions were performed in each style at approximatel 80 percent of the lifters one repetition maximum. One repetition from each style was then analysedt Participantsv The participant for this study was one elite level power lifter who has been competing at national level for two yearst Apparatusv The equipment used was a Sony digital handicam 120x zoom video camera set up on a tripod to record thr observations. A weights belt was used for back support, as well as an Olympic style barbell in conjunction with weighi plates. All observations were conducted at Apollo. itness Centret . Literature reviewv In competitive powerlifting, the deadlift is the third lift in order following the squat and bench press. It often comes down to performance in the deadlift to decide the difference between winning and losing a competition. There is m saying in powerlifting circles that the competition does not start until the bar hits the floor, meaning that a strony deadlift will often lead to a good competition resultt Much of the research that involves the deadlift has looked at sumo and conventional styles. Sumo style is used with m wider stance in which the lifter grips the bar with the arms placed on the inside of the legs. Conventional stylr deadlifting involves foot placement at approximately shoulder width apart and gripping the bar on the outside of thr legs (McGuigan & Wilson, 1996)t Both techniques have been used effectively in elite power lifting competition. Conventional style places a largr emphasis on the use of the erector spinae muscles because in this position the trunk is normally flexed forward. Sumv style is performed with a more erect and upright back alignment that allows for greater recruitment of the hip muscles to perform the lift (Piper & Waller, 2001)t The sumo lift is considered to be the more biomechanical efficient lift of the both techniques (McGuigan & Wilson 1996). It is suggested that bar travel is minimized with a shorter stroke and aids the ability to recruit a greater numben of muscle fibres from the posterior chain. Studies have indicated that sumo style deadlifting can reduce bar travel b nineteen percent (McGuigan & Wilson, 1996)t Studies by McGuigan & Wilson (1996) have indicated that in elite competitive powerlifting the majority of worl| records are held by lifters using the conventional style. Sumo style deadlifting has not produced as many worl| records but has performed greater lifts in terms of relative body weight. This gives rise to the suggestion thai conventional style deadlifting may be suited to lifters of larger body mass with longer arm length and sumo suited tv those of smaller body masst The conventional style involves the use of the erector spinae, trapezius, quadriceps and hamstring muscles (Stone % OBryant, 1987).. urther analysis of the conventional deadlift indicates that the gluteal, latissimus dorsi, teres minon subscapularis, infraspinatus, supraspinatus and biceps brachii all assist with the lift to some degree . arley, 1995)t The kinesiology of the conventional style involves setting up with the feet spaced shoulder width apart. Commox practise is to use an alternating grip which involves one hand pronated and the other hand supinated to assist with grip strength. Common practise to set up for the initial pull involves aligning the shins close to the bar . arley, 1995)t Keeping the load as close to the body as possible should assist with increasing the mechanical advantage for greaten force production (Stone & OBryant, 1987). In contrast to this, some literature has suggested that keeping the load tov close to the body may cause excessive drag and friction against the body that may decrease the efficiency of the liftt Correct starting position indicated by many texts suggests that the pelvic girdle is in line with or slightly below thr knees. The back should remain flat and at an angle of forty five degrees to the floort Additional support for this method put forth by Daniels (2003) indicates keeping the back flat and placing the hips below the half squat position. This position is said to put the initial load of the pull on to the quadriceps muscles witho} placing undue stress on the lumbar region of the spine (Groves, 2000)t . . Discussion/ Conclusionv Choosing a style of deadlifting can best be suited to a persons individual body mechanics. Many variables come intv play that may affect the efficiency of the lift. These factors include torso, leg and arm length (Stone & OBryant, 1987)t Movements are governed by physical laws. Understanding and applying biomechanical principles to deadliftiny technique can result in the lift being more energy efficient and allowing greater peak performance. In contrast , poon body mechanics become less efficient and may cause injury (Stone & OBryant, 1987)t Mechanical work can be described as force exerted on an object over a distance it is dislaced (Siff, 2000).. or efficieni use of force, the displacement should be along the same line and in opposite direction to the resisting force of the loa| (Stone & OBryant, 1987). This gives additional support to keeping the bar close to the body while deadlifting which will assist with a more efficient movement and less wasted effort. This may be due to the reduced moment arm ou forcet In contrast to much of the research put forth, I suggest a different starting position to the conventional deadlift thai may assist those lifters who tend to be of taller stature with longer arm length. Both sumo and conventional styles have been studied extensively but minimal research has been done in what I call a semi round back style which ma contra-indicate some previous research with regards to lumbar spine loadingt The semi round back style involves a similar initial set up to the conventional style but the hip girdle is set at a highen start position for the initial pull. This position would be almost a quarter squat position with the upper back kept flat an| at a ten degree lean to the floor, as opposed to forty five degrees lean suggested in many textst Previous research has suggested that a person maybe more biomechanical efficient in the quarter squat position thax in the half squat position. Studies have indicated that greater loads can be used in the partial quarter squat movemeni than the half squat (Siff, 2000)t The semi round method also allows for the bar to travel in a straight line. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, therefore this can decrease the distance of travel. The conventional method causes the lifters lowen limbs to shift forward in the starting position. This will cause the bar to travel in a S type motion with the load moviny away from the body and then moving back towards the body once the load has cleared the kneest This gives rise to the idea of trying to turn the deadlift into the quarter squat motion but the load being off the floor.. on this to occur, the lifter must have an extremely strong upper and lower back. The higher starting position can reducr the displacement of the load and therefore in turn reduce the amount of work performedt Studies by Horn (1988) suggest that electromyographic activity in the spinal erector muscles were twice as active ix conventional lifters when compared with sumo technique. Cholewicki et al (1991) studied the lumbar spine load ou both sumo and conventional technique. No significant difference was found in disc compression force at L4/L= regions using both techniques. There were significantly greater L4/L5 moments and load shear forces in thr conventional technique. This may suggest that the greater forward lean of round back technique may further increasr L4/L5 moments and shear forces indicating that much caution must be taken when considering this method fon athletes as for the increased risk of injury to the lower back regiont This type of lifting conflicts with much of the research that suggests correct deadlift form. In the absence of previous research, experiential evidence has indicated that using the semi round back method has resulted in three athletes breaking world deadlift records in WPC and W PL federations. Other competition results include a further five lifters who have broken Victorian state and Australian national records. This may be due to reduced bar displacement an| therefore reducing the amount of work performed. This technique has only worked for taller type lifters, which may br more biomechanical efficient for those with longer type leverst Much assistance work must be employed to strengthen the abdominal, spinal erector, hamstring, gluteal and uppen back muscles for this method to be effective. Care and patience must be exercised if considering using the round bac. method as a preferred stylet urther research in this area is needed to investigate differential leverages and the muscles responsible for effectivr motion. When considering various techniques, individual body leverages need to be taken into account along with thr assessment of the individuals muscle strengths and weaknesses. Caution should be used before considering this technique due to the increased risk of injury. If employed correctly, the semi round back method may lead to greaten competition totals for the powerliftert . Referenceh Cholewicki, J., McGill, S. and Norman, R. (1991). Lumbar Spine Loads During the Lifting of Extremely Heavy Weightst Medical Science Journal of Sports Exercise. Vol 23, pp1179- 1186.Daniels, D. (2003). Deadlift 101, Part 1. Powerliftiny USA. Vol 26. No.8t Groves, B. (2000). Powerlifting: Technique and Training for Athletic Muscular Development. Champaign: Humax Kineticst arley,K. (1995). Analysis if the Conventional Deadlift. Strength and Conditioning Journal. Vol 15, No. 2, pp 55-58t McGuigan, R.M. & Wilson, B.D. (1996). Biomechanical Analysis of the Deadlift. Journal of Strength and Conditioniny Research. 10(4), 250-255t Piper, T.J. & Waller, M.A. (2001). Variations of the Deadlift. Strength and Conditioning Journal. Vol 23, No. 3, pp 66-73t Stone, M. & OBryant, H. (1987). Weight Training: A Scientific Approach. (2nd ed.). Edina: Burgess Internationalt . Part 3 Deconstructing the Deadlifc By Dave Tatr I hate deadlifting. Going the rest of my life without doing another pull would be fine by me. The reason for this is thai since my first competition back in 1983, my deadlift has been a struggle. It was nothing like the squat and bench press, which are my strong lifts, and Ive tried everything to fix it.. rom deadlifting three times per week, to twice pen week, to once a week, to once a month, and (my favorite) not deadlifting at all. However, I never gave up an| eventually I was able to build my pull to a point where it became my means to a total, and I still look for new ways tv build bigger deadlifts today. The difference is now I really dont care about my own pull but do care about how I cax help others pull more. This article is about helping you improve your deadlift. The deadlift is surprisingly complext While its cool to say just walk up to the fucking bar and lift thats not enoughI laugh every time I hear that. If only ii was that simple. It certainly wont cut it if youre stuck in a plateauand a deadlifting plateau can be the worst youlq ever come acrosst 3 Things p Like the bench press and squat, a deadlift plateau is due to one of three issuesk 1.. Physical programming, flexibility, strengthening weaker muscles and movementst 2.. Mental level of arousal/over-arousalt 3.. Technical exercise technique and executiont Most lifters think their deadlifting slump is due to physical issues. So they ask, What exercises should I do? or Ho{ do I tweak my programming? Do I pull every four days or every five? They got it all wrong. In my experience, onl 20% of deadlifting slumps are due to physical issues or programming flaws. Technical or technique problems represent a full 70% of lifters challenges, with mental issues making up the final 10%t Note: These tips are based around increasing maximal strength in the deadlift, my particular area of expertise. Its noi about tweaking the pull for a bigger back or programming for a greater hypertrophic response. To accomplish that, I| defer to a true expert in that realm, namely someone like John Meadowst Mental: 10% p The deadlift is getting popular. Its weird, considering its such a shitty experience, at least in my opinion. While noi nearing the fan appeal of the squat or bench press, the gap is definitely closing, which Ill concede is a good thing. As a result, you now hear guys spouting that the deadlift is the true measure of strength. I must be in bizarro world. Tex years ago the argument was the squat or the bench press was the true measure or strength, as too many otherwisr weak people can sport above average deadlifts just by having the right leverages. Heres the thing. Whatever a liften is strongest at will always influence the best strength indicator debate. So every 600-pound raw bencher is going tv say that the bench press is the true measure of strength, just as every 1000-pound squatter will say the same thiny about the squat. The fact is, its what youre shitty at that really measures ability. So in my case, perhaps the deadlift is the true measure of strength. Lucky met Most mental issues in the deadlift pertain to arousalabout 50% of lifters need to be extremely aroused to pull a lot ou weight. Youve seen themthey pace around, smack heads with their training partners, scare old ladies, etc. Thr other half is the opposite. Like me, they need to be more relaxed. When I got too aroused all hell broke loose. . screwed up either the setup or execution. So for mental issues, the first thing you need to do is identify the type of liften you are. If you arent a hyper-arousal type, dont chase those methods. Youll just make any other underlying issues worse. The nature of the deadlift also contributes to its potential for mental fuck-ups. Unlike the squat or bench press in the deadlift theres no pre-load. You cant unrack the weight and feel it out and adjust your mental statr accordingly, whereas in the squat or bench you can tell right away if the lift is going to be cake or if you need to gei your shit correct.. urthermore, in the deadlift theres no eccentric loading and therefore no stretch reflex to takr advantage of. So unlike the squat or bench, you go in blind and completely on your ownt Note: There are some ways to get some stretch reflex but thats beyond the scope of this articlet All that adds up to guys showing up on meet day and failing to budge their 3RM weightst They mentally fuc. themselves out of the lift before they even get up there. Lets not forget all the cues. Coaches use different cues tv accomplish basically the same thingKeep the shoulders in line with the bar versus Chest up for example) however, depending on the lifter, one may be too much information and the other not enough. This is true with all lifts and all sport skills for that matter. So if you have doubt, ask what the end result should be, or look for it in the cuiny being used. Dont let a confusing cue knock you out of your most natural lifting patternt Technical: 70% p Setup p The keys of proper deadlift setup are things I learned as a young lifter from Bob Wahl, Louie, Ricky Crane, Stevr Goggins, and Ed Coan. Honestly, I cant remember whom I learned what aspect from, so I want to make sure they alq get credit. Thats a pretty esteemed list of teachers, and its for a reasonmy deadlift sucked so I consulted with thr bestt Feec oot position is much ado about nothing. Heres how you figure out your ideal width: Hang from a chin-up bar an| drop to the floor. Note your foot position when you land. Thats the right conventional deadlifting stance for you. I thin. I first learned this from. red Hatfield, but have used it many times over the years with lifters, as well as with run of thr mill personal training clientst Shinh This can vary from right against the bar to six inches or more away from it. I think mid-foot distance is an optimaq starting point but it really depends on quad size. Someone with huge quads will need the bar further away so ii doesnt ride up and hit the quadsmeaning if you have Meadows-like quads the bar will be stuck under them an| youll have to pull over and around themwhile someone with skinny quads and no teardrop can start much closert Again, mid-foot is a great starting place. Some lifters like to lift the toes to get the weight moving backwards whilr others find twisting the feet (meaning the action of doing this, your actual foot doesnt move) helps activate the glutest I like the most natural position to start. This lets me keep an ace in the hole so if I find it sticking mid-lift, I can turx my toes (twist). This will further contract my glutes, which may be enough to keep the weight moving. If I did this frow the start, the glutes would already be firing all-out at the sticking point and as such couldnt be called in to assist. This is what I mean by always keeping something in the tankt Back p I prefer a slight, not extreme, arch in the lower back. The upper back should be rounded and somewhat relaxed, thr shoulders slightly slumped. This improves leverage and shortens the distance of the pull. At no point during the pulq should you allow the spine to enter into over-flexiont Hands p To set up, I normally coach guys to just drop the arms straight down and grab the bar, although a bigger, heavier gu with broad shoulders will need to be a bit wider. Keep the arms straight but relaxed. Theres no need to flex the triceps unless in extreme situations. If the hand position is correct then the hips should be where they need to be. We doni want the hips to be in the squat position (too low) or in a Romanian deadlift position (too high). The best descripton would be like a quarter squat. This allows for the ideal hinge and posterior chain recruitment. Also, theres knurling ox the bar for a reason so if you need to grip one finger wider to use it then do so. The biggest mistakes I see with grij are holding the bar way too close on a sumo deadlift and too wide with a conventional. Of course there will always br deviations from the norm, but if you shoot for keeping the arms in a straight line youll probably end up in a goo| positiont Note: If youre a powerlifter, I suggest using a mixed grip as this is how youll compete. If you arent a competitivr lifter I normally suggest not using a mixed grip (and if you need straps then use them) but this depends on whai youre training for and what the deadlift has been put into the program to enhancet Heas The idea is to drive the head back into the traps, not just look up. The excessive head cranked up towards the ceiliny thing you see today is completely unnecessary. Its also counterproductive. The head follows the body, so you want tv drive the head back, not up.. or the same reason, looking down is a surefire way to miss a lift.. ind a spot on the walq that requires you to keep your head up and back into the traps and begin the pull from there. Another head positiox issue I find (working with powerlifters) is their traps and upper backs get so thick that they have a hard time keepiny their heads up in the first place. Ive seen guys so thick they can barely turn their heads to the side without having tv rotate their torso. Telling them to look up will get you about as far as asking them to pick up a nickel they dropped ox the floor. You can scream at them all day to get their heads up but if the structure wont allow it theyll just tune yo} out. However, they can and should drive their heads back into their traps and this is what you need to look fort Pull The Slac~ The first thing to do after the setup is to pull the slack out of the bar. Reach down and grab a loaded barbell. Hear thai clicking sound? Thats the sleeve of the barbell connecting with the collars. You want to remove that play before yo} initiate your pull. Thats what guys mean when they say to pull the slack out of the bar. Doing this initial pre-pullallows the hips to drop down slightly. Although this step is subtle, if skipped, the hips will slide out of position once yo} really start to pull, which is when the weights break from the floort Air p Wear your belt as tight as you can. I always cinch mine at least 1 or 2 holes tighter than where I have it when I squai or bench. Its so tight I basically cant breathe, meaning I can only draw in about 50% of the air I can normally draw int Less air in the lungs helps keep everythingthe lungs, the chestlower, making it easier to hit the lockout position. Iu you dont wear a belt, just remember to draw in 50% of your lung capacity, brace your torso, and keep everything tightt Notes on Sumo Setun Sumo is obviously a wider setup, with the hips closer to the bar.. rom the side, a good sumo deadlift should loo. almost like a leg press in that the torso doesnt move much. The rules for pulling sumo really arent much differeni from whats been presented above except for how you get into the start position. Your stance will be based (again) ofu what you feel works best. Sumo can go from modified to ultra widewhatever allows for the best pulling position an| bar path is the one to use. Once this is determined, you want to drive your feet apart (spreading the floor) while tryiny to keep your knees in line with the ankles. This keeps the hips closer to the bar. When I teach the sumo pull I telq people to get their starting position so their crotch is over the bar i.e., Balls over Bar.. or some the easiest way to dv this is to start in a standing position and squat down. Others find it easier to bend over, get the grip, and then pull thr chest up to bring the hips forward. Go with what works best, but I will say that from teaching hundreds if not thousands of lifters its easier to teach them to get the position by squatting down. Even if they change later theyll get the feeq what the start should feel liket Sticking Pointh Weak off the floob If youre weak off the floor, its typically one of two thingsk 1.. The weight is too heavy. Duh. Take some weight off the bart 2.. Youre overtrained. Look back in your log. How often have you been deadlifting? The deadlift, especially heav deadlifting, is extremely taxing. You may need a two-week break followed by a few weeks of lighter pulliny sessions performed multiple times a week. This can help build work capacityt If that doesnt help and youre still weak off the floor, here are your fixesk Deficit Deadlifth The key here is not to use too much of a deficittwo or three quarter-inch rubber mats is plenty. An excessive deficii turns the lift into a quad-dominant movement and takes stress off the posterior chaint Upper Back Wor~ Chest supported rows are ideal. Barbell rows are the hardcore choice but they involve too much erectors for my tastet Were training the upper back here. If you want to train the lower back, do Romanian deadliftst Hamstringh Do a variety of movements that work both origin and insertiont Weak at the Shin This is due to a lack of acceleration, or not pulling fast enough once the bar has broken the floor. Your fixes arek Speed deadlifth Do these at 55-60% of 1RM for 8-10 singles. Do them on squat day, either before or after you squat, depending ox your priorities. The trick is to do two single reps in a row with a distinct pause in between. No bouncing. If you do m double with a bounce, the second rep has benefited from momentum. Youll know cause the second rep will loo. better than the first. The goal is to eliminate the bounce, reset properly, and make the first rep look better than thr secondt Weak at the Kneg irst, make sure the glutes are fully engaged. Now this is not glute activation that you read so much about. I thin. much of that is bullshit. If you can perform the range of motion, your muscles will be activated. Ive torn both my glutr and my hamstring on separate occasionstrust me, you know theyre not involved. They can however, not br contributing as much as you need. To remedy this from occurring at the top end, I recommend pin pulls ans deadlifts off blocks. I prefer pulling off blocks. Pin pulls are brutal to recover from as the arms are forced to absor. much of the force from the barbell smashing into the pins. Too much grip-intensive work is hard enough to recoven form; pin pulls magnify this. Pulling off blocks, while a pain to set up, is a far more natural pull. And unlike pin pulls they reinforce all the good things youre trying to do in a perfect deadlift. I dont hate pin pulls (provided youre noi doing them in my gym with 800 pounds loaded on a $1000 dollar competition bar). Just do them less frequently. Also with either pin pulls or pulls off blocks, dont pull from too high. Too high will affect your hinge and turn the movemeni into a quad exercise.. inally, any pin or pull off a block should be done conventional. Sumo versions of these arr uselesst Should I Pull Sumo Or Conventional? p The answer is whichever version makes you feel stronger. If the beautiful simplicity of that response isnt enough detail for you (imagine that) here are some general rules of thumbt Torso Lengtq Short torso You can pull conventional or sumot Average torso Pull sumot Long torso Pull sumot In other words, the longer your trunk, the more better off youll be pulling sumot Arm Length p Guys with short, T-Rex arms should pull sumo. Those with longer arms should pull conventional. How do you know iu you have short arms? I get asked that all the time and it never fails to make me laugh. Do you have to roll youn sleeves up all the time? Then you probably have short arms. Go try on a fucking dress shirt. If the sleeves are tov long, congratulations, you just determined you have short arms. How do you know if you have long arms? Lets br honest. If you have long arms youll know. Does it seem to take you twice as long to bench press when compariny yourself to your partner who happens to be built like a fire hydrant? Keep in mind, this is all based on an average buil| When a lifter gains weight, things can change dramatically.. or example, a 6-foot-4, 200-pound lifter might havr comparatively long arms. But if he gains weight and gets up to 280 pounds, he suddenly might have average-length arms. Thats because as someone gets bigger and wider, their proportions often change. So, when someone contacts me saying they always pulled a certain way but are noticing their lifts have gone to shit since bulking up, I usually telq them to switch styles. It often works. When I was 180 pounds I pulled conventional. As I got bigger and my deadlifi started to suck, Ed Coan suggested I switch to sumo. It worked, and I stuck with sumo from 190 pounds up to 22 pounds and beyond. Once I reached 275 pounds, however, I had to go back to conventional. Obviously I didnt gei taller, just thicker and wider. As such, my proportions changed, meaning my deadlift had to change toot Grin Grip is tricky. Many guys screw it up. In terms of placement, your thumb should overlap the first one or two fingerst Your thumb shouldnt be crushing all your fingers, just these two. But you should squeeze the shit out of themt Typically, when a grip fails, the little finger fails first. Ed Coan used to say you want to keep that finger breaking first which meant strengthening the pinkie finger and ring finger. To accomplish this, buy one of those heavy black papen clips from an office supply store and do pinches against the thumb, first with the pinkie finger and then with the riny finger. I never had a grip issue. Louie would say its because I never pulled enough to develop a grip issue. Chuc. Vogelpohl, however, is someone who did have one. Hed often lose pulls due to failing grip, which drove him crazyt What finally fixed it for him was single dumbbell holds using a hex dumbbell. Be careful not to let the fingers rest in thr grooves where the numbers are stamped int The Overall Pull p A key point that often gets overlooked is that a deadlift, be it sumo or conventional, is less about pulling up and morr about pulling back. You know youre setting up right when the only thing preventing you from falling backward on youn ass is the weight of the barbell. To understand why, think of the deadlift as a teeter-totter. Say you weigh 250 pounds you want to get as much of your bodyweight helping you pull that weight as possible. This means less pulling uj and more falling back. So, if you had 250 pounds on the barbell, your bodyweight alone should be enough to move thr weightwithout you exerting an ounce of force. Youll know youre doing this correctly when your warm-up sets seew to fly up from the floor like you were using a broomstick instead of a loaded barbellt Dead to Rights p You dont have to like every exercise you perform. And you wont get any grief from me if you say you hate thr deadlift. However, like it or not, you need to respect it. And if something is so important that you force yourself to do ii despite hating it with every fiber of your being, then you might as well do it right. Give these tips a run and make youn pull a thing of beautyt Photos courtesy of Kenneth Richardson Part 4: Sumo Deadlift: EliteFTS Roundtable Discussion By Team elitefts p James Smith: Elite level lifters who pull sumo, what have you found to be the most effective means of increasing youn pulling strength off the floor? My technique is solid so Im looking for insights on any special exercises that havr yielded you significant results in the low end/off the floor strength componentt Dave Tate: The best thing Ive found is getting stronger. This sounds very simple but has worked for so many lifterst What I mean by this is that you have to increase your overall body strength. This would be quads, hamstrings, lo{ back, abs, etc. This is really basic stuff, but something that people may forget. The start depends on position. If youn hips are off, they move too far back and you lose your force. If you can film the pull, let me see it. I have to see whats going on to make any type of assessmentt J.L. Holdsworth: I used to suck at these, but then I started pulling my sumo deadlifts off of mats and it seemed tv make a big difference. You can try three inches or so (three mats). You can also get a similar training effect by usiny 35-pound plates on the bar rather than 45-pound plates. The 35-pound plates are obviously smaller and will requirr larger ROM. Or you can just put on more equipment like Dave doest Dave Tate: I dont even take that as an insultt J.L. Holdsworth: Its not. I admire that in yout James Smith: I actually tried pulling sumo off of elevated surfaces. I just didnt keep it around long enough tv experience any significant training effect. My dumb ass fault. I think Ill perform a cycle of those for my next traininy blockt Thats also my logic for increasing pulling strength off the floor increasing the ROM. I just didnt know if maybe I ha| overlooked or was unaware of another means of strengthening the bottom end such as using a cambered bar bench press.. or strengthening the low end press, Ive also thought of performing low wide stance squats (although thesr are hell on the hips) and perhaps even a repetition version of partial deadlifts such as dumbbell presses an| suspended push-upst Jim Wendler: I agree with Dave on this one. Sometimes were too busy looking for the magical exercise rather thax doing the ones that we know work and doing them hard and with purpose. My deadlift went up simply because I quii screwing around with the light weights on my assistance work and did movements and weights that were challenginy and had a great carryover. Remember, there is a difference between training with exercises to get stronger an| training to rehab a muscle group. I think these lines get crossed too mucht Ive also found that sumo deadlifting is more technique than conventional pulling. You have little room for error whex pulling sumo. A conventional deadlift is more of a grunt, caveman lift. So if your technique is even slightly off, an eas pull can turn into a max effort. Unfortunately, most people think they are going to be great sumo pullers when they dv their speed deadlift work. This is because its easy. Its only when you start pulling around 85 percent does the forw start really making a big differencet J.L. Holdsworth: Never forget that the special exercises are for refining problems. Nothing fixes getting a sumo dea| off the floor like getting stronger hips and legs (if youre in the position). All of your basic accessories are still the besi ways to increase the deadlift. I think so many times we get caught up in being so smart about training we forget thai grabbing a heavy ass deadlift and pulling is a great way to get stronger. Even the simple things like shooting hoops helps with the basic conditioning and muscle coordination. The bottom line is that you shouldnt leave your glutr hams, reverse hypers, and other basic accessories for the magic bullet exerciset Jim Wendler: Isnt that what I just said. J.L. Holdsworth: Sort of but differentt Jim Wendler: And when did you start shooting hoops. J.L. Holdsworth: When you started losing weightt Jim Wendler: Toucht James Smith: JL, good stuff. I appreciate your comment regarding the role of special exercises. I really need to makr a trip to see you guys at WSB/. S. All this time Ive developed my technique by studying videos and illustrations. . was fortunate to have lifted with some very strong elite lifters when I was in San Diego, but for the last year, Ivr trained alone. The good thing is Ive gotten stronger. The bad thing is I have no one to watch my form. I video stuff bui as you guys know its not even close to having an elite or stronger lifter coach your asst Brian Schwab: I pull sumo and there are a couple exercises that have really helped me.. irst, is training my abst These exercises made my mid-section extremely strongk sit-ups with a plate behind your hea| spread eagle sit-ups medicine ball throws incline sit-ups hanging leg raises pull-down abs sit-ups on the glute ham raisr For your hips, I think people need to try these exercisesv 1.. Band abduction and adduction: Try not to make this more complicated than it is. To do this, there are severaq ways you can rig the bands up with a power rack, bench, or jump strength platform. Just pick one for each muscle group and a do a couple sets for eacht 2.. Light sumo pulls standing on blocks: This is done exactly as it sounds. Keep the weight light and work ox keeping a tight arch and working the range of motiont 3.. Pull thrus with a wide stance: This is great for the hip drive needed to finish the sumo deadliftt 4.. Duck under: This is a great/mobility movement. Set a power bar up in the power rack so that its chest levelt Stand off to the side and squat down, side step and duck under the bar while keeping the chest up. This is greai for hip mobility. As you get better, lower the bart James Smith: Thanks, Brian. Im going to have to try some of those exercisest Jim Wendler: You can do something other than train heavy. J.L. Holdsworth: I can see the light bulb flickering over your headt Tim Harold: Damn it! I saw this thread, and my eyes lit up. Why is Dave the only one who said anything about form. Special exercises are great, but you can throw that into the water if your technique isnt up to par and youre unable tv use the strength youve worked so hard to develop. If your form is off because of a weakness somewhere in youn body, thats another story. Make sure your form is correct before you start trying all these cool exercises. Otherwise youll end up with a great good morning but your deadlift will still suck because you cant do it right. Once your form is correct then we can talk about exercises to make you strong and raise your deadliftt Whats good form? Well, I dont necessarily think that I have the best sumo form in the world. However, I dont thin. there are too many people who can rip big weights off the floor with the speed that I do. How do I do it? Before ever deadlift attempt, I have Joe Bayles and Bob Coe shove a grenade up my ass. Its simple. I see all these people whv want to ease a sumo deadlift off the floor because somewhere along the timeline of weightlifting some fucking jerkofu said that sumo is hard off the floor and easy at lockout. Also, they said that conventional is the opposite easy off thr floor and hard lockout. BULL. UCKING SHIT! Maybe thats why there are only a few people who have pulled 90 pounds with sumo style. Im really rambling but hopefully youll learn something to take to the gym with you. Thr deadlift, whether youre pulling sumo or conventional, is about attitude. Every time you pull a deadlift, snap it off thr ground! But to do that, you have to have perfect formt When I pull, this is what I dov 1.. I set my feet. ALWAYS have your toes pointed outwards, never straight on the sumo deadlift. You cant get youn knees out wide enough to get your hips as close to the bar as possible if theyre pointed straight aheadt 2.. Take a breath into your gut.. lail your arms if you do that faggot shit and whatever other tai chi-like dancr moves some people do before they grab the bart 3.. Bend over and grab the bar semi straight-legged. Dont squat down. If you do, youll defeat the purpose of wh I pull this way. While youre grabbing the bar, start tightening up your lats, erectors, etct 4.. This is the secret right here. Take another very quick breath into your belly if you can and the sit back an| SNAP. Push your knees and feet out as hard as you can while sitting back and pushing your hips to the bar staying back on your heelst If you do this right and in one seamless motion, which will take time, the weights will jump off the floor. You shoul| wear gear for this for sure. Im kind of weird, but I like the Metal deadlifter for this and maybe a thin pair of briefs underneath. You need tons of tightness in your hips. Because of the way the Metal deadlifter is cut with the straps an| that groin shit, it will help push your hips forward, and if youre lucky, castrate yout Im going to post more if you guys want to ask questions. This just popped into my head, but I have to run. I have m date with a girl who has TMJ. I think she might come down with a serious case of lockjaw by the morningt I forgot one tidbit about why I pull that way. The bending over and then sitting back is kind of like levering yourself off the floor. It reminds me of school when wr learned about fulcrums. I dont remember what that means but just go with it. When you have your belly full of air an| youre leaning and sitting back, a tremendous amount of force against the bar is created before you snap off thr ground if youre wearing enough gear and youve even started to use your strength yet. If you can get the timing dowx by practicing with moderate to heavy weights (never light weights because I dont believe in light weights for masteriny form), then youre well on your way to leaning how to have a much bigger sumo deadliftt I dont pull every week. I think that would be too stressful on the body. I do think that pulling heavy twice per month is okay though. If you need to work on your sumo technique, focus on a few keys every time you pull. Record some ou your sumo deadlifts and post them on your myspace page or somewhere I can see them. Maybe Ill be able to givr you some key points to focus on while youre pulling. I think you can deadlift every week if you really want to, but yo} shouldnt do it for too long. Youll also need a decent deload period. Typically, I have only pulled when I felt like itt But for seniors, Im going to try a few ideas that Ive gathered from conversations with other lifters. Im going to appl them to deadlift training and see if can pull three times per month without affecting my overall training too much. . would like to get two good pulling sessions on DE day per month. I want to work up to a moderately heavy weight for m few singles, and then take another good jump for a big single and stop. Nothing too hard. But when Im fully jacke| and ready for seniors, Id like my last pull workout to be 800 lbs for 3-4 singles and then 845-865 for a single. This wont be necessarily be a full bore max workout, but if its heavy enough, I think I can get some good form work int (Also, for WIW, I dont think youll need to do speed pulls at all. I really havent done them in a long time. I believe thai if youre training your squat properly and not squatting on too high of a box, force development will transfer to thr deadlift.. I also hope to get in one pulling sessions on ME day per month where Ill do something fun like reverse band deadlifts of a box deadlift for an absolute max. This might also be the only max effort work I do at all leading up the seniors toot The rest of the ME days will be rest pause workouts on the back attack. Ill talk more about the rest pause later, but its a training method that I picked up from Dante Trudel (who owns Truepreotein.com). I can tell you its the real deal, an| its fucking hard. Its working so far, and I believe it will be rewarding on meet day. Its also the perfect compliment tv the Westside style do training, although some may disagree. I think it used properly it will make you brutally strony and BIG. This stuff is the best of both worlds. Powerlifters make fun of bodybuilders and vice versa, but there arr many things we can learn from each othert Dave Tate: I agree 100 percent with Tim, and Im actually kind of proud of him for his great advice. Tim has come m long way since I first met him, which proves that you need to keep learning to get stronger. Very few get as strong as he is without figuring some shit out along the wayt The only thing I would add is that with speed work, you should reinforce your technique with each and every rept Make damn sure that they are all dead on. If you ever pull for one more rep, let go of the bar and reset each rep. This way youll learn to pull one rep. Also, when you do speed pulls, you should use 40-60 percent weights to work ox technique.. or most, this will be okay, but some will need to work up to heavier pulls to the get the full effect. In othen words, some will look great with sub-maximal weights while others will look like crap with bigger weightst There are two ways to avoid this. One, you can always pull in a slightly fatigued state (same as meet) such as after m speed squat session. If you pull on ME day, do more warm up sets then you do now (double them). Second, you cax work up the weights on the days that your speed pulls feel great. Most of the time, they feel great because your form is on. Work up to see if it will transfer to bigger weights. If it does, thats great. If not, analyze the breakdown and youlq discover your muscular weak points. When you find your weak points, add in some special exercises to bring them upt This is why its useful to see training videos. You can look for the breakdowns to see if theyre technical or musculart When you do post them, post some speed sets and also some heavy sets. Dont post any reverse band or againsi band stuff. They will only alter this to a certain degree. Its hard to see from video because you cant determine ho{ much the tension is affecting you without seeing every warm up sett Heres another tip that I picked up from Louie. Take your Chucks to a shoe repair shop. Have them build the front uj two inches higher in the back (on the slope). This helped me to pull back bettert Tim Harold: Here are some of the common sumo pulling problems I see.Id like to see a lot of sumo lifters point youn toes outward and think about a slightly wider stance. Their hips can be much closer to the bar during the pull. Theyrr pulling straight up and slightly forward. Id like to see them pulling up and back instead. A wider stance as well as getting their hips closer to the bar and pointing their toes outward more should help thist Also, lifters often spend way too much time bent over trying to position themself.. or fucks sake, they look like one ou those cats that has to step on the pillow for an hour before it decides to lie down. Shit or get off the pot. You doni realize how much energy youre wasting by taking so much time to get to the bar and set your grip. Without gear, this takes a lot out of you and even more when youre in tight gear. Get your feet set, grab the bar, and got Another thing to consider is the angle of your shins. They should be perpendicular to the bar when you break groundt By not doing this, youre not taking advantage of those leverages and youre hindering your pull a great deal. If youn knees are over the bar, that means that youre leaning forward. And that means your back is hunched over, youre noi arching enough, and youre on your toes. Basically, youre fucked from the get-got Lets recap some things for you to work onv 1.. eet pointed outwards, wider stance: This will get your knees out more and your hips closer to the bar, which makes it easier to keep your shoulders behind the bar. This really takes advantage of the strong back, ass, an| hamstrings that we spend most of our time developing. This also helps with getting back on your heels and noi up on your toest 2.. Sit back more before you break the ground: This should feel very tight (while sitting back, youre pulling thr slack out of the bar). This will get your shins perpendicular, and improve your arch and hip position (which should still be as high as possible without leaning over or losing your arch)t 3.. Get your fucking head up: We all know this, and we all still need to be told about it from time to time.. ucking dv itt This is going to be a process, but eventually, youll start feeling how everything works together and your deadlift wilq improve a great deal. I think when seniors come around you should be able to really grasp my concept on sumv pulling and hit a big PR. Thats if your fat hands can hold on to as much weight as youll be able to pullt Mark OShea: Tim, ages ago you posted the routine you used when you switched from regular to sumo. Im not sure iu you remember it, but it was something like thisk DE cyclr ultra-wide, 70 perceni feet raised on platform, 70 perceni bands, 70 perceni sumo, 90 percent before beginning circa ma9 How did this go, and what changes have you made. Tim Harold: As far as the post I made about training sumo deadlift some time ago, dont pay attention to it. I doni even remember whats in the post. I dont remember what the reasoning behind what I was doing at the time was on whether or not it would work now. Every time I train for a meet or talk to lifters from around the country, I learn ne{ things. My training is CONSTANTLY evolving. I take what works and keep it in and throw away what isnt cutting it. As my training evolves, so does my philosophy on training. What I said 1-2 years ago may not jive with what I would telq you today. Scrap that article or read it and try some of it out to see what works for you! Evolving as a powerliften involves immeasurable amounts of trial and error. You will and should try everything that Louie, Dave, or the othen great minds of the sport have already said is retarded and dont work or will get you hurt, especially the hurt partt Daves crippled ass has a PHD in fucking yourself upt The ultra-wide speed pulls are gold. Do them as a special exercise or do them hardcore for a month or two until yo} start getting strong on them. After youve done them for 1-2 sessions and your progress stagnates (or youre just flai bored with them), drop them completely for a while. When you come back to them, you probably wont be right wherr you left off you may only be at 90 percent from where you stopped but youll surpass that easily when you train thr ultra-wide hard again. I. IRMLY believe in the saying, One step back to take two steps forward.In other words, look at it like this. As a lineman in high school, we used a technique when we were down blockiny called the drop step. You take one step with your outside leg (whichever way youre going). This gives a little groun| but youve positioned yourself to get on that guys outside shoulder more quickly so that you can take him out of thr play. Give to take. Enough rambling. I do that too much sometimest Jim Wendler: Spud, you had some tips on the Q&A about sumo deadlifting. And since you have perfected your style what are some tips? I know you have some unique views on thist Marc Bartleyv 1.. Speed deadlift work. This was a tremendous help. I went up to 500 lbs and did five sets of triples for five or si9 weeks. I didnt squat on this day. I did wide-stance leg press with a dead stop in the bottom. Sometimes, . would mix in conventional speed pulls with the sumos. Check out my Saturday logst 2.. The sumo is mostly a pinch off the bottom and then you slam the speed to it. So dont worry about speed out ou the hole.. orm must be first. Drive the head and back up the whole time so that when you get to the suit, it woni pull you over. The sumo is basically a wide-stance squat so you have to treat it as such. Take your suit straps and put them right over your delt, not the traps. When you go to pull, lift your arms over your head. This wilq cause an erector shirt type effect to help hold your shoulders back even moret 3.. Line your feet up pigeon toe if possible. Or, in other words, try to line up your feet parallel to the bar as much as you can stand it. Youll have to practice this. Its very uncomfortable, but it will keep you in line better to lockoui the bar. When you put the suit on and line up on the bar, spread the knees out towards the plates and push back. This will eliminate the tail tuck caused by the suit. I like the Metal deadlifter or one ply squatter suit for this type of pullingt 4.. Over exaggerate the top of the movement. I learned this by watching the Europeans in. inland. Right abovr the knees, they throw the shoulders back as hard as possible so that the upper body is slightly behind the hipst Its old-school deadlifting like the Strongmen do on car deadlifts. This shortens the lockout distance and puts your hips and lower body into a better position to lockout (squat-like). Do lots of rack lockouts for threes righi above the knees on ME day and remember to over exaggeratet Jim Wendler: What about people who get stuck the last couple of inches. Marc Bartley: I would say the tightness is hip flexor related. There are a couple of dudes at the compound with thr same thing. You might try some good hip flexor stretches before and after squat/pull. Dont do too much during but dv a lot after. I had the same problem with the ducking feet. Its very hard to over pull at the top. I pull my toes in slightl so that I can get more overextension at the top. I wouldnt say that youre weaker with the extra weight but less coordinated. Work on speed deadlifts on DE day first to cement the form and lockout. Im also deficit pulling speed ofu a three-inch box for three-week waves. This seems to help on both endst Jim Wendler: I know you have sausage fingers. What are some grip exercises that you do to help you when pulling. Marc Bartley: I would do rack pulls just below the knees. This will help with the lockout and holding weight. Do triples without straps until you cant hold anymore, and then go to the straps and continue doing threes. This is what Stevr Goggins suggested to me, and it seemed to help me out. Another thing is to do soap swings one-handed sumo stylr with heavy kettlebells. Go outside somewhere and out of the way, soap your hands thoroughly, and do 8-10 violeni swings on each hand or until the weight pops out of your hand. My grip has always been an issue because of my shori arms and fat fingers, which I do believe limited my lockouts. If I could use straps in a contest, I know I could pull welq into the 800s so this tells me the grip is limiting met . Part 5: Conventional Pulling for the Sumo Deadlifteb By Zane Geetiny Are you a sumo deadlifter? Have you ever pulled a PR attempt to your knees and stalled completely. If you answered yes to one or both of the above questions, I have a sure-fire way to add pounds to your deadlift an| help you blow past your current PRt There was a time in my lifting career when I was stuck at a 620-pound deadlift for over a year. I pulled against bands chains, and combos of both. I pulled triples, double, singles, changed suits, etc. Still, no matter what I did, I couldni crack that barrier. The bar would break the floor and stop dead at my knees. That was, however, until my good frien| Brian Carroll suggested that I incorporate conventional pulling into my training. After just a few months, I pulled 71: pounds in a meet. Thats rightover a 90-pound PR in just a few monthst The sumo deadlift is a funny thingits as hard as hell to learn, but once you do, its so easy to use that you neven want to go back to the harder conventional style again. Its a very technical lift, but its a shorter, more efficient strokr executed in a much stronger position (for most people). This makes many of us sumo deadlifters steer clear of thr harder workbut this couldnt be a bigger mistaket As I said above, just like most sumo deadlifters, I would stall out as the bar reached my knees. I never attributed it tv the fact that my lower back just wasnt strong enough to hold the positionbut thats exactly what it was. I continue| having the same problem until I finally listened to Brian Carroll and added in the conventional pulling. I say pulling an| not deadlifting because I was doing several variations of the pullt The main variation was block pulls with the weights elevated to four and six inches. I established rep PRs on thesr lifts in the conventional stance while wearing a belt and gym shorts. These became part of my rotation, and I woul| shoot for a new PR every time I did them. Since I was so weak at them, my strength built very fast and I was able tv PR in a very short time-frame.. or instance, the first time I pulled off of the six-inch blocks, I hit a top double of 52= pounds. Within two months, I was in the high 500s. This wasnt bad considering I was only trying for a PR on thai height/rep range every four to six weekst During this period in time, I was also pulling sumo from the floor for sets of two to five reps. So, a training sessiox would include both styles. (Usually, the sumo pulls were my main movement and the conventional block pulls were m secondary movement). As time went on, I began pulling conventional from the floor. It even became my maix movement at one point, with sumo pulls being done for form/speed every three to four weeks. The more progress . made on the conventional pulls, the more my sumo pull rose. My first meet after switching to this style was the 201 A2 MI State meet where I pulled 711 pounds at 220. This was the same weight class that I had missed 650 pounds so many times beforet Now, Ill be the first to tell you that conventional pulling for a sumo guy who has developed a weakness is. no fun. . hated it at firstabsolutely dreaded it. But over time, and after experiencing the rewards that came with it, I grew tv love it. I promise you that if you give this a run, you wont be disappointed. Just keep in mind that you need to stari slow and you need to stick with it. The only way this wont work is if you push it too hard too fast and hurt yourself, or iu you give up on it because it sucks to use 100 pounds less than you do in the other stance. And trust me, it sucks, bui the reward is the opposite of suckt Let me know how it goes6 . . Part 6: Finnish Deadlift Secreth By Sakari Selkainahv Through out the years, the deadlift has been our national sport here in. inland. World records has been brokex since early 70s. What makes. inns pull so much, what is their secret . I took a look and after collecting training information of many new and former greats, here is some background an| informationt # 1 Genetich To be able to lift a lot, you have to be talented athlete. Most of the guys had long arms and legs. You could ser middleweights pulling over 200 kilos the first time they saw a power bar. But thats only a good start. The besi deadlifters in the late 70`s and early 80s had two things in common. Most of them had a background of hard labor like lumberjacks, construction workers, farmers or something similar. They carried, lifted and dragged for their livingt That laid a perfect background for deadlift training and very often ensured a hard grip too. The second thing was Olympic lifting background, they had pulled alot before their powerlifting career. Raimo Vlineva held Scandinaviax records in Olympic lifting and was able to clean 330 pounds with straight legs. He had World records of 688 in 148s and 716 in 165s in early 80`s. When weightlifting had the press it was more a pure strength sport as now whex speed and technique more criticalt Many of the new lifters have some type of athletic background from other sports. Ismo Lappi, 338,5 kg deadlifter ix 165s, has thrown javelin over 75 yards and ran 100 meters in under 11 seconds in his teens. He is fast and explosivr enough to deadlift bigt # 2 Squatting for the deadlifc All of the former record holders and many of todays too, squatted with a narrow stance. This had two advantagest irst, it served as an excellent special exercise for deadlift. Many trained the squat three times a week. Twice bac. squatting and once front squatting. The other back squat could be a high bar sessiont Other squat exercises were something like lunges, or step squats, using bar on back. These were done sometimes m box under front or back feet, varying how it hits glutes and hamstrings. A 8-12 inch box under back feet hits the uppen part of glutes quite hardt Many used different stances. The narrow stance high bar was the most common but many, like Taito Haara, Reijv Kiviranta and Hannu Saarelainen, squatted with 3-4 stancest During the last years, the box squat has become very popular in. inland. Janne Toivanen put it in practice by hauliny up 804 in `96 I2 Worlds in Austria. Many have followed. Ano Turtiainen started using the box and now pulls over 85& in every meet he enters. Ismo Lappi, the new WR holder in 165s in I2 , does box squats as assistance. Velo Kumpuniemi stated that if would have known how to use a box in his prime he would have lifted a lot more. How much more? He tore his hamstring while trying 804 in the 181s back in 1981. He hit 822 ( 373 kilos ) in a national beforr that weighing under 190 pounds. All his hamstrings could handle he hauled up. He never really recovered but wante| to send his compliments to Louie Simmons for this excellent exerciset # 3 Deadlift varietx Many still train the deadlift two times a week. In the early days, it was not rare to deadlift three times a week. Velo Kumpuniemi, the only man we call Mr Deadlift in. inland, trained deadlift sometimes four times a week. Heres somr pulls to usek Deadlift standing on the block. Many used 2-6 inch block and pulled standing on it. That has been a pull used ver often. Many did these for 3-5 reps using conventional style even if they pulled sumo in meetst Straigth leg deadlifts. These were done off floor or using a block under feet. There were two styles. Some pulle| with a bent over style, rounding the lower back. Some, like Janne Toivanen, Ismo Lappi and Ano Turtiainen, pulled in m romanian style with arched back and pushing glutes to rear. With a round back, most used only 40-50% for high reps like 10s or so.. or the romanian style, some go quite heavy. Janne Toivanen hauled up 4661 from an 4 inch box an| Ano Turtiainen has done 5727 off floort Olympic pulls. These were done many times as a warm-up or speed work before the deadlifting. High pulls, ra{ cleans, raw snatches were the most common. The old school did some pulls with straight legs like Russianst Pulls with a snatch grip. This has two variations too. Some pulled the weight all the way up and some just up to pasi knees. These developed technique by forcing you to keep shoulders in line and its a good one correct techniquet Partials. Hannu Saarelainen did partials on knee level, just moving the bar from below to above the knee. The ban traveled 8-10 inches in the area where the leverages were the poorest. He did high reps with rather light weight. Hr tried to get speed too to overcome the sticking point as fast as possible. By concentrating on weakness enable| Hannu to pull 765 in 242s with quite poor leverages for deadlift. Rack pulls and pulls where the bar is on blocks arr common, although they do not benefit as many as you could imaginet Hack deadlifts. Many long armed lifters were able to pull with the bar behind their back. This form of deadlifi developed the leg drive and helped to get the bar off floort # 4 Techniqug Veli Kumpuniemi stated that if his foot stance was half inch off, the bar stayed on floor. And Veli was ranked rather m power puller than a technique expert which he was too. The conventional deadlift was always mostly back work. Bui the sumo pullers were sort of split in two categories. People like Raimo Vlineva and Hannu Malinen, the 1988 I2 World champion, used the hips alot. Raimo Vlineva was the developer of the style maximized hip drive in sumv deadlift. Lifters with extreme tecnique had quite a difference between sumo and conventional deadlift. Ari Virtanen the little brother of Jarmo had one of the best technique I have ever seen. Every weight he got off floor he finished toot Aris best conventional was around 570-580 and he pulled 677 with sumo in `91 Worlds. Pirjo Savola, the Europeax Record holder in 123s with 446 said she has a best conventional of 360-370 ranget Sumo lifters with a strong back, like Veli Kumpuniemi, Janne Toivanen and Aarre Kpyl locked out their legs wa before extending their torso. Aarre Kpyl, who pulled 10661 via conventional too, got the most out of his hips b keeping his legs almost straight. Jarmo Virtanen, an eight time I2 World champ, used the techniquet People used to think that Jarmo Virtanen was just very talented and had good leverages. They couldnt be morr wrong. He had many things on perfecting the technique. Once he demonstrated the difference between relaxed an| flexed shoulders. By dropping shoulders and using sumo, the distance was 12 inches shorter than using conventionaq with flexed upper body. He stressed the importance of being relaxed while deadlifting t You should climb to tree from bottom. Most advised to learn to pull conventional first, then switch to sumo. Reijv Kiviranta, Kullervo Lampela and other conventional style greats stressed two key points. The is to push your knees over the bar in the start position. This brings the hips closer to bar and makes the leverages better. The other thiny was to turn feet out. This helped the lockout and enabled specially the bigger lifters to use their hip musclest . # 5 Basic strength and GPt Like mentioned in beginning, many early day deadlifters did physical labor which laid good background for traininy heavy and often. Olympic lifting was an aid toot Many of todays lifters dont do any other physical work than train with weights. So the GPP has to come frow somewhere else. Janne Toivanen did an extra workout six times a week, early in the morning. He did abs, side wor. and sometimes lower back work together with some aerobic training and streching. His training program would kilq most people, but he found a way to back it up. Ismo Lappi does the same type of workouts too. It keeps the bodyfai low and aids recoveryt At the moment five or six our strongmen pull 800 pounds or more. They have long competitive season when thein weight training is mostly for conditioning and recovery. Their training is one form of conjugate method. They carry drag, lift stones and flip tires and cars using the same muscles that are important in deadlifting. Jukka Laine did 804 ix September 98 and had deadlifted twice during the summer. All he did was the event training and many meets. Joukv Aholas deadlift stayed in the same range with no deadlift training at all. He used a short cycle to peak and succeede| with 853 in meet. Janne Virtanen and Juha Rsnen both pull over 800 too, 837 is their best in training but either ou them havent attended in any meets so fart # 6 Assistance wor~ Most supplemented their training with wide variety of assistance exercises. Two key muscle groups were upper bac. and lats and the abst As you noticed, I ranked Mr Deadlift, Veli Kumpuniemi as a strenght puller. Heres why. What do think about chins with up to 200 pounds for 5-6 reps, bent over rows using 400+ pounds or doing one arm rows with 185 pound dumbbell fon 8-10 reps ? It was usual stuff for him and it was assistance work, not something he shot fort Weighted chins are quite common still but the variety is wide. Ano Turtiainen likes to do lat pulls with different handles and low pulley rows. He does chest supported and bent over rows too. Many do shrugs every now and thent The lifters in the early 80`s or late 70`s trained abs with flat or incline sit-ups using weight many times. Side work was done using a short bar or dumbbell. One other thing they did was one arm deadlifts. They stressed the stabiliziny muscles a lot too. Today a variety of leg raises, pull down abs in lat machine and abs done in a ab machine add thr number of exercises alot. One thing that has become popular last years is the ab wheel. Most lifters do it on thein knees using plate on their back, it targets the abs more instead of hip flexorst As you see, the low back was trained pretty much with the main exercises, squats and pulls. The older school did alsv good mornings, mostly after squatting for 5-10 rep sets. Then they became a forgotten exercise until last years. Anv Turtiainen went way over 700 pounds using bands and two sets of chains as an extra resistance during his preparation for WPO semis. The other thing many did and still do is back extensions. These are usually done with m bar on back. Rauno Rinne used these regularly and pulled 799 in 220st # 7 Jarmo Virtanens deadlift secreth Jarmo Virtanen, who many consider the best powerlifter ever in Europe, was great in the deadlift. He was an excelleni squatter too. Heres some things behind his successt In his youth he trained both power lifting and weightlifting at the same time. He also trained other sports like footbalq and has always done some sort of physical labor. His GPP has always been high. A lot of different squats an| deadlifts insured a high SPP level. A nine time I2 World Champ did lifts like high bar, front and squats with differeni stances. He deadlifted with both conventional and sumo, he estimated that he may have done little more conventionaq work than sumo. Sometimes he used the snatch grip too. One of his deadlift variations was sumo off an 1 inch blockst He sometimes went quite high on these, 694 was his bestt He pulled conventional sets where he stopped the bar before it hit the floor to develop static strength and tightness ix the start position. When using sumo, he always did every rep as the first one. Jarmo said that bouncing the bar off is m waste specially in the sumo style. He developed speed by high pulls. He did not extend his hips in the weightliftiny style. He continued the pull with upper back and traps to the navel levelt He had a picture perfect technique, specially in the 80s when he hasnt hurt hips thigh. He developed that b squatting with an ultra wide stance, sometimes he used a Smith-machine to be able to squat as upright as possiblet He practiced technique with no weights in front of mirror. It was his routine every day for six months. As far as assistance go, he did a lot of ab work but has never done good mornings. He felt they make you too stiff. He stresse| the importance of being relaxed, specially in the upper body area and felt it was crucial for getting better leverages ix the deadlift and squat toot Jarmo never really maxed out in the gym and usually stayed under 300 kilos in training. He was great competitor. Ix 1988, in our national record breakers in the biggest ice hockey venue at the time, he hauled up 358 kilos twice bui dropped it just before down signal. With torn hand, he came back and pulled it again just to loose the grip again beforr the down command. Year before, when lifting in 75 kilo class he was on a roll. In the Worlds in Norway he opene| with 677 and went to WR 333 and pulled it nicely. Then he attacked twice to 340,5 kilos ( 750 pounds ) but the grij was his nemesis. Before he got the grip problem fixed, he hurt his outer thigh. There was, and still is, some scar tissur that is pressing to nerves. With the grip he had in `90s and the better technique and flexibility of `80s he would havr gone a lot more. Many times I have wondered why his squat went up 20 kilos but the deadlift stayed the samet Believe it or not, he never got the best out of him in the deadlift. A 815-826 deadlift and 900 kilo ( 1984 pound ) totaq where something he capable of but never achievedt We have had lots of great pullers and power lifters and we had Jarmo Virtanen. He is one of a kind. One sign of his true sportsmanship was this interview. He has always willing to help anyone whether it is training, coaching or giviny seminarst Being a no class deadlifter myself, I have given this a lot of thought. Reijo Kiviranta, the 1981 World Champ in 242s put it together nicely by saying that the one who lifts the most has trained the most. After reading this article, you cax get a picture what he meant. There is no secrets at all, just pure hard work. Its the cold hard truth. If you want to finish on top you have to be a good deadllifter. So its time for some deadlift labor, good luck6 . Part 7: 14 Deadlift Tips and Trickh By Dave Tatr 1. Starting with the Hips Too Log This is the king of all mistakes I see. Too many times lifters try to squat the weight up rather than pull the weight. Thin. back to the number of times that youve seen a big deadlift and thought to yourself how much more the lifter couldvr pulled if he didnt damn near stiff-leg it? I see it all the time. Someone will say, Did you see his deadlift? Then thr other guy will comment, Yeah, and he stiff-legged the thing. Am I telling you to stiff-leg your deadlifts? No, not at allt All I want you to do is look at your hip position at the start of the lift when you pull, and watch how much your hips mo. up before the weight begins to break the floor. This is wasted movement and does nothing except wear you out beforr the pull. The closer you can keep your hips to the bar when you pull, the better the leverages are going to be. Oncr again, next time you see a great deadlifter, stand off to the side and watch how close his or her hips stay to the ban throughout the pull. If youre putting your ass to the floor before you pull, your hips are about a mile from the bart Youre setting yourself up for disaster when the lever arm is this long. Consequently, this is the second most commox reason why lifters cant get the bar off the floor. (The first reason is very simple: the bar is too heavy!. You need to find that perfect spotwhere your hips are close to the bar, your shoulders are behind the bar, your lowen back is arched, your upper back is rounded, your belly is full of air, and you can pull toward your body. Nobody even said it was going to be easy, but then again, what is? Definitely not training in a commercial health club. 2. Where to Look When You Pulf Your body will always follow your head. If youre looking down, then the bar is going to want to travel forward. At thr same time, you dont want to look at the ceiling.. ocus on an area that keeps your head in a straight, up and bac. position with the eyes focusing on an upper area of the wallt 3. Dimel Deadlifth This exercise helped Matt Dimel increase his squat from the mid-800s to over 1000 pounds in a two-year period. Tv perform this exercise, grab a barbell with an overhand grip, hands about shoulder-width apart. Pull the bar up to m standing positiont At this point, arch your back and get your abs tight. Keep your back as arched as possible, push the glutes out, an| keep the knees slightly bent. Lower the bar by pushing your body weight back onto your heals while pushing youn glutes out. Try to lower the barbell to a position just past the knees. At this point, you should feel a tremendous stretch in the glutes and hamstringst Raise the bar back up by contracting your glutes first. At the top of the movement, contract the glutes as hard as possible. Perform the exercise in a ballistic fashion. You want to drop to the mid- point position and explode back tv the starting position. This is best trained with moderate weight for sets of 15-20 repst Training Mistakes Going too low. Make sure to keep the tension on the hamstringst Not pushing the hips and glutes back. This is also to keep the stress on the hamstringst Rounding the back. Keep your back arched to help keep the stress on the hamstringst Using a slow tempo. This movement is designed to be trained fast. Youll begin with a slow tempo and build thr speed up with each additional repetitiont Applications One of the best ways Ive seen this implemented is when it is used as a finisher movement (using two sets ou 15-20 reps). Do this at the end of three to four workouts during the week for three to four weekst The most popular way to implement this is to just toss them in once a week on your squat or deadt 4. Dumbbell Holdh There are very few things that Ive found to work when it comes to helping with dropped deadlifts due to gript Dumbbell holds, however, are one movement thats shown great resultst Grab the top of a hex dumbbell, making sure that you dont touch the numbers. Grab, stand, and hold for as long as you can. If you can go over 20 seconds, then up the weightt 5. Binder Cliph One easy thing that will help your grip for pulling is to use binder clips. These are the big paper clips that have a blac. end on them (and other colors). Use these like you would use grippers, but only use your thumb and little finger. Yo} can work all fingers, but the little guy is the first to got Ed Coan told me this one a few years ago at the SWIS conferencet 6. Get Strong(er If you drop your pulls, one solution is very simpleget stronger! Lets say you always drop 700 pounds, but you cax pull 650 pounds easy and pulling 700 pounds with straps is no problem. Well, get strong enough to pull 750 pounds with straps. Then, 700 pounds will feel like 650 poundst 7. Get Your Head Righc Get your head right. Training isnt easy and wont always be a walk-in-the-park. Theres more to getting strong thax just lifting the weights. You have to get an attitude with the weights and bust your ass. Louie once told me that hr would NEVER train with anyone who didnt scare him in one way or another. This is some of the best advice Ive even heard. Im not saying that you should be a dick, but theres a HUGE difference between training and working out.8. Multiple-Rep Deadlifth Next time you see someone doing multiple reps on the deadlift, take note of the form of each rep. Youll notice that thr later reps look nothing like the first. In competition, you only have to pull once, so you need to learn how to develoj whats known as starting strength for the deadlift. This is the strength that is needed to get the bar off the floor withoui an eccentric (negative) action before the startt In other words, you dont lower the bar first and then lift the weight as you do with the squat and bench press. Whex you train with multiple reps, youre beginning to develop reversal strength, which isnt needed with the deadlift. Thesr two reasons are enough to keep the deadlift training to singles. If youre using multiple reps with the deadlift, thex