How to do the sumo deadlift

The sumo deadlift puts your feet wide and your hands inside your knees, which lets you sit your hips closer to the bar and keep your torso more upright. The result is a shorter bar path, more work for your quads and inner thighs, and less leverage against your lower back than a conventional deadlift. It's a real deadlift, not a shortcut, and for some builds it's simply the stronger way to pull. It also asks more of your hip mobility, so give the stance a few sessions before you judge it.

How to do a sumo deadlift

1. Take a wide stance with your shins close to the bar. Most people start with their feet about one and a half to two times shoulder width, toes turned out 30 to 45 degrees. The bar sits over your midfoot, almost touching your shins.
2. Grip the bar inside your knees. Hands roughly shoulder width or a little narrower, arms hanging straight down from your shoulders. Double overhand to start.
3. Push your knees out and lower your hips toward the bar. Your knees should track in line with your toes, and your shins should be close to vertical when viewed from the front. Your chest stays up, so your torso is much more upright than in a conventional pull.
4. Pull the slack out and wedge in. Pull up on the bar just enough that it clicks against the plates, and use that tension to pull your hips down and in toward it. Your back flattens and your legs feel loaded like a spring.
5. Breathe in, brace, and push the floor apart. Drive your feet down and out. Expect the bar to leave the floor slowly; that's normal for sumo. Your chest and hips rise together, and your knees stay pushed out over your toes.
6. Finish by bringing your hips to the bar. Once it's past your knees, squeeze your glutes and stand tall with your shoulders over your hips. Breathe out at the top, then lower the bar with the same wide knees until it lands over your midfoot.

A good rep feels like a leg press with a bar in your hands: most of the effort is in your quads, glutes and inner thighs, with your back holding position rather than doing the lifting.

Cues that help

"Spread the floor." Imagine the floor is paper and you're tearing it apart with your feet. It keeps your knees out and gets your hips working from the very start.

"Show your shirt logo." Keeping your chest up so someone in front could read your shirt stops your hips rising first. If that doesn't click, try "shoulders up before hips".

"Pull yourself down to the bar." Think of the bar as fixed and your body as the thing that moves. Pulling against it wedges your hips in and takes the slack out properly.

"Be patient off the floor." Sumo pulls often look stuck for the first half-second. Keep pushing; the bar usually speeds up once it breaks the floor.

Common mistakes

Hips shooting up before your chest. The bar stays on the floor, your hips rise, and suddenly you're doing a wide-stance stiff-legged pull with your lower back doing the work. Usually the hips were set too low to begin with, or your quads are giving out. Set your hips where your shins are close to vertical, not as low as they'll go, and use the chest cue.

Knees caving in. As you push, your knees drift toward each other and the bar hits them on the way up. It also puts an awkward twist through your knees. Push them out over your toes and keep them there until lockout. If you can't, your stance is probably too wide for your hips right now.

Rounding your lower back. Sumo has a more upright torso, but you can still round if you pull before you're wedged in or the weight is too heavy. The fix is the same as conventional: take the slack out, brace and keep your chest up. If your back rounds on every heavy rep, drop 10 to 15% and build back.

Going as wide as possible straight away. Stances with feet nearly touching the plates look impressive, but they need a lot of hip mobility. Start moderate, add width a few centimeters at a time over several weeks and keep whichever width lets you push your knees out and keep your shins vertical.

Letting the bar drift away from your shins. A few inches in front of your shins and the bar has to swing forward around your knees. Start with it close, and pull it back into you with your lats as it leaves the floor.

Breathing and bracing

The same as a conventional deadlift: a big breath into your belly, brace your whole waist, hold it through the rep, and breathe out at the top. Take your breath after you've set your stance and grip, just before you wedge in. On sets of 3 to 5, reset your breath with the bar on the floor between reps.

Sets, reps and how much weight to use

For strength, 3 to 5 sets of 3 to 5 reps with a weight you could do 2 or 3 more reps with. For muscle growth, 3 sets of 6 to 8 works. We'd avoid high-rep sumo sets above 10 because your hips and groin tire in ways that make the stance break down before your muscles are properly worked. Do it first in the session, once or twice a week, and rest 3 minutes between heavy sets.

Warm your hips up before loading the bar. A set of 10 bodyweight sumo squats or light goblet squats with a wide stance helps a lot. Then ramp up. If your working sets are 225 lb (100 kg):

• 95 lb (45 kg) for 5
• 135 lb (60 kg) for 3
• 185 lb (85 kg) for 2
• 205 lb (95 kg) for 1

Add 5 to 10 lb (2.5 to 5 kg) a session while your technique holds, then add reps before weight once that stops working.

Here's roughly what people lift for their working sets:

Sumo Deadlift working weights by bodyweight and experience

Bodyweight	beginner	intermediate	advanced
130 lb (59 kg)	65 lb (29 kg)	130 lb (59 kg)	210 lb (95 kg)
160 lb (73 kg)	80 lb (36 kg)	160 lb (73 kg)	255 lb (116 kg)
190 lb (86 kg)	95 lb (43 kg)	190 lb (86 kg)	305 lb (138 kg)
220 lb (100 kg)	110 lb (50 kg)	220 lb (100 kg)	350 lb (159 kg)
250 lb (113 kg)	125 lb (57 kg)	250 lb (113 kg)	400 lb (181 kg)

Sumo and conventional numbers tend to be in the same ballpark. Some lifters pull noticeably more with one than the other, and there's no reliable way to predict which without trying both for a few weeks.

A bit of inner-thigh or groin tightness when you're new to sumo is common. Sharp pain in the groin or the front of the hip isn't. Narrow your stance, and if it's still there after a week or two of lighter work, get it checked.

Variations and alternatives

• Conventional deadlift: hands outside the legs, more hamstring and lower back. If you only ever pull sumo, it's worth training the other one occasionally.
• Semi-sumo: a stance about halfway between the two. A good middle ground if full sumo bothers your hips.
• Sumo RDL: the wide stance with a hinge from the top, and a way to train the position with lighter weights.
• Goblet squat with a wide stance: builds the hip mobility sumo needs and trains the same muscles with a dumbbell.
• Hip thrust: trains the glute lockout with very little stress on your back.

Sumo deadlift questions

Is sumo cheating?

No. The range of motion is shorter, but it's allowed in every major powerlifting federation, and it's no easier: you trade a shorter pull for a much harder start off the floor. Pick the one that suits your body.

Should I pull sumo or conventional?

Try both for 4 to 6 weeks with moderate weights and keep the one that feels stronger and more comfortable. Lifters with good hip mobility, or whose lower back gets cranky from conventional, often prefer sumo. Stick with conventional if your hips don't like wide stances.

Why won't the bar leave the floor?

Usually your stance is too wide, you haven't wedged in, or your hips are too low. Bring your feet in a few centimeters, pull the slack out harder and let your hips settle a touch higher.

Does the sumo deadlift work your back less?

Your lower back does less of the work because your torso is more upright, while your quads and inner thighs do more. Your upper back and traps still work hard to hold the bar.