Sumo deadlift is one of the best lifts you can do. In my book, for power and mass, it is very close after back squats and front squats. It is a great prower and mass movement covering lots of muscle groups.
Powerlifter? Well, you have to do it. Even if you pull conventional, sumo will benefit your pull. You can go heavy or medium-heavy with bigger volume.
Bodybuilders? You can hardly find a better mass builder for hams, upper quads, glutes, hips, lower and middle back. Go medium-heavy for 6 sets of 5 or medium-light for 4 sets of 12. Don't be afraid to load up some plates.
Athlete? Speed deadlifts sumo style will greatly improve your accelleration and strengthen all muscles around your hips. Go 6 sets of 3 with light-medium weight. Or 8 sets of 2. Or 12 sets of 1. Or whatever.
Office desk jockey? Sumo deadlift twice a week, once medium heavy 3 sets of 5 (leave good 4-5 reps in the tank) and once 2 sets of 15 with light weight. After a few weeks watch your hip pain, lower back pain and mid back pain disappear altogether.
A woman trying to get in shape?: Hardly you will find a better exercise for toning your butt and legs. Plus, women learn sumo quite easily because they usually have better hip mobility than men. Go light weight 4 sets of 12. Or whatever you like.
Now, how to sumo deadlift step by step powerlifting style:
The Setup
Approach the bar with your feet the same distance from plates on each side. Double check. Small issues kill big pulls. I like my feet 5cm or so (about 2") from the plates. That is pretty close to the plates; it is quite wide stance but it shortens the pull and allows me to pull bigger weights. Play with it. Don't forget to do a lot of hip mobility drills before your sumo pulling and some groin, hams, lower back and quads stretches. Your hips should be loose like a hooker's.
I like my feet about 45 degrees toes out. Play with it and find your most powerful stance. Bar should be against shins. Yes, heavy pulls will scratch your shins, don't be a pussy. Grip inside the legs, one finger on the smooth. Your grip should be the same as your shoulder width and your arms ashould be straight down. Grip tight, knees are forced out and your lower back is straight and DOES NOT BEND through the whole pull. You mid/upper back is a bit rounded WHICH IS OK. Do not believe the crap that your whole back should be flat. You won't pull a damn with a flat back. Your head is in line with your upper back or slightly lower and your whole body is tense like hell.
The Pull
With a belt, or beltless, pull a lot of air into your belly. Not your chest, because it legthens your torso and thus the pull; into your belly. With a belly full of air rock your butt down and to the bar (but not too low) and begin pulling the bar off the floor towards your body, not up. At the same time, push your knees out. Be patient, heavy sumos take time to get them off the floor. If your starting pull is correct, you should feel now a tremendous strain in your glutes, hams, hips and mid back. lower back is stiff but does not flex!!!. Be patient and let the correct muscles initiate the pull. If you are impatient, your butt shoots up and you will miss the lift or, worse, lift with your lower back. You are holding your breath the whole time. Pull back, not up. All the time, the bar greases the shins and knees. After a heavy sumo session, your lats should be sore as fuck because all the time they are responsible for keeping the bar very close to the body. Any drifting from the body means missing the pull and worsening the leverage.
The Lockout
The lockout is not the final 2 inches but it starts as soon as the bar clears your knees. Once the bar is slightly above knee caps you extend your knees FIRST. Yes, that's correct. Heavy sumo is NOT a knee extension and hip extension at the same time. You extend your knees first, THEN, you powerfully thrust your hips forward and extend the hips. Bam. Your are finished. Knees locked, hips locked, you just pulled the damn bar.
That's it. Easy, heh? Remember the key pulling muscles. After a heavy sumo session, your glutes, hams, hips and lats should be sore. Never the lower back. It can be tender (from the stabilizing work) but never sore because IT DID NOT FLEX AND EXTEND. All the rotation is in the hips, not lumbar spine.
If you still feel the above is too complicated, watch Pozdeev pull, his form is textbook-prefect.
Konstantin Pozdeev, probably the strongest puller these days and possibly of all times.
Below are some of the heaviest pulls you will ever have a chance to see. Enjoy the impecable form, smooth and confident pull and power beyond this world:
And here is a very detailed inteview with Pozdeev about training, life, career, competitions and so on:
Q: How tall are you? Do you keep your weight down or will you eventually move up weight classes?
KP: My height is 1.78m, and my weight has been quite variable. I've never gained a ton of weight very fast, rather, it came up slowly over time. Up until I hit 90kg the weight gain was pretty quick. After that it was actually quite slow... a couple of kilos here and there. 90kg, then 94kg, then 100kg, just a couple of kilos over the years. Now my weight sits between 104kg and 106kg.
Q: Did you change your strategy due to weighing in one day earlier for the "Battle of Champions"?
KP: Yeah, it helps if you can cut just a little bit of weight. I've had to cut before because I got a bit heavy, just 2,5kg of water.
Q: Is it enough for you to compete only one time per year?
KP: I am not bored, not at all. I like to compete "well", and not "just whatever". I like to have good competitions and the lower frequency is ok with me. I used to compete much more in the past, and you know, this also lead to more frequent injuries as well. Nowadays, I don't really feel like competing everywhere and at every competition... I just want to compete at the big ones, the interesting ones, the meaningful ones.
Q: What is your approach to training? How many times do you train per week? And what about volume and intensity?
KP: Now that I am training for the deadlift, almost all of the work in the gym is focused on that. Squatting and benching work is really just on the side now... you could say it's in a general preparation/maintenance phase... just for the general development, and not for a particular result. Now it's all focused on the deadlift. Even for this last Battle of Champions, it was all mostly deadlift focused. I had to change my training plans couple of times due to unforseen circumstances, mostly related to accummulated injuries (one of them actually happened right after the filming of our last video, haha). In the end, I had to make quite a bit of change to the training plan.
I train 3x per week. One training session is for squatting and benching... just general development and maintenance and 1-2 deadlift sessions per week. One heavier and one lighter. I pull both using the conventional and sumo technique when I train the deadlift. As for set numbers; I usually do 5 working sets, but if the weight is REALLY heavy, it might be as few as 3 sets... sometimes just one or two top sets for the heaviest weights, based on how I am feeling.
If I'm working up to 320kg, I'll go 70kg, 120kg, 170kg, 220kg, 270kg beforehand, which is 5 sets before the working sets with 320kg+ actually start. And no... I don't really count the warmup sets, it's a warmup. And yeah, it's only one set with each of those warmup weights, then I'll do multiple sets at that weight.
I pick my weekly weight increases based on how much time is left until the competition. I might go up by 10kg a week or by 20kg a week, depending on where I am at when I start the training cycle and how long I have until the meet. Usually, I'll add 10kg, sometimes 5kg, but it's difficult to answer that question exactly.
Oh yeah, every training session is heavier... it's a pyramid up. If everything is going ideally and I am recovering on time and my strength is holding, then yeah, it's straight up. If not, sometimes I'll take a step back and reduce the weights.
Q: Your bench press was comparatively weak util recently. What did you do to improve it?
KP: Pressing is just like any other exercise... works just like the deadlift. I like pressing and I like training the press. The problem is that pressing, especially if you really get to training it a lot and get carried away, can create problems for your pulling. Basically, your upper back works hard to keep you tight during benching, and this can fatigue it for the deadlift, which will interfere with your ability to stay tight in that lift. I don't think 230kg in the bench is a very big accomplishment in this category, no. People press a lot more than this... I mean, take Roman Eremashvilli, who weighs much less than me, but presses just about the same! No, I don't think my press is a standout.
Q: What do you expect to total at this year's GPA worlds?
KP: I can't really say exactly what I'm going to be lifting in Australia, coming up. You see, each competition prep is going to cost a certain sum of money. This, of course, has to be juggled with the family budget. Looking at this as an athlete I feel like I've gotta focus on making money from this process, and not really putting in my own money anymore.
I'd like to make some money from the sport... the time has passed when I was content investing my own money just for meet results... just to compete. Now I look at it from a slightly different point of view. This comes at a health tradeoff, injuries and such... and all for some crazy-exotic result which I have to fight to increase all the time.
So if someone would like to sponsor me, then I'd be more than willing to give it a full go. The desire is there but it can help with a bit more stumilus. If I do end up committing to the meet, the of course I'd like to improve my result from last time. That's always the goal. Exact predictions are impossible, of course because it's very tough to say. I'd like to do really well. You know, pull 420kg or 430kg. But for those kind of results, you need to commit yourself more fully. I have to work two jobs to support my family and also allow myself the luxury of training. This is much more difficult than professionally training, which is a different approach altogether.
Q: What are your favourite assistance exercises?
KP: I do hyperextensions. Great for posterior chain... glutes, back. Allows you to stay tight under heavy loads, which helps in all lifts. It's important to hold the right (arched) back position through this whole movement... that's the point of the lift. I never go very heavy on this exercise... usually 20-30kg, what's important is maintaining good technique at high workloads. I've gone as high as 50kg before but technique starts to break down then and the exercise becomes less useful. If my back isn't too messed up from heavy loading, I'll do hyperextensions in every session... usually 5 working sets of 10 reps.
Just for general upper body development, I usually only do abs, not more. Sometimes it's dependent on the situation... If I feel like I need more work I do it, like when I feel some muscles are underdeveloped. Otherwise, it's just the raw classics.
Q: How many times per week do you train each lift?
KP: In my training, I actually alternate a squat/bench session and a deadlift session. Because I train 3x a week, this way I sometimes train deadlifts once a week, and sometimes twice, depending on the order that week.
Q: How often do you peak?
KP: I only go for a max if I'm preparing for a competition... not in regular training. I pulled 390 with straps some time ago in preparation for one of the other "Battle of Champions" meets, and I couldn't actually hit this weight in competition... I couldn't hold my form for that long, and I actually got hurt, too. I guess you could say that the impossibility of regular maxing let itself be known through this poor outcome. This changed my approach... I think maxing should only be done in competition, not in regular training. You can be a hero in training but weak in competition.
Q: What does your diet look like?
KP: I like to eat good meats, good vegetables, good fruits. I pay attention to what I buy. I have an eye for meat quality... I can tell if the meat will come out well just by looking at it raw. I mean, it can be tough to find high quality meats in Moscow, that's for sure, so I just do my best.
Q: When do you start to deload before competition?
KP: I taper about 4-5 days before the competition. Volume goes down a lot on the first one, then on the second one it's a very LIGHT training session, and on the last session before the meet, it's really just a warm-up. My body allows me to recover and peak in this time... I mean, that's for ME.
Q: Do you do any prehab exercises?
KP: I've had hurt shoulders before, hurt knees. And the rehab is different for those... a lot of times it will be with bands. Evgeny Yarymbash showed me some good rotational exercises with bands... you use the stronger bands as you get stronger yourself. Attach a band down that wall to generate tension, then rotate your hand one way, then the other. I'll also do leg swings to accomplish a similar goal. Swings side to side, front to back, making circles (and this is without bands). With my knees, I actually had some doctors help me.
Q: How do you make 400kg move faster than any other deadlifter?
KP: Well, it's been a goal of mine for a long time. Since 2004, it's been a big goal of mine. I pulled 360kg at a college meet in 2004, and I though, ok, 400kg is just around the corner, haha... "just another year or two and I'll pull it". Took me, practically 10... well, 8 years to pull it! Why was it fast with no struggle? I don't know... it happens differently every time... I guess I was that much stronger!
Q: Could na American who comes to Russia train in your club?
KP: If this is a normal person and I am a friend beforehand with them, then why not?
Q: How did you get started in powerlifting?
KP: I started training in the year 2000, and within a month, I was already doing my competition. Yep, full meet: 110kg-70kg-140kg. I had a good trainer... trained people in heavy athletics... had prepared 10 "master of sports" title holders in our small town. He was, and is, a very talented trainer. A couple of my friends were going to him for private training lessons in his garage gym that he made, they told me about it, so I joined in as well.
I paid money and everything for every lesson... 3x a week. He built me a very good base within the first year, and that base set me up for great results much later down the line. I mean, why should a guy who spends his own time training people do this for free. I showed up to him as a nobody, why would he spend his free time on me just cause I wanna train. I actually think this is normal and an even better setup when people have some sort of payment going on. Now I myself only train for payment. If they are friends or former students and just need some tips here and there, I can always do that for free, but otherwise, it's work... why should it be done for free? It doesn't even matter if it's powerlifting... payment should happen.
Q: Any tips you can give to get better in the deadlift?
KP: If I haven't seen a guy's technique, I can't really give many tips. I'd have to see his training sessions. I'd need to see where he's making mistakes and what he is doing wrong. Maybe the technique is all good and it's the plan itself that's the problem, it doesn't fit him well. Everyone needs a customized plan to some extent just for THEM. And you need to watch a person's levers... where to put the hips, to lower them or not, to raise them or not, when to start pulling... sooner or later... this is all also very importnat. You can't describe this with words alone... if you've seen them train, then yeah... otherwise, it's not a good idea to just give advice.
Q: What you do, if anything, for hip mobility in deadlifting?
KP: Yeah, I stretch my inner thighs... doing butterfly stretches and things like that. I'll do this especially if I notice that during the lift, my knees are having troubles staying out. I'll have someone help me with the stretches during warm-ups. I'll sit down and stretch them down like that. I'll take my hips through circular motions to stretch them out... all based on how I'm feeling. If I'm tight, I'll stretch for 2 weeks at a time, sometimes a month. If you walk up to the barbell and you feel like you can't execute the technique, then it's time to do additional warm-ups and stretches. I'll stretch my back out (lower back) after training... I'll hold some heavy weight in the stretched position standing on blocks until my back is nice and loose (this is done with straps). This is to counter the compression involved in heavy lifting.
Q: What number is your ultimate goal in the deadlift?
KP: Haha, well I'm gonna try to pull a minimum of 406kg, haha, but of course I'd like to pull 420kg, maybe 430kg. We'll see but I think this will depend pretty highly on sponsorship. If I don't have the right support and can pull only 405kg at the meet, I'd consider that a pretty bad "minus" (disappointment). At this point, I have to look at things differently. Training for half a year and then not accomplishing a big PR... well, that doesn't really make much sense for me and my family at this point.
Q: How did you choose sumo style over conventional?
KP: When I started, I pulled only conventional, but when I saw some guys pulling sumo, I tried it and liked it right away. As a matter of fact, I added 20kg to my best pull right away with sumo! I had a lot of back pain and problems pulling conventional, cause it's quite a stressful movement on the back. Then I tried sumo and really liked it.
Q: Why do most Russians deadlift sumo style?
KP: Well, if a person is comfortable pulling that way, then why not? I mean, if I pull more sumo, why would I pull conventional if I'm not as strong there, if the result is worse? Some guys might struggle with sumo because they can't figure out the right technique adjustments for themselves. Typically, pulling conventional is technically more simple, so more guys can figure it out. If you use poor technique in sumo, it's just not going to give you the advantages that many experience. You won't pull a lot.
Q: What's inside of your head while you are lifting such big weights?
KP: Nowadays to be honest when I pull sumo, I don't really think about the starting position... it's trained to the level of automation for me at this point. You need to train for years and years to get your lifts to the point of automation... If you are consciously thinking about your setup, then that can only really interfere with your best performance. You'll be higher or lower of farther than what's your strongest position... no... you need to have this all automated to be the best.
Yeah, I do have a position which I get into before every pull. Each muscle is maximally stretched and tightened into the best position. If I'm too low on the start, my legs are too loose and must work harder to compensate. If I'm too high starting, my back must do too much of the work cause my legs can't contribute.
Q: Is there anything special about your deadlift setup?
KP: That's the goal of a good starting position... to get maximally stretched tendons and tight setup so that you can put as much acceleration into the bar as possible before it even leaves the ground. All of my people that I train and me included, our goal is to produce maximal force and acceleration before the bar even leaves the ground, which means you don't have to spend as much time actually picking it up. The less time you spend lifting the bar, the more you're gonna be able to lift.
Q: How is it possible to be so fit and pull such heavy weights? You look pretty small and aesthetic.
KP: I never really do a ton of reps in any set. I feel like more dense muscle, drier muscle is forged through lower rep training. I like my physique, and don't really see a point in getting bigger just for the sake of it.
Q: What are the best assistance exercises to bring the deadlift up (for you)?
KP: I wouldn't say there's some magical special exercise to improve the deadlift. To be able to pull, you have to pull. To be able to pull more, you have to pull more. If you wanna pull, you've gotta pull. You're not gonna come up with anything better than the deadlift. Yeah, I also do conventional pulls and block pulls, but if you're not going to just plain old deadlift, you won't be very good at it. Like a very good coach said back in the day "to be able to press, you gotta press. When I didn't press, I could not press... if you wanna press a lot, you've gotta learn to love it and get to pressing." Same with squatting, and you should not try to find some kind of magical trick where you do something special or eat something special to become a champion... that just doesn't exist.
Q: Do you incorporate different variations of the main lifts in training?
KP: Yeah, I've tried bands and chains for benching, some in the deadlift... just stuff to make the movements more acceleration-based. Right now I'm not doing that... my training is more classically based on straight weight. The weights are super heavy and you need to calculate everything exactly... bands don't allow you to do that. I think they might have a place in general preparation, but in special preparation straight weight must be done.
Q: Have you had any injuries and with what method (medical or not) did you treat them?
KP: Yeah, I'm dealing with injuries right now. Both knees have torn posterior menisci. The reason that I don't go heavy so often is that when I'm training lighter, the knees don't bother me... when I go heavier is when that starts to be a problem.
I've had some back issues lately too... some compression... but I went to my doctor in time and we caught it, I think. He gave me a shot and some regenerative work was done... basically what was mandatory at that moment if I was gonna keep training. I also did some physical therapy... a lot of it was to relax the muscles... there was excessive muscle tone (tightness) after the injury, so they were not letting the spine return to its normal position. We had to deal with that.
Q: Can you just comment on the last "Battle of Champions" this year?
KP: In reality I've talked about this with Konstantin Konstantinovs (KK)... as soon as you give a big interview and experience some exposure, you get hurt! Haha. 4 years ago when I competed at the second Battle of Champions, that was in 2011 I guess... I gave and interview and then I got hurt... same with KK. And I'm not saying there is a cause and effect here. I didn't feel too confident in that meet to be honest... my prep was ok, but compared to Belyaev, I couldn't really do much.
That year in general was hard. There was a lot of other stuff going on in my life... good things, bad things... and I had a lot on my mind, which prevented a level of focus. Plus, training is never the same and never perfect... you make some changes... my back got hurt... I had to delay my heavy weights for a while... by two weeks (I had to be very careful at the gym during this time so as not to get hurt worse). If I would have pulled 410kg, I would have been happy... I understood that asking for more than that was unrealistic at the time.
I had a very good run of progress for 4 years... people saw that I could have pulled 418kg and were looking for a miracle... but the prep... I mean I'm also a human... always getting better linearly at every meet is not realistic. When people are expecting big results from you and waiting on you, stuff gets more complicated, more difficult. If they don't expect anything from you... if you come out of nowhere and surprise people, it's a real "show", I mean people are really wowed. They just have no idea that such a feat is possible. You could say that this past time, "wowing" them didn't work out, hahaha.
The first attempt went well, the second went well although it was heavy and I wasn't 100% sure it would go. I took 410kg cause that's what it would take to do well (Belyaev is so damn far ahead), and the music I had on kind of gets very motivating after two minutes of the track, so basically, I waited too long... people were saying that some of the funny moments from the meet were when I stood around and waited for the track to get good and people thought "is he asleep?" hahaha. The track itself is not very interesting, but after 2 minutes it gets very good.
Afterwards I realized I should have just submitted the track cut to the right before the 2 minute mark, but that only became very apparent afterwards... I consider it beforehand but I figured they might be loading and cleaning the bar for a while, that would be like a minute... but they did it all very quickly this time. and boom... I'm up! By the 4th attempt I was too fatigued from the 3rd grinder to really do anything. Maybe in retrospect I should have passed on my 3rd. Maybe, I don't know. But my preparedness was not high enough anyway. If I was in the best shape I could have been, I would have pulled that 3rd anyway.
The conclusion is that I was not sufficiently ready... that I didn't do everything correctly in training... some food for thought. A lot more people competing, lots of new people. There was a sense of tension in the air, a heavy feel of competition. Everyone got stronger, but by about the same amount, so it was a really good fight. Yeah, some people are happy when you win, some not. This is normal, I guess, haha.
Source: video: Dmitry Spiridonov; translation: Mike Israetel
