I have seen variations of this question come up on this board, so I hope you don’t mind my asking it slightly differently. I am tall 6’4" with a longish torso compared to legs, and with long femurs compared to calfs. I think this may be the WORST body type for squats and (particularly) deads. I have worked very hard on flexibility and my form has been observed by knowlegable people and seems pretty solid. The problem is that it’s hard to get down to near parallel without either 1) falling over backwards, 2) lifting the heels off the ground, or 3) the torso going past 45 degrees. To combat this, I usually do squats with a wide stance and toes pointed out, and a sumo-style deadlift stance. I have a few questions: first, with these stances, aren’t these two lifts starting to resemble each other a little, making it necessary, maybe to do them on the same day, since they are going to work a lot of the same muscle groups? Second, has anyone tried and had success with shrug bar deadlifts (or parallel grip deadlifts) for this specific body type? Any advice greatly appreciated.
first of all, what is your goal? training with a wide stance on both squats and deadlifts shifts the emphasis to your hamstrings and glutes from your calves. If you are a powerlifter, then that’s what you have to do. If you are trying to build your quads, you might not be happy with the results. if you are trying to build your quads, keep your stance narrow and go as deep as you can without sacrificing form too much. you’ll build a lot more quads doing a 7/8 narrow squat then a deeper wide squat. not everyone is built to squat to parallel or below nor should that necessarily be ones goal.
least the chicks dig tall guys bro. I have the same body type and same height and long everything. I haven’t done any sumo deads, but I have dropped down the weight by a 1/2 once I realized I was doing stiff legged deads where I thought I was doing regular deads. It just feels so natural to pull with the back… course it hurts after a while eh? struggle on