alright guys, ive been pulling conventional for the past year or so and ive made decent progress. the only problem is my arms are pretty sure so i tend to experience alot of rounding in my back. and I don’t really want to catch a train to snap city. so i changed to a semi sumo deadlift. the speed feels good and so does the power. but im nervous about how it will effect my numbers since i havent been training it this way for long. thoughts?
I’m assuming you mean you arms are pretty short, which I can relate too having problems with on a conventional DL. Its going to be harder at first to switch over and unlikely that you will be hitting the same weight and reps right off the rip. Just be patient and build confidence with your form first and it will fall into place.
[quote]wyolifter wrote:
alright guys, ive been pulling conventional for the past year or so and ive made decent progress. the only problem is my arms are pretty sure so i tend to experience alot of rounding in my back. and I don’t really want to catch a train to snap city. so i changed to a semi sumo deadlift. the speed feels good and so does the power. but im nervous about how it will effect my numbers since i havent been training it this way for long. thoughts?[/quote]
Just be patient. Sumo is massively different to conventional and much more technical. Focus on making your technique as close to perfect as possible and then the weight will come. I pull conventional but I’ve started using sumo a bit and it’s had a really nice carryover into my lockout so even if you end up going back to conventional you’ll still probably get good things from pulling sumo for a while.
You’d think that as lifters that practice mental and physical toughness our woes would lie in getting over plateaus and fixing imbalances and correcting flaws, but no, the biggest challenge we face is throwing weight off the bar when we need to. LOL you’re NERVOUS about NUMBERS?? Come on man, get your ego out of the weight room.
On a more serious note, when I switched over I had to throw 150lb off the bar, but now it’s almost back on. It’s all technique I find.
For me personally my posterior was lagging and my adductors were tight as hell. In fact everything in my hips was tight. Make sure you’re doing drills to open up your hips like Defranco’s Agile 8. I would even suggest playing around with stance width and toe point to see where you best lift according to your structure. I had to rework everything starting with just the bar, and I’m still working out some kinks.
If you want to talk time I would give it around 6 months minimum before you’re close to your conventional numbers, I pulled my best conventional weight after 8 months training sumo although I did have a lot of work to do. Some guys can just jump right into it.
Good luck.
It will take some time to build up the your sumo pull if your just switching. The technique takes time to master. In the long run sumo may fit you and be your preferred deadlift.
That being said, lets not forget the whole point, to lift as much as possible on meet day.
When I first switched to sumo I dropped 70 lbs off my conventional training max and did the 5/3/1 BBB challenge. It provided a lot of volume for practice. I caught up to my conventional PR in 3-6 months and beat it by 60 lbs after another 6 months. Give it time.
This was about three years ago and I’m still refining my technique. Like Haldor said, you have to keep figuring out what is the limit factor and correct it.
thanks guys, i appreciate the advice. hopefully it comes along well. I know i probably shouldnt focus on the numbers as much, but im very competitive and hate not pulling what i have in the past when im at a meet. it makes me frustrated when i know my body is capable of something but i cant do it when something changes.
I switched to conventional from sumo because sumo was aggravating SI joint issues. In less than 2 months my conventional caught up with my sumo and then very quickly surpassed it. Apparently, conventional is what I was better built for anyway. That was my experience. But one thing to keep in mind is that I was going from a more technical to less technical variation so I imagine that your ability to learn the new form will have a lot to do with how quickly you progress on sumo.
just an update for you guys. the switch wasnt as dramatic as i thought it was going to be. i trained it for a month and maxed just this passed week. i surpassed my conventional pr by 10 pounds, with much cleaner form. i could have gone heavier but i was starting to get a little round, and i dont want to develop bad habits again.
That’s awesome! Nice work.