I’ve been pulling conventional ever since I started lifting. I decided to give sumo a rip on a couple of my lighter back-off sets.
The dilemma… I find pulling sumo style MUCH easier than pulling conventional and I don’t believe I’m tapping into my true potential doing what I am doing.
Problem is that my right (pronated) hand catches on my thighs/shorts while pulling my hips through, and it gets peeled open. A real son of a bitch it is to drop weight you can hold quite easily because of something so silly.
Not sure if there’s any other solution than to wear skin tight bikers shorts and cover the thighs in Talc powder, just venting a little I guess…
Anyone that pulls sumo in here care to shed some light on this issue? Much appreciated.
I seriously don’t understand how clothes can pull your grip open. I pull sumo in competition. And in training for those meets, I have gouged out chunks of skin at my knee and have torn up my knuckles because of rough gear, but still didn’t lose my grip. Maybe I just lucked out with a good grip.
This happens to me when I pull sumo, even when wearing a singlet. My right hand always catches on the the bottom of the leg. I don’t even understand how such a little piece of material can stop what seems like a pretty decent exertion of force.
You could try putting babypowder on your groin area or the area the bar and your arms/hands rub up against during the lift. I understand that is a pain to do and not feasible every lift, you could try adjusting your grip, perhaps slightly wider or closer would cause you to miss rubbing against that area that causes the hands to unwrap.
Experiment with your grip, moving it in or out a couple inches.
I’ve been pulling sumo for years and have never encountered a problem like this…make sure your hands are plenty chalked and start instituting some direct grip work as that is more then likely an issue.
Make sure your grip is not to wide, I like my hand on the edge of the knurling when pulling sumo. Also as other have said I would put baby powder all over your legs. Make sure not to apply it with your hands !
Thanks for the help guys. I have pretty large legs and short arms, so moving the grip in and out really doesn’t make much of a difference. They always come into contact with my thighs on lockout.
Unfortunately I haven’t been able to play around with deadlifts much since creating this thread. I managed to bugger up my low back/hip area pretty bad hitting a squat PR so absolutely no lower body work for the time being.
Power, I’m training out of a commercial gym in Calgary right now. Where abouts are you at?
If you guys pull sumo and haven’t experienced this, then you don’t have really short arms, and your legs aren’t very big.
OP, take a spray bottle filled with water to the gym. Before heavy DL sets, spray your thighs down. The water will act as a lubricant. It is better than baby powder because it’s cleaner and easier to apply without getting it on your hands.
[quote]Steel Nation wrote:
If you guys pull sumo and haven’t experienced this, then you don’t have really short arms, and your legs aren’t very big.
Happy pulling.[/quote]
My arms are moreso “moderate” length. Not T-Rex enough to call it a bencher build, but short enough that I need to get pretty deep to grab the bar deadlifting.
I kept ripping my left thigh open and the only thing that worked for my was switching my hands so my left is supinated and right pronated.
