I deadlifted heavy with a straight bar for the first time in a long while (5-6 months). My best pull with a conventional stance is 475. I decided to go sumo the other day(I never pull sumo). Long story short I worked my way up to 500 lbs doing singles. I got 500 moving off the ground but hit a sticking point right below my knees and had to drop it. I’ve never budged a weight off the floor before and not been able to lock it out. I want to try some rack pulls to help my sticking point, but do I rack pull with a sumo stance? Where would be the best height? right below my knee where I stalled?
I really don’t know how to tackle this because I’ve never really pulled sumo style. Let me know guys, I’m really looking forward to pulling 500 soon.
The thing with sumo is you gotta get your hips through first or you will have trouble locking it out. It isn’t like conventional were you can still be slightly forward and grind it out. So first thing, work on technique. Make sure you are pushing your feet out, not into the floor. It should feel like you are spreading the floor with your feet. Next, make sure you are always trying to get your hips forward the entire time you are pulling, this will put you in a good position to lock out the weight.
As for rack pulls, I do all my rack pulls sumo style. I find that it really helps to teach you how forward your hips need to be when the weight gets heavy.
rack pulls are nasty for getting your DL up. I think the best place for the weight to start is at the knees, so arrange it there, and like the other guy said, do them sumo.
Sprinter made a good point abotu pushing your hips through. I think alot of that relates to how you get the bar movving to begin with. If you rip the bar off the floor using a lot of back-strength, you’re in for a rough finish- especially if your stance is very wide.
If you watch great sumo technicians, they really ease the bar off the floor and then squat it up. Other than working your technique with medium weights- in your case, 365-425- probbaly the best thring you can do is to simply squat. Rack pulls won’t hurt though. I don’t know if they’ll make your pull go up. They seem to help my squat more than my pull, but everyone’s different!
If your legs straighten too soon, you’ll be attempting a wide stance, stiff legged deadlift; the best way to keep this from happening is to try and spread the floor apart with your feet/push your knees out.
Cool, all great points. I did notice that the sticking point was halfway because my knees were in the way, I definitely can work on pushing my knees out and getting my hips through. Thanks for the help all.
If You are planing to pull sumo, what i would do to beat the sticking point is pull conventional for reps as hevey as you can, then go to sumo for singles and doubles,Pulling off a block conventional can also help.wide stance squat is also good for sumo,my training partner pulls sumo, he pulls conventional untill he gets to about 90% then goes sumo, last year he pulled 620@162 bodyweight.