I think there is a word missing from our vocabulary to describe this…partial sumo. People automatically assume sumo is the super wide stance, hips open, feet probably pointing out more than average, shorter ROM. Like Hamster does them. And to be fair, this is probably the more traditional sumo we see the big boys doing.
What he is doing here is like a Medium Sumo. Feet closer together, hips mostly closed, toes mostly forward. Slightly longer ROM.
I do them like this as well sometimes (and sometimes traditional sumo, but my knees don’t love those), but I mostly do what I am going to call a Small Sumo. Feet slightly wider than a conventional, but I move my arms inside my knees like a sumo. Hips closed. I actually grip mostly on the smooth part of the bar, barely touch the knurling. ROM essentially the same as conventional. For me it is about back position, I am just trying to find the best version that keeps my back mostly where it is supposed to be.
I’m actually quite mobile but I don’t mind some drills!
I just went there, without looking at videos or stuff like I used to do, and tried to do a safe position. Last time I did these I was way wider (almost touching the plates), toes out, hips a bit lower. But it would bug my left knee eventually. This position there puts less pressure on my foot and prevents it to collapse too much outwards. I can’t control it if I go wider.
I went and looked at your vids like your recent 220 sumo and indeed our lifts have nothing in common ahahah
Honestly I’m just for more general strength than lifting the more weight, and I think conventional has more carryover? Anyway I certainly could feel my legs working more during sumo, but as @Cyrrex said, as long as my back is fine, I’m golden in my book
When I can be bothered I do a range of movements but favs r like the tactical frog. The key is taking the temporary improved ROM and lift with it too make the gains permanent. Linked some vids that are good too.
Plate to plate is pretty extreme. Personally I could push close to that but the tradeoff comfort wise isn’t quite worth the ROM decrease. Good starting point is as wide as you can while keeping vertical shins at the start.
General strength and function wise i think the extreme sumo stance has the least carryover. Anything else has utility(see Matt Wenning vid below).
That last video there is a good one, gives me something to think about. I am actually even more narrow than his most narrow stance, so it is practically conventional. But will have to think about it next time, in terms of where my knee/ankle position is.
So one hour before this, I actually went for a run with a friend (I’m quite the yes man nowadays, somebody says “let’s do this” and I go ahah almost got up out of my bed this night at 1 am to go to a party, but wisened up)
Honestly not bad consider everything, I had just overeaten 45 mins prior and wanted to puke the first 10 mins, and we were talking the whole duration ahah. This shows to prove I’m much more efficient on the afternoon, and when I’ve eaten enough already in the day, as I really didn’t killed myself there.
Then one hour, only PRs looool so I think i’m doing something right. Or it’s just than actually sleeping and not pumping yourself full of stupid things (I did drink a bit thought this weekend, but nothing too crazy) makes wonders.
Floor press was way smoother than the 2 reps at 105 last week. Actually very smooth.
Military press is a nice pr, the fourth rep lasted at least 3 secs, but I have the ability to grind through it now it seems. The following sets were RPE 10 as well for real, but I was taking like 4 mins of rest. there’s a moment on both set, at the 3rd or 4th rep where the bar would drift away from me. T have to master the descent more
Stocked to hit the 20 kgs DBs. last time I did this program I had lots of trouble with the 14 kgs ahah so yeah…
I just think it mostly boils down to underestimating myself, and actually doing all the sets, and doing them like a crazy person, because I can. Body has to adapt
Right? Who has friends? I even found two work colleagues to train the beep test with me ahahah
Conjugate bodybuilding - Day 11 - 05/08
A1. Triceps cable pushdown 2 x 15-18 with 35 kgs
A2. Fat gripz curls with 3 secs eccentric 2 x 12 with 30 kgs
B1. PJR pullover 2 x 15 with 30, 32 kgs
B2. Reverse-grip EZ bar curls 1 x 16, 1 x 14 with 25 kgs
C. Power stepper 15 mins 220 cals
D. Rowing ergometer 2 kms in 8:15
Just a quick little session. no crazy cardio as i’m doing some beeper test tomorrow.
How good it is to finally have a real rower! On which you can actually anchor your freaking feet! I was supposed to do just easy 15 mins but I was bored, at around 700 m I remembered about the 2 kms I had to do in ALAS that I couldn’t keep up with, so I decided to them as fast as I could! I was staying at around 230 watts for the duration and it was not that hard actually. The last 250m were done at 450 watts looool I didn’t even think I could produce such power! And the machine was not at max power. So next time I’m going to try my 500m time sprint to see how I fare!
I might be able to sprint about 75 meters right now. With some training, I could do 100 meters. Anything past that is what I call a fast run. I’m not in good enough shape to actually run at 100% effort so I don’t call it sprinting.
