I put on like 50-80lbs onto my conventional and almost never trained it, just pulled sumo for 2 years.
I think it’s important that the lifer finds what suits him/her best, before adhering to only one style of pulling. Conventional deadlifts just injure me and my body simply is so broken and poorly put together for the movement, that I just get perpetually injured if I train it heavy and/or too often.
Didn’t Louie Simmons say that training a in a wide stance will build strength in a narrow stance but not the other way around? That seems to be his logic for advising weightlifters to do wide stance box squats.
Greg Nuckols does something similar, he pulls conventional in meets (which he doesn’t do that often anymore, but anyway) but mostly trains sumo because conventional leads to back issues for him and he has had several serious back injuries as a result. I don’t follow everything that he does, I just mostly read his articles, so I’m not sure if he does other stuff like RDLs or GMs but he does pull conventional here and there. @strongmanvinny2, what deadlifts assistance lifts do you use?
GM’s with a belt and a very very slow controlled con and eccentric. High rep dumbbell rows and that’s about it.
That’s the thing, I hear some people saying that you need to still pull conventional to build or maintain back strength if you pull sumo but it seems to me that RDLs, GMs, and SLDLs would have the same effect. I have started doing conventional as an assistance exercise to see if it does really make a difference, although I’m doing low rack pulls (started with plates 4 inches off the ground and gradually increasing ROM) because I have trouble setting up with a neutral spine for conventional. My conventional is either with a round back or almost a SLDL.
Well, keep in mind I’m doing sandbag carries, log clean and presses, farmers walks…etc.
My back is already being hammered. Perhaps if I was completely off season I could do some more conventonal, but as you can see I’m quite overloaded LOL. Sumo is like a break for me. A 700lb sumo deadlift is much easier on my body than a 260lb sandbag carry for multiple sets or a yoke walk believe it or not.
Ok, fair enough. Do you actually compete in strongman though? I would think that pulling conventional at least once a month or so would help, just to keep your technique in check.
Yeah, training for nationals. Luckily there’s no conventional deadlift in the contest, hehehe. I can generally tap into the technique needed pretty fast should I ever have to pull it. Luckily, I pull a very close stance sumo so it’s not CRAZY different…but yeah. Maybe I could pull it a bit more often, who knows.
More rehashed shit that you read.
Maybe you’re right, I should stop trying to learn from the best lifters and coaches and instead follow the advice of a grumpy old man with unimpressive lifts.
Blah, blah blah.
Any personal observations from your illustrious career that you can share with the forum, because we’ve all read the same stuff and rehashing is tedious.
Open your mind little man.
I think what everyone should gain from this is if ou pull sumo you should do narrow stance work whether it be conventional reads, good mornings, whatever and if you pull narrow stance, you should do wide stance accessories. That way you can be more well rounded and such
In a close second, we can also learn that carrying bitterness from one Internet-forum argument into another makes you look like a giant tool.
Agreed. Especially since we’re all just hear to help and learn.