What exercises have helped you sumo pullers have great success off the floor? I’m looking for something new to restart my sumo pull and get it moving up again. I want something sumo specific but not pulling from the floor so I can pull alternating weeks.
So far I’ve tried straight and SSB sumo GMs, something called the SSB sumo lift, sumo Anderson squats, and wide box squats. I feel like strengthening the abductors might help but don’t really know how to go about doing that. Perhaps strengthening the quads will help as well? Not sure.
GHR’s against bands, for realz. Don’t have anything else that youre not already doing, I guess my training cycles have been focused on increasing my squat and my dead has just followed suit somewhat.
Definitely deficit deadlifts. Also, and likely very important for sumo deadlift - post a video and lets watch your form.
Also, how have you been training? I was a bit confused by your post, do you only deadlift once every 2 weeks? IMO that is a terrible idea for sumo deadlifters.
[quote]arramzy wrote:
Definitely deficit deadlifts. Also, and likely very important for sumo deadlift - post a video and lets watch your form.
Also, how have you been training? I was a bit confused by your post, do you only deadlift once every 2 weeks? IMO that is a terrible idea for sumo deadlifters.[/quote]
Sure, here you go:
585x2
545x5, 565x4
605x1
Yes, I have been pulling sumo once every two weeks for a couple years at least. I have learned a lot more techniques for hip recovery by now so I am considering pulling weekly. It still hurts my hips TBH. Right now my abductors are hurting and have jacked up my back in the process. Been doing split stance adductor mobs as part of my warm-up to get my knees out.
Part of warm up recently has been really wide, knees out BW squat to a bench. Not really sitting back, more like sitting down and basically warming up and activating the hips. It occurred to me last night that I should try adding weight to that movement with the SSB.
Well first off, overall good pulling. You have a good build for dl.
Few little things:
Your toes are out a bit too much IMO. It seems 30-45 is plenty. When you become even more pigeon toed (like you are doing), you will find the lockout very hard (which you do).
If you watch the best pullers in the world, you will see that they set their hips pretty low. You have a mostly good starting position, perhaps hips could be a titch lower but not serious… BUT you pull back too soon. The best pullers will drive with the legs, back in a static position, then once the bar passes the knees, they just put hips through and finish.
Head position. Some people find that pulling the head back like you do, can put one too far forward nad will thus make both the start and finish hard. Perhaps try pushing back into a double chin and sort of jam yourself behind the bar.
Finally, I would suggest that whenever you pull, lockout then just drop it. Then reset, and pull again! You sort of reset but not fully. This might help with speed off the floor a lot.
Also, I personally am a believer in training off of prelipins tables (google it). You will find that things like 80% 5x3 become your workouts. This will be light enough to always allow good form and will allow more frequent training. Just a suggestion.
Yeah I know the best sumo pullers start with low hips. I have zero power when I try to do that. Like 405 would be hard from that position. I don’t know how to train into that.
I’m experimenting with a heavy day and a rep day each week and always squat first. Following Prelipin’s chart might actually be a good idea if I’m always pulling second. Start conservative and build up again maybe. The extra practice might not hurt either.
I’ve picked up the habit of re-setting after each rep (hands off the bar, stand up, and descend again perfectly) and it also feels better, technically.
[quote]grettiron wrote:
Yeah I know the best sumo pullers start with low hips. I have zero power when I try to do that. Like 405 would be hard from that position. I don’t know how to train into that.
I’m experimenting with a heavy day and a rep day each week and always squat first. Following Prelipin’s chart might actually be a good idea if I’m always pulling second. Start conservative and build up again maybe. The extra practice might not hurt either.
I’ve picked up the habit of re-setting after each rep (hands off the bar, stand up, and descend again perfectly) and it also feels better, technically. [/quote]
I actually really don’t think lower hips is that big a deal for you. You are in a good enough position actually. Mostly, I just think that packing back with the head and opening the hips more would put you in am more advantageouos position. Good luck with the new system. I am always advocating the opinion that you should practise often and training well away from failure in prelipins tables allows for that.
I pull sumo exclusively and deficit pulls and unilateral leg work are literally the only two lifts that have helped off the floor, and they have helped a lot. I did a rotation pulling from 35lb plates for all my work sets (not even as an accessory movement) and it was like night and day. I do pulls with 25’s now and then but you can’t really put that much weight on and it’s extremely hard to lift with your hips that low for any extended period of time.
All variations of lunges and step ups are good, but bulgarian split squats are by far the most effective for helping me break the ground pulling sumo. If you’ve never tried them before I would start with just bodyweight as they are a shock to the system if you’ve never done unilateral stuff before.
In terms of other accessory lifts, I do the standard PC/ham dominant lifts, but with a sumo stance, which it looks like you’re already doing. They have helped, but not really off the floor.
[quote]KRC wrote:
I pull sumo exclusively and deficit pulls and unilateral leg work are literally the only two lifts that have helped off the floor, and they have helped a lot. I did a rotation pulling from 35lb plates for all my work sets (not even as an accessory movement) and it was like night and day. I do pulls with 25’s now and then but you can’t really put that much weight on and it’s extremely hard to lift with your hips that low for any extended period of time.
All variations of lunges and step ups are good, but bulgarian split squats are by far the most effective for helping me break the ground pulling sumo. If you’ve never tried them before I would start with just bodyweight as they are a shock to the system if you’ve never done unilateral stuff before.
In terms of other accessory lifts, I do the standard PC/ham dominant lifts, but with a sumo stance, which it looks like you’re already doing. They have helped, but not really off the floor. [/quote]
I rotate in DB walking lunges for a few weeks at a time periodically. Usually using the 120s - 140s for 10 or so steps per leg and a long step. They really helped strengthen and condition my adductors and glutes IMO, both really important of course.
Step-ups also get rotated in here and there, either straight bar or SSB. More deficit work might fit in a rep day or a heavy day… I’ll have to think about that. Not sure my gym has enough 35s for a heavy day.
Speed pulls from a slight deficit could help, they helped me when I was pulling sumo. I would think pretty much anything that makes the bottom part of the lift harder (stiffer bar, slight deficit, deadweight for anderson squats) would be good.
A nice accessory move is the “Misery Pulls” (I think they have been called Haulings), maybe 1 inch deficit sumo pulls up to the knee and back down slow and controlled. Just get a lot of time under tension in the weak position. They suck in the worst kind of awesome way…
