Sumo Grinds Hips

I started pulling sumo to help with my lower back injury, and I’m loving it. However, it seems that my hips are taking a beating. This is how I pull sumo:

-Shins aligned to bar ring for bench pressing (kinda wide stance for a 5’7" guy)
-Minimized lower back involvement by starting the hips low (I no longer feel my hamstrings and lower back but more like my glutes and quads)
-Smolov Jr template (my 2nd week this week)
-I’m pretty close to my all-time PRs (my best at 225 conventional was 5 reps; after a 4 month lay-off and 2 months pulling sumo, I could do 225x3 easily)

I’m overdosing on omega-3 and primrose as a primary precaution, and I’m hoping the pains would go away, but just in case it doesn’t, what do I need to do? Thanks.

High volume sumo deadlifting when you haven’t done it before will KILL you. I speak from experience. I jumped straight into sumo with a sheiko template and had pains in my hips for the next 6 months because of it.

Look at overall flexibility, stretch your piriformis aggressively.

[quote]Hanley wrote:
High volume sumo deadlifting when you haven’t done it before will KILL you. I speak from experience. I jumped straight into sumo with a sheiko template and had pains in my hips for the next 6 months because of it.

Look at overall flexibility, stretch your piriformis aggressively.[/quote]

+1. And consider a pair of squat briefs.

[quote]Hanley wrote:
High volume sumo deadlifting when you haven’t done it before will KILL you. I speak from experience. I jumped straight into sumo with a sheiko template and had pains in my hips for the next 6 months because of it.

Look at overall flexibility, stretch your piriformis aggressively.[/quote]

By “haven’t done it before” how long do you mean? I’ve been doing it for around 2 months before I started Smolov Jr.

EDIT: It’s the front part of my hip that hurts. Would that be the piriformis?

[quote]undeadlift wrote:
Hanley wrote:
High volume sumo deadlifting when you haven’t done it before will KILL you. I speak from experience. I jumped straight into sumo with a sheiko template and had pains in my hips for the next 6 months because of it.

Look at overall flexibility, stretch your piriformis aggressively.

By “haven’t done it before” how long do you mean? I’ve been doing it for around 2 months before I started Smolov Jr.

EDIT: It’s the front part of my hip that hurts. Would that be the piriformis?[/quote]

I hadn’t done it consistently. When I did it with Sheiko it was my first time really doing it ya know?

The piriformis is buried underneath your glute, but a tight one can cause pain in the front of the hip too.

[quote]Hanley wrote:
The piriformis is buried underneath your glute, but a tight one can cause pain in the front of the hip too.[/quote]

Ah, I see. I just did some piriformis stretches and they’re tight. I’m gonna try them some more then see if the pain goes away.

Stretching the piriformis and hams, and focusing on using your glutes (you can focus on squeezing and look up glute activation on this site) to lockout will help by preventing anterior femoral glide. The pain you feel is most likely your labrum being beat up from the.

If it still causes you pain, I’d advise on taking 2-4 weeks off of them every so often to allow your labrum to recover.

Starting a Smolov JR as one of the first things you when changing to sumo is asking for trouble. Well for most doing Smolov jr for deads are a recipe for disaster no matte what.

I think I’m gonna skip on Sumos for a while.

Deadlifting fo lower back injury? you mean you have finished your rehabilitation and you are painless now, your core and glutes are strong, right? If not, do it!

[quote]sdspeedracer wrote:
Hanley wrote:
High volume sumo deadlifting when you haven’t done it before will KILL you. I speak from experience. I jumped straight into sumo with a sheiko template and had pains in my hips for the next 6 months because of it.

Look at overall flexibility, stretch your piriformis aggressively.

+1. And consider a pair of squat briefs.[/quote]

I agree, squat briefs help considerably, I usually wear a pair of single ply briefs when doing sumo’s, but flexibility and mobility work helps a lot. Look up dave tate’s band traction article and do some for your hip, take it easy for a while, and sometimes it’s good to alternate btwn sumo and conventional so your hips/low back don’t get beat up all the time.

I only DL sumo- mainly because of mobility issues with my left ankle.

When I’m in a heavy cycle/ going for PR’s I have to take a few weeks off once I’m at the top of that pyramid

Of course now my hips are pretty thick- which makes my pants not fit anymore…