Moving From Conventional To Sumo Style Deadlifts

A PowerliftingUK poster has decided to make the transition from a conventional style deadlift to sumo and wants some advice on how best to make the move.

As title suggests, I want to try deadlifting sumo style.
Anybody here made the transition successfully and what advice could they offer?

Replies:

personally I didn't have a problem I just went for it, I decided to give it a go just to see how good I would be at it, this was about 2 years ago now after a comp. My conventional best at that time was 275, I went down the gym a week after a comp and just thought I'd give it a go after watching others at comps deadlift sumo and making it look easy, gave it a try and ended up pulling 275 and equaling my conventional PB. After that just read more on technique and practiced it and has moved up staedily since.

i switched over at the moment just to work the different muscles and on the first go i pulled 320kg sumo so i am about 20kg down from my best convo,if you wear suits(which i know you dont)you get loads more out of it than when you pull convo.
personally i prefer convo because i can get more aggressive and not have to think while i do the lift(you have to focus hard to keep the groove).
try putting your feet just out side your arms and work out bit by bit until you get to a point of diminishing returns(if i put my toes to the plates i cant finish the movement because i cant get my hips under it so i put my shins on the rings)

Alot of people go for the slow approach when they are setting up.

After watching videos of justin and seeing him live he just goes up set the feet very quickley garbs that bar and tears it off the floor.

I am trying as well at the minute just to see how it goes. Its going ok its just that your form gas to be spot on while doing sumo while pulling conv you can just grad and scream at it.

i changed from conventional to sumo due to a good friend of mine pointing out my hips came up long before anything else, and almost SDL the weight up conventionally (i have short arms).

Since switching to sumo i have struggled to get the kind of form i had when lifting conventionally - but will stick with it as it does feel better - just need the strength now!

I initially changed for that very reason BK. Was weak as piss at first but now id never go back. I think its harder to round your lumbar spine pulling sumo, which is a good thing if you need to be careful in this area.

It takes a while, I've been pulling sumo for about 6 months now, and only passed my conv PB about 3 weeks ago, for ages it felt just wrong. What you might like to try is a 'modified Sumo', where the feet arnt super-wide (i.e. out by the plates) but only just wider than your hands. Its easier to pick up cos its closer to conv than full sumo.

One thing I've found is that theres 2 distinct ways of pulling sumo, either the euro style where you get your ass low, sit back and use the quads to squat the weight up, or just bend forward at the hips with a higher ass and yank the bar up! I tried for a long time to get the Euro sumo style down but ive recently realised that my levers/strengths simply means that starting higher and using more lower back works better for me.

I'm so much weaker with sumos. I find it hard to get down to the bar and especially difficult to break it off the floor.