Hey guys, I have short t-rex arms and short femurs with a longer torso. I find it hard to do a conventional DL due to my back angle. I always end up with lower back muscular pain on both sides of my lower back. I switched to Sumo for a while and did my first PL comp pulling Sumo. However, my lower back still got sore. I’m now wondering if I should continue to do Sumo and work on my form…OR…should I try something else like conventional DL’s from 2" - 4" blocks or even Trapbar. I’m not sure if Block Pulls would be useful for a competitive Powerlifter since the bar will be on the floor at the meet. I seem to prefer Conventional to Sumo. I find Sumo feels unnatural to me. Let me know your thoughts on the matter. I’m new to competing and I only have a 320 lb DL at the moment. Thanks for your anticipated response.
What has your training looked like?
This sounds more likely to be an issue related to your training load and programming than it is due to your short arms.
Hey Austin,
I was working with a PL coach but I disliked his methods so now I’m back to doing a template from Beyond 5/3/1 called SVR. I found a bunch of information online about how short armed lifters are at a disadvantage to do the Conventional DL. Do you agree with that?