Sumo or Conventional?

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

I have my first meet coming up in 13 weeks. I just switched to Powerlifting 2 this week after doing 5 weeks of the Hypertrophy 2 program. I enjoyed pulling sumo for Hyper2, but since they were always sets of 8’s, I’m not “sure” if I’m better built for sumo vs conventional. Since I don’t really know, I guess the best way is to try and see. Should I go all out and do my main AND secondary deadlift ALL sumo? Or should I do my main sumo, and secondary movement conventional to continue training both until I make a decision?

Here are my previous bests:
Sumo: 335x8 RPE ~8.5 (Aug-21-2019)
Conventional (reps): 380x5 RPE 9 (May-24-2019)
Conventional (single): 465x1 RPE 10 (May-18-2019)

I am someone who’s lower back is typicallysore and tight for a few days (or longer) after pulling conventional, but I haven’t (yet) experienced that for sumos; so I really like that aspect. I also have a short torso and long legs, so it may fit me better.

Any tips or thoughts to help me decide what to do?

2

I don’t think I would try to decide during the preparation phase for the meet, nor do I think you should do both during the developmental phase. I would pick one and roll with it. It does not appear that sumo is substantially better for you given your exposure to it and I think the soreness may have more to do with the overall programming than the type of movement. If you want to try sumo and commit to it, that’s an option too, but I don’t see any reason to strongly recommend one way or another based on this.

-Jordan