Hi,
I’ve been lifting around 5 years on and off.
I’m 5foot8, weigh 95kgs.
I’m 50, male,
SBD 1RMs: 182.5, 137.5, 205 kgs
Always struggled hugely with deadlift.
Always felt intense discomfort in lower back, where I have a lot of bulging discs. It has never felt natural.
I tried sumo for a year but my knees and hips hate it. I hate it too!
So I reluctantly returned to conventional deadlift and, having watched a few strongmen - Eddie Hall, Thor and Brian Shaw - I saw some potential in their stance and setup.
They lift in a much more upright position, with wider feet (although they are huge men). They all roll the bar in, squat down as if about to vertical jump, and pull smoothly like a leg press/squat. As soon as I watched it I knew it was what I needed to do for my leverages. I was right.
I’ve tried this and had an absolute breakthrough.
no back pain. More power - much more!
finally feel I am using lower body as intended.
however, my form is a weird hybrid style - a strongman / snatch grip deadlift looking thing, with a wide foot placement.
No doubt it is inefficient from a certain perspective as the bar must be travelling quite far. Nonetheless, it’s helping me enormously.
have you ever come across this before?
A normal sized person for whom this strongman/wide stance-grip thing works?
I’m curious as to why this is such a gamechanger for me biomechanically.
thanks for any of your much appreciated nuanced thoughts!!
I’ve seen this a few times in people who, just as you mention, don’t tolerate sumo and are sensitive to the typical conventional deadlift positioning. While likely not the most mechanically efficient on paper, I think that’s pretty much a moot point considering your report here. If you can’t/won’t do conventional DL as typically coached and we can’t/won’t find an entry point and suitable progression for sumo, then this IS the best DL style for you right now. It’s likely to change over the years and sure, I’d probably not default to this without a few trials of coaching…but I have little issues with someone using this to train. Happy to look at a video of your other DL’s if you think that’d be helpful, otherwise carry on!
-Jordan
Thanks Jordan. It’s certainly a weird style by the standards of most lifters of my size….it’s working for now and I feel like it has given me access to a lot more lower body power I somehow couldnt activate in a more orthodox, shoulder-width stance.
I have experimented with hybrid - a slightly narrower form of sumo - but my frame just hates the arms inside for some reason and loves the arms further apart. What do?!
I tried to eyeball the impact of wider grip as counteracted by wider stance and it looks to me that the net result on eventual bar height at lockout is not too bad…the bar just crossed the family jewels at lockout.
thanks for offer to look at video but the internet does not need images of me floating around!
thanks again - keep up the awesome work!