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Sumo deadlift

Hip hinge for the back with a barbell.

How to do it

1 of 4

Stand wide, grip inside your knees

  1. Starting position

    Stand wide with your toes turned out, place the bar over mid-foot, and grip it with straight arms inside your knees.

  2. The movement

    Push your feet into the floor, straighten your knees and hips to stand tall, then hinge at the hips and lower the bar.

Most common mistake

Don't round your back or let your knees cave in, keep your back steady and push your knees out in line with your toes.

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Muscle group
Back
Equipment
Barbell
Where
Gym
Logged as
Weight × reps

Muscles worked

The sumo deadlift trains a large part of your body at once. Your glutes, hamstrings and quads do most of the work, and the wide stance also gives your inner thighs, the adductors, plenty to do. Your spinal erectors keep your back steady, while your upper back, lats and grip keep the bar close. Compared with a conventional deadlift, your torso stays more upright, so your lower back usually does a little less and your legs do more. The wider the stance, the more upright your torso, but the more hip mobility it takes.

Common mistakes

  • Sitting too low at the start. Sitting into the lift like a squat only makes your hips shoot up before the bar leaves the floor, and your legs lose their share. Find a hip height where your arms hang straight down and your shoulders are roughly above the bar, then let hips and shoulders rise together.
  • A stance wider than your mobility allows. A very wide stance is hard to get down into with a straight back. Start with your feet a little outside shoulder width and widen gradually. Seen from the front, your shins should be roughly vertical when you are down at the bar.
  • Letting the bar drift away. The further forward it hangs, the harder the lift is on your back. Tense your lats as if pushing the bar back into your legs, and let it almost brush your shins and thighs.

Variations and alternatives

  • The conventional deadlift, with a narrow stance, usually puts more on your back and hamstrings. Try both and keep the one that suits your build.
  • The sumo squat with a dumbbell gets your hips used to the wide stance and works at home.
  • The Romanian deadlift starts from the top and puts more of the work on your hamstrings.

Sets and reps

For strength, 3 to 5 reps per set is common, often over 3 to 5 sets with two to four minutes' rest. To build muscle, 5 to 8 reps works well. Beyond 8 reps your start position tends to get sloppy as you tire, so train endurance with other exercises. The guide to sets and reps explains more.

Warm up with a few lighter sets in the same stance. Set the bar down fully between reps and find your position again. Add weight in small steps, 2.5 to 5 kg at a time, and keep a couple of reps in reserve on most sets. That is progressive overload in practice.

Swap for

Taken, or missing the equipment? The same movement with something else.

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