 Ladies and gentlemen, Salom Mike back with another video. Today we're going to talk about some tips, some tricks that I've gathered over coaching and lifting myself, powerlifting, chasing the strength journey over the last 12 years or so on how to get a bigger deadlift and more specifically a sumo deadlift. So dive right in, give this thing a thumbs up. Be sure to subscribe, new videos every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. Be sure to turn on notifications and also 50% facts, my brand new podcast with the one and only Jim McD, covering tons of informational content. iTunes, Spotify, everybody want to find it, that's 50% facts. Now, as some of you know through my journey here, I pulled conventional, I pulled sumo deadlifts for maybe each around six years and a combination of both. My biggest pull ever is 705 pounds with a sumo deadlift and my biggest deadlift ever. Conventional in the gym is something like maybe 661 for two or 650 for two. Which are both pretty good. My levers aren't necessarily amazing for deadlifts. I have a pretty strong back, pretty strong legs but I have pretty short arms, considering we actually measured the other day and I think I'm about five, eight, five, nine. Maybe I'm five, 10 and my arms are about five, eight, five, nine, so pretty average compared to some of the huge deadlifters you see out there. And some of my pulls have been pretty good. I've put in a lot of work and figured out a lot of things along the way. If you dive back into our other videos, we talked about the bench press and the squat. We kind of define the main movement, a variation of the lift and accessories and so today we're gonna talk about the sumo deadlift and some of the main variations and accessories that have helped me. Obviously, if you wanna be a bigger, better deadlifter, you have to get a lot of sleep, get the calorie surplus, if not maintenance, slight surplus is always better and tons of practice with the lift, especially the sumo itself, slightly more technical than the conventional but I also think a lot of people out there not only have poor form which, you know, isn't gonna bust your back, you're not gonna end up in the emergency room but you may be leaving some pounds on the bar, you may be able to be a little bit more efficient with your hip hinge and your setup so then you can lift more weight overall and hopefully that's the goal. Some of the variations and some of the accessories in the other videos I saw comments, people were talking about them being too technical or too far away. I mean, Omar really liked the front squat and talking about a front rack position and if your goal and you've stamped down and dedicated your life to squat bench deadlift, I am a power lifter and that's the only identity you have. This probably isn't the channel for you to begin with. I personally have been there. I've personally chased down as many kilos as I could on the barbell but I've still always constantly tried to develop myself as a coach, as a content creator, as a speaker, as a friend, as a son, all the relationships in my life as a businessman. I think we have to be a little bit more about the journey and I know that it's a little deep in Fufu but basically what I'm saying is if you don't wanna spend a little bit of time getting your front rack or a little bit of time getting better in the gym on your nutrition, your knowledge, whatever, then maybe you and I, we ain't gonna work out. It's not me, it's you. So basically all I'm saying is we gotta build up our quads. One of the biggest things that helped me pull 700 or five pounds and numerous rep records and decent weights with the Sumo deadlift despite my technique being as good as I think I could get it for my levers is having very strong legs. When I'm really slamming deadlifts, crushing Sumo, it's when my legs are very, very strong and primed up for it. So obviously the high bar squat, belt squat and the front squat are my main key quad builders and those I guess when you're talking about the deadlift, they're not really variations. They are accessories because they're so different than the main movement. The beauty of accessories is that they're more like bodybuilding and the beauty of bodybuilding is that you get to choose the movements that feel best for you. If you're chasing down squat bench deadlift or the clean and jerk of the snatch, strength, sports, they're defined what lifts you must complete and not everybody's built or can do them without being uncomfortable but with bodybuilding or accessories, you can choose exactly what movements stimulate your muscles best, you feel best and also just feel good to do. Side example, inclined dumbbell press has always felt really good on my chest, my shoulders and my elbows. Never had pain and it's always felt kind of natural where something like a flat barbell bench has never felt that natural to me or a dumbbell flat or decline or even dips always feel slightly uncomfortable and this will vary person to person depending on how they're built, mobility, et cetera but that, again, that's the beauty of choosing these accessories and luckily for me, the high bar squat feels pretty good. The front squat now that I'm working on my rack feels really good and the belt squat, I think for the majority of people because it's so versatile can feel really good to build up those quads. When I was prepping to pull 705, I had a lot of emphasis on high frequency, low-ish volume and high intensity squats just to keep the quads really, really strong yet not so fatigued so I could put the majority of my volume training into my deadlift. Obviously, one time a week I was always sumo deadlifting, varying the reps and working on progressively overloading, building with the volume, building up fatigue and doing that with a competition lift. On a secondary day of deadlifts, if you guys really wanna focus in on the sumo, building your low back, your lats and your hamstrings will obviously play a huge role in becoming a stronger, better deadlifter. So some kind of conventional, maybe even a block pull, a little bit more reps focusing in, yeah you want good technique but you're both focusing in there on the secondary day, the variation day in my opinion to work on the strength building and maybe a longer range of motion if you're like a very technical and good sumo puller. Going to conventional, things are a little bit different but some kind of hamstring variation, a low back variation and maybe even a glute variation would be coming on my main accessories. Obviously building a bigger upper back, lats, rhomboids, traps is gonna help every lift you can. So bent over rows, dumbbell rows, chin ups, pull ups, always a staple in all my programming for any athlete basically from basketball all the way to power lifting. But the conventional puller, different variations of the lift itself, sometimes a longer range of motion depending on what your issues are. Doing a deficit, some block pulls. I typically don't go much over three inches. I think you start to lose too much of what the actual lift feels like when you start to elevate the plates too much. Bands, chains, great ways to adapt and vary the lift. Some kind of pause if you have issues coming off the ground or near your knee, perhaps staying under control and keeping your back flat. Tons of different options but the main one I want to talk about is that sumo deadlift because lately I haven't really been deadlifting. I've been doing some clean pulls and snatch pulls in my training to work on my weightlifting. Again, just trying to grow as an athlete and a coach having some fun moving around. But then I'm squatting a lot so my quads are really strong. So this last yesterday I decided to hop into some sumo deadlifts to see how they feel on my hips. Didn't feel awesome on my hips. Didn't feel awesome on my low back. As you guys know, I've been dealing with some low back issues basically my entire life but more recently after some really, really heavy powerlifting. And so I got a little bit tight afterwards but if you see this set, bing, good job Connor. 495 for five was my top set and it absolutely flew. I didn't feel as fluid as always because obviously I haven't been practicing my sumo so things feel a little bit off but overall my technique is pretty dang good just because I've done it for a decade. So I'm pretty locked in with my technique. It could be better, obviously there's some things to tweak if I continue to push the sumo which I haven't decided yet if I'm gonna throw that in once or twice a week. But the speed itself, once you lock in your midline you flex those lats, you get your body in position and you kind of torque up and load your hamstrings. All I'm literally doing is leaning back and extending my legs almost like a knee extension or squat, a leg press, whatever it might be and those quads are doing so much of the work to squat that weight up. If you're built more for sumo, longer arms and you're a little bit more upright in your beginning stance, you're starting position on the sumo, it's gonna be even more so just a quad extension, just to stand straight up. For me I'm pretty much over the bar because I have a pretty long torso and short arms, not mobile enough to get those legs out too much. So I have to get a little bit of a conventional with it meaning just that my torso angles more towards the ground and I have to use a little bit of my glutesies, hammies and low back to lift that thing up. If you guys want more info on the deadlift be sure to comment below your questions, we'll cover it in upcoming videos. The sumo may make a return on the channel, I may chase it down, I may not, but I appreciate you guys for hanging out. Salam Mike, I'm out here. Six or seven.