Dashboard Get the app
Sumo Deadlift — back compound exercise in the LIFTAG library

Sumo Deadlift

Compound · Weight × reps

Stand with your shins near the bar, feet wider than shoulder width and toes turned only as far as your knees can follow. Grip the bar inside your legs, brace, remove the slack, and push the floor apart as the hips and knees extend. Keep the bar close and finish tall without leaning back, then return it under control. Avoid forcing an extreme stance or letting the knees collapse inward. Hip structure, limb lengths, and plate height determine the useful width; compare sumo and conventional positions by control and comfort rather than assuming one universally targets a region better.

IN THE APP

iOS and AndroidGet LIFTAG free

Scan the machine's QR tag and this exercise opens ready to log: sets, rest timer, PRs, and your whole progression for Sumo Deadlift.

FOUND ON THESE MACHINES

HOW TO DO SUMO DEADLIFT

  1. Take a wide stance so the arms hang inside the knees. Toes out enough that the knees track the feet.
  2. Sit into the hips, set the back, and pull the slack. The bar should already be against the shins.
  3. Push the floor apart and finish tall. Do not scoop the hips through with a soft back.

COMMON MISTAKES

  • A “sumo” stance that is barely wider than conventional. If the arms are still outside the knees, it is not sumo. Widen or switch lifts.
  • Logging sumo PRs on conventional. Different stance, different PR. Keep this slug.

VARIATIONS

PROGRESSIONS

  1. Wide-stance kettlebell deadlift.
  2. Sumo from the floor with a reset every rep.
  3. Add load when the start stays in the hips, not the low back.

PROGRAMMING NOTES

Pick conventional or sumo as the competition-style pull and keep the other as accessory. Mixing them week to week makes LIFTAG’s 1RM look like noise.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Open Sumo Deadlift in LIFTAG, or tap the NFC tag / scan the QR code on the machine at a partner gym. Log each working set as weight × reps. The rest timer starts after you save the set, and PRs plus estimated 1RM update automatically.

MORE BACK EXERCISES

Conventional DeadliftConventional DeadliftTrap Bar DeadliftTrap Bar DeadliftBarbell Romanian Deadlift (RDL)Barbell Romanian Deadlift (RDL)Lat PulldownLat PulldownPull-upPull-upSeated Cable RowSeated Cable RowBarbell Bent-Over RowBarbell Bent-Over RowMachine Seated RowMachine Seated Row