This article is a follow-up to an older article on the site: Should you Deadlift Conventional or Sumo? If you haven’t read it already, you should at least give it a quick skim before reading this article – this article is written with the assumption that readers are already familiar with the information covered in the previous article. The previous article already addresses claims that sumo deadlifts are easier since the bar range of motion is shorter (that’s mostly irrelevant), and that the hip extension demands are lower in the sumo deadlift (they aren’t). For extra credit, you might also enjoy our monster deadlift guide, but it’s not necessary reading before diving into this article.
In this article, I’d just like to address a common point of confusion that’s arisen in the years after the original article was published in 2015. Since that time, we’ve seen a rise in absolutely freakish sumo deadlifters.
There are a multitude of examples, but here are a few of the notable massive sumo deadlifters today:
Every lifter above is the deadlift world-record holder in their weight class, as of the time of writing. And behind them, there are countless other examples of lifters on social media pulling massive sumo deadlifts. So, what’s going on here? And do I still maintain that sumo deadlifts aren’t inherently easier than conventional deadlifts?
I still think that neither deadlifting style is inherently superior, nor inherently easier. I still think that (and the research still suggests that), on average, people can deadlift approximately the same amount of weight both sumo and conventional. However, I’m also not too surprised that sumo deadlifters are setting more world records. Furthermore, I expect that trend will continue, and we’ll see a gradually widening gap between the best conventional deadlifters and the best sumo deadlifters at the very top of the sport of powerlifting.
Those two positions may initially seem contradictory, but they aren’t. To explain, let’s start at the most logical and intuitive jumping off point: the shapes of statistical distributions.
Two values can be used to describe any variable that’s roughly normally distributed (deadlift performance is roughly normally distributed): the mean and the standard deviation.
The mean is the average. In this case, the mean tells you the average amount of weight that people can deadlift with either a sumo or conventional stance.
The standard deviation tells you how spread out the data are. In this case, the standard deviation tells you how dispersed sumo and conventional deadlift performances are.
What I’d like to propose is that sumo and conventional deadlift performance have approximately the same mean (and that each deadlift style best suits a roughly equal number of people), but that sumo deadlift performance has a larger standard deviation.
Here’s how that might look. In the graph below, average performance is the same for both styles of deadlifts (400 pounds), but sumo deadlifts have a slightly larger standard deviation (80 pounds, versus 75 pounds for conventional:
Overall, those two distributions (obviously) look quite similar. I don’t think anyone would look at those distributions and come away with the idea that sumo deadlifts are inherently easier than conventional deadlifts. However, let’s now zoom in on the right side of the graph, and look at people deadlifting over 600 pounds.
From this vantage point, sumo deadlifts do look easier, and it does look like people have higher sumo deadlifts than conventional deadlifts, on average. There are about 45% more people with a 600-pound sumo deadlift than a 600-pound conventional deadlift. If we keep moving to the right, 700-pound deadlifts are quite rare for both sumo and conventional deadlifters, but there are about 2.5-times more people with a 700-pound sumo deadlift than a 700-pound conventional deadlift. If we were to keep moving to the right, there would be a 5-fold difference for 800-pound deadlifters.
Just as a note before moving on, don’t take those values literally (i.e. I’m not actually saying that there are 5-times more 800-pound sumo deadlifters than 800-pound conventional deadlifters). The graphs above are purely for illustrative purposes, to demonstrate how sumo and conventional deadlifts could be similarly challenging, and result in similar average performance, despite sumo deadlifters being overrepresented amongst the very top performers.
But, in essence, I think that’s the dynamic at play here.
It tracks with my experience in the sport over the last 15+ years: Conventional deadlift performance is just a bit less variable, and relatively predictable. If you know how strong someone is generally, you typically have a pretty good idea about how much they’ll be able to deadlift with a conventional stance. Sumo deadlift performance, on the other hand, is a bit more variable, and can be a bit more surprising. It’s not uncommon to meet a pretty strong person with a really bad sumo deadlift, or a not-so-strong person (in a general sense) with a really formidable sumo deadlift.
To offer a tentative explanation for this phenomenon, I’d posit that the sumo deadlifts are a bit more responsive to limb length differences and slight variations in range of motion than conventional deadlifts. To explain, here’s another illustrative figure:
In essence, for most people, both the sumo and conventional deadlift are the most challenging at (or near) the bottom of the lift. However, the rate of change of difficulty differs between deadlift variations. With sumo, as long as you break the bar off the floor without getting pulled out of position, the rest of the lift is generally fairly easy. With conventional, on the other hand, the pull is usually pretty hard until the bar clears the knee; in fact, it’s not uncommon for lifters to be a bit stronger at the floor than at mid-shin height.
You can test this for yourself by manipulating your range of motion. In general, you’ll probably find that deadlifting with a small deficit (i.e. elevating your feet slightly) will decrease the loads you can lift, but the decrease will be larger for the sumo deadlift than the conventional deadlift. Conversely, deadlifting from low blocks (i.e. elevating the bar slightly) will typically increase the loads you can lift, but the increase will be larger for the sumo deadlift than the conventional deadlift.
Since the sumo deadlift is disproportionately tough at the very bottom of the lift, it’s disproportionately responsive to relatively small variations in range of motion.
Now, let’s generalize this concept: the same principle that applies to deficit deadlifts and block pulls should apply to anthropometric variations. In other words, the biomechanical implications of deadlifting from two-inch blocks are essentially identical to the biomechanical implications of simply having arms that are two inches longer. Similarly, the biomechanical implications of deadlifting with a two-inch deficit are essentially identical to the biomechanical implications of simply having arms that are two inches shorter.
So, for someone with stubby arms who’s not built well for the deadlift, the relative difficulty of sumo and conventional deadlifting may look something like this:
For this individual, sumo deadlifts with a given load are just harder to break off the floor than conventional deadlifts with the same load. So, this individual will likely deadlift more with a conventional stance, but they also probably won’t be a world-beating deadlifter.
Conversely, for someone with long arms who is built well for the deadlift, the relative difficulty of sumo and conventional deadlifting may look something like this:
For this individual, sumo deadlifts with a given load are just easier to break off the floor than conventional deadlifts with the same load, because they’re essentially skipping the hardest part of the range of motion that people with poor-to-average deadlifting leverages would be forced to contend with. So, this individual will likely deadlift more with a sumo stance, and there’s a good chance that they will be an excellent deadlifter.
In essence, someone with great deadlifting leverages is effectively doing a block pull (which is disproportionately rewarded by sumo deadlifts), and someone with poor deadlifting leverages is effectively doing a deficit deadlift (which is disproportionately punished by sumo deadlifts). That would also explain why sumo deadlift performance is more variable (i.e. why sumo deadlift performance has a slightly wider standard deviations): Conventional deadlifts simply don’t reward you quite as much for having good leverages, or punish you quite as much for having bad leverages.
When you’re searching for world champions or record-holders, you’re necessarily searching for outliers. If you have physical characteristics that are likely to make you an outlier deadlifter, there’s a much better than 50/50 chance that those same physical characteristics will predispose you to being a better sumo deadlifter than conventional deadlifter (though, as discussed in the previous article, other factors like hip structure are still important). So, even if sumo and conventional deadlifts are similarly challenging in a general sense, it shouldn’t be too surprising that a disproportionate amount of freak deadlifters favor sumo deadlifts.
For what it’s worth, this would also explain why sumo deadlifts are broadly favored in lighter weight classes, whereas heavyweights are more likely to be conventional deadlifters. Remember: weight classes are height classes in disguise. Lighter lifters tend to be shorter lifters, and heavier lifters tend to be taller lifters.
The bar starts at the same height off the ground for everyone. But if you’re taller, that standardized height coincides with a lower position relative to your knee, and if you’re shorter, that standardized height coincides with a higher position relative to your knee. Relative to a 5’10” lifter, a 5’3” lifter is effectively doing a low block pull, and a 6’4” lifter is effectively doing a deficit deadlift. So, the shorter lifter will likely deadlift more with a sumo stance, whereas the taller lifter will likely deadlift more with a conventional stance (which is what we tend to see).
So, to sum things up:
- I still think that sumo and conventional deadlifts are similarly challenging – neither variation is inherently easier, harder, better, worse, etc.
- I think that sumo deadlift performance just varies a bit more than conventional deadlift performance, largely due to the fact that sumo deadlifts are a bit more sensitive to variations in range of motion (and, by extension, variations in anthropometry and deadlifting leverages).
- Since sumo deadlifts disproportionately reward people who already have great leverages for deadlifting, it shouldn’t be too surprising that a disproportionate amount of the best deadlifters are sumo deadlifters.