0:08 hold up before we look at this we first
0:11 need to look at that [Music]
0:12 [Music]
0:14 howdy howdy welcome back to the channel
0:16 if you are new here my name is Natalie
0:18 and I am a 57 kilo world champion
0:20 powerlifter as well as a coach so today
0:23 I'm going to talk about the deadlift now
0:24 specifically we're gonna do the single
0:25 deadlift because that's what I get the
0:28 host questions on and what I lift in
0:31 competition so back back in the day back
0:33 in 2020 I hit my first three times
0:36 bodyweight pool at 375 pounds at 125
0:38 volume eight and most recently back in
0:42 June I hit a 496 deadlift at 123 pounds
0:45 which was a PR as well as the first four
0:47 times bodyweight pool that I've done now
0:50 with that being said uh I really enjoy
0:51 Sumo Devils I think it's a lot of fun
0:53 but Sumo is definitely very technical
0:55 there is no muscling the weight up
0:57 either you're going to set up well and
0:59 pull the lift or it's not going to move
1:01 off the ground so my goal of today's
1:02 video is kind of show you guys how to do
1:04 the Samoa deadlift and break it down for
1:07 you everyone is built different I've
1:09 gotten Jamal Browns and despite what you
1:12 may think on Instagram I am also not 6'4
1:14 so like like I said Zulu is going to
1:15 look different for everyone another
1:17 example would be looking at people's
1:19 back during small deadlift I have a
1:22 rounded back a more compressed slash
1:25 collapsed rib cage position and I'm
1:26 naturally grounded from the start there
1:28 are people who have beautiful flat back
1:30 deadlifts they have much longer arms
1:32 than me and can just pretty much grab
1:34 the bar and go and it looks great so
1:36 with differences aside I think there are
1:38 four main things that we can do to break
1:39 down the similar devil and pretty
1:41 applicable to everyone whether you are a
1:43 lightweight heavyweight short tall
1:47 orange blue I got some deadlift tips
1:51 okay so the four biggest things to get a
1:52 bigger deadlift that I'm going to cover
1:54 is going to be one reaching down to the
1:57 bar two foot position and foot angle
2:01 both matter three the slack pool and
2:03 then for the all-elusive wedge you may
2:05 notice that all these things are part of
2:07 the start and setup and that's because
2:09 they're the most important thing they
2:10 start in the setup for the Sumo deadlift
2:13 there's like no must lead it up if you
2:14 aren't gonna set up you aren't going to
2:16 get the deadlift I like I've learned
2:18 that lesson the hard way you have to
2:21 have a standard start position that you
2:23 always do get locked in so no matter if
2:25 you're doing 154 pounds or you're doing
2:28 five to 600 700 pounds whatever your
2:29 depth of setup it needs to look the
2:33 exact same from warm-ups to end so the
2:34 goal of this video is to show you guys
2:37 how to get that set up and then the rest
2:39 the actual pooling of it should be easy
2:41 after you get the start position so
2:45 without further Ado let's go to the Doom
2:47 so here we are in the gym we're going to
2:56 we're going to talk about is foot
2:58 positioning all right now you may see
3:01 many different Sumo poolers do a close
3:05 froggy stance deadlift they may do a
3:07 really really wide toes out to the max
3:09 where the range of motion is like one
3:12 inch to lock out now all those are good
3:15 for whatever individual lifter but for
3:16 the person who's trying to figure out
3:19 their best Sumo deadlift stance and foot
3:21 angle is probably not gonna be the best
3:22 place to start instead we want to do
3:24 something kind of in the middle between
3:28 those two froggy stance or extreme Sumo
3:30 deadlifters so first things first go
3:32 ahead and start somewhere in the middle
3:34 between the center knurling and the
3:36 plates so if you just take a step to
3:37 your left and step to your right you're
3:39 probably halfway there and you have a
3:41 nice Sumo stance the Sumo stance you
3:43 feel comfortable on your hips if you
3:45 come down and feel kind of Pinchy maybe
3:47 scoot them out a little bit more if they
3:49 feel like they're hurting and too
3:52 unstable then probably bring them in so
3:54 really find The Stance that's best for
3:55 you I don't want to spend too much time
3:58 on it instead I want to look at your
4:00 foot angle so I'm setting up how I
4:03 normally would and you can notice that
4:07 my feet are much more turned out versus
4:09 straightforwards or all the way turned
4:13 out to determine the best foot angle for
4:16 you you want to see where your knees
4:20 naturally travel over your toes so say I
4:21 put my feet
4:23 more pointed forwards and I'm coming
4:26 down you can already see how my knees
4:28 are insanely uncomfortable so if I turn
4:30 them too far out the opposite effects is
4:32 going to happen I'm going to come down
4:34 and then my knees are going to want to
4:36 cave in when I come off the floor
4:39 because again my hips simply cannot open
4:42 up that wide so we're looking at toe position
4:43 position
4:46 you really want to focus on pushing your
4:48 knees where they naturally can push out
4:50 over your toes and make like a nice
4:52 little house between you and the floor
4:56 so if my knees are over my toes
4:58 that's gonna be a super easy and
5:00 efficient pool so that is step one foot
5:03 position and it's all about finding the
5:05 spot where your knees comfortably can go
5:07 over your toes so if your toes are too
5:08 far in your knees probably not feel the
5:10 best too far out your knees are probably
5:12 going to come in like that so again I
5:14 recommend starting with a moderate
5:16 probably toe angle then as you get more
5:19 advanced you can kind of go up more play
5:21 in but a good starting position is
5:23 figuring out where your knees are going
5:25 to go best over your toes [Music]
5:26 [Music]
5:32 okay so step one completed we figured
5:35 out a foot slash toe angle that feels
5:37 comfortable with our body our knees are
5:39 going to line up over our toes don't
5:40 know how to get our feet set up now step
5:42 two is going to be one of the most
5:44 important steps and that is reaching
5:46 down to get to the bar now if you want a
5:48 very efficient small pool ideally you'll
5:50 be able to reach down to the bar and get
5:51 into your position as quickly as
5:53 efficiently as possible now some people
5:55 misinterpret this and they reach down to
5:58 the bar and pull like all hell to get to
6:00 it as an example I used to do this all
6:02 the time and I still do if I rush it too
6:05 much be at the top and they like oh no
6:07 they need to grab the bar and pull it so they'll
6:09 they'll
6:12 just go ahead and York that bad boy up
6:15 first mistake is if you are going too
6:17 fast down to grab the bar because Sumo
6:19 is super technical so you really don't
6:20 want to go super fast when you get to
6:22 the bar instead you want to control
6:25 every single aspect from top down when
6:26 you're saying up to do a similar
6:28 deadlift now this is one of the most
6:30 important steps in the Sumo deadlift
6:31 because how you get to the bar
6:32 determines how you actually are going to
6:34 pull it's studying your hips it's saying
6:36 your shoulders in relation to the bar as
6:38 well as how are you going to be able to
6:40 pull the slack so this is very important
6:42 part of the deadlift and I think one
6:44 that most people tend to rush maybe they
6:46 just want to get to the bar to yank that
6:48 bad boy up but ideally you want to take
6:50 your time with this step set up to the
6:51 bar go ahead and get your feet like
6:54 normal as we discussed in step one if
6:57 you're standing up in the setup to get
6:59 to the barbell you are going to first
7:02 hinge so you are slightly over the bar
7:04 we want a forward lean if we start with
7:06 our shoulders too far back we're not
7:08 going to be able to get a really great
7:09 slack pool unless we were built with
7:12 incredibly long arms so we want to First hinge
7:13 hinge
7:17 then we want to bend the knees and two
7:19 we can get to the bar and then we want
7:23 to just pull until we can grab it and
7:26 then set our slack and pull like normal
7:27 so there's a couple different things
7:30 going on as we hinge our shoulders need
7:33 to be over the bar and then as we Bend
7:36 Our Knees Down you can notice that my
7:38 kind of rear delts are over the top of
7:40 the bar and the bars over the top of my
7:43 foot so everything is in line second
7:45 thing is you may have noticed when I
7:47 pulled the slack my shoulders came back
7:49 and that's what is actually pulling the
7:51 slat is that rotation of my hips getting set
7:52 set
7:54 and then you can see that my shoulders
7:57 are pretty much in line with the bar
7:59 over the foot
8:05 a common mistake people make is that
8:07 they think similar deadlift since it is
8:10 a wider stance is a squat when this is
8:12 the opposite case we do not want to
8:13 squat the weight we are wedging the
8:16 weight like a beautiful gazelle so we do
8:18 not want to squat down to the Simo deadlift
8:19 deadlift
8:21 this would look something like this
8:24 where we aren't hinging at the start and
8:26 we are just kind of squatting down way
8:29 too deep our hips are way too low and we
8:31 are just kind of pulling the bar and
8:34 hoping that maybe we can push through
8:37 our quads and squat it up or perhaps we are
8:37 are
8:39 hinging the entire amount and starting
8:42 with a too high of a hip height where we
8:44 can't get any power and we're putting
8:47 the entire load in our lower back now
8:49 that is not ideal as soon as you start
8:57 you can notice
9:00 as I Tempo the bar back down
9:01 my hip height
9:03 is never moving
9:05 from each different rep that I'm doing
9:08 my start position is locked in if I am
9:10 temporing the rep down my hips end
9:13 exactly where I start so therefore we
9:15 know that I must have the right starting
9:16 hip pipes so that's step number two
9:20 setting up to the bar hinge
9:22 squat down until he can reach the bar
9:25 then go into your slack and wedge pool [Music]
9:32 all right so step three is going to be
9:34 the slack pool that's right baby the
9:36 next step is going to be actually
9:38 starting to lift the tension out of the
9:40 bar when people say slack it really
9:42 means that we are starting to get any of
9:45 the tension in here out before we start
9:47 our pool because if we have any tension
9:49 left in the bar that we haven't
9:51 accounted for the second we actually
9:53 start pulling what's it going to do it's
9:55 going to pull us forwards out of position
9:56 position
9:58 and slightly make the pool a little bit
10:00 harder and get our positioning off so we
10:02 want to start the deadlift slack out
10:04 because as soon as we have to slack out
10:07 we can start the actual pool and know
10:08 that there's nothing else we need to
10:09 account for besides finishing the lift
10:12 so slack pool is going to come from when
10:14 we set our hips after we've reached the bar
10:16 bar
10:19 you can almost hear it I'm pulling up as
10:22 I'm bringing my hips down
10:24 as my torso is coming back my chest is
10:25 coming up
10:27 if you listen you can hear that kind of Slack
10:33 I could sit there and do that all day so
10:37 I'd prefer not to that rotation
10:39 of your torso coming up and your hips
10:42 sitting back down just a little bit is
10:44 what's pulling the slack out of the bar
10:46 we're coming down
10:49 and that slightly forward position slack
10:50 is coming out
10:53 and this is super lightweight so I can
10:54 just come down
10:57 and pretty much pull the slack out
11:05 so that is the slack pool all that is
11:08 it's just you finalizing your hip
11:10 position and starting to pull your chest
11:13 up so you're pulling up on the bar your
11:15 chest is coming up because you have to
11:17 have your chest up to lock out
11:21 do not force an overly upright chest
11:23 position at start to think you can cheat
11:25 and kind of get that slack pull out
11:27 earlier you really want to focus on
11:28 being a little bit over the bar before
11:29 you start [Music]
11:35 [Music]
11:37 all right now we've covered the foot
11:40 position the reaching down to the bar
11:42 and now we've covered the slack full so
11:43 what's left
11:46 that's right baby the all-elusive wedge
11:48 you might be asking yourself is we're
11:51 doing like an orange slice is it a pie
11:53 wedge what is it you are simply wedging
11:56 your hips forward into the bar AKA
11:58 pushing your hips forwards as your chest
12:01 is coming back and that angle
12:02 angle
12:05 is a wedge so how do we create said
12:07 wedge that's going to come from pulling
12:09 the slack out which we've already
12:12 covered and pushing the hips through to
12:14 lock out the deadlift I promise it'll
12:15 make more sense when we show what a
12:17 wedge isn't when you see what a wedge
12:19 actually is
12:21 all right as an example
12:23 here is a deadlift with a wedge meaning
12:25 I am purposefully pushing my hips
12:27 forwards after I pulled the slack off
12:29 the ground and I'm pushing my hips
12:30 forward to go ahead and lock out the deadlift
12:32 deadlift foreign
13:00 done more than two reps I need to take a
13:02 break so notice the main difference
13:03 there is that my hips are pretty
13:05 stagnant in the back they aren't helping
13:07 me out they're not doing much to be
13:09 honest they are back there not actively
13:11 pushing forwards not being able to push
13:13 my hips through to be in a position to
13:15 lock out that then lift money is locked
13:17 hips through shoulders are back those
13:19 are the criteria to really lock out a
13:21 deadlift this is probably the hardest
13:23 part for most people to effectively do
13:25 when dead lifting so
13:29 foot pushing this way other foot pushing
13:30 this way
13:32 then we're going to have
13:36 our hips coming forwards knees locked
13:43 in that position of
13:45 pulling your hips forwards putting
13:47 tension into the bar
13:55 all right so those are all four steps of
13:58 creating an effective Sumo deadlift and
14:00 it stems from the start so putting it
14:02 all together we have the slow reaches
14:05 the bar we have the foot angle we have
14:07 the slack pool in the wedge so all
14:18 all right
14:21 and it's as efficient as possible I'm
14:24 not lagging with my hips and letting my
14:26 knees come in and not really over my
14:28 toes I'm not too far out and just
14:32 pulling back and not wedging forwards
14:35 I am simply making the deadlift as easy
14:37 as possible for me because I'm lazy so
14:43 and that's it now you may be saying well
14:44 of course it's going to look good
14:47 because it's easy weight so here's some
14:48 footage where I have the same technique
14:58 [Music]
15:02 [Music]
15:04 last thing that I want to mention here
15:06 is bracing I didn't want to go into
15:08 depth on it today but as you see I do
15:10 take my brace before I get to the bar
15:12 you can brace before you get to the bar
15:14 or as you pull your slack whichever is
15:16 easier but do make sure you are taking a
15:18 big belly breath okay so those were the
15:21 four biggest things to do and to focus
15:23 on when you are doing Sumo deadlift the
15:25 reaching out to the bar the foot angle
15:27 the slack pool in the wedge they all go
15:30 together cohesive it should be one
15:32 cohesive movement and just a couple
15:34 things to think about focus on really
15:36 taking your time with the setup and
15:37 getting a new routine of how you
15:39 approach the bar every single time and I
15:40 promise these things so we'll click
15:42 together and it'll be great if you
15:43 follow me for a long time on Instagram
15:45 you've probably seen my deadlift go through
15:46 through
15:49 um some changes and I don't want to jump
15:51 too far into those changes right now but
15:54 one of the biggest things that I changed
15:56 was just taking away that crazy Dynamic
15:59 start I still start dynamically I still
16:01 get super pumped up and I want to grab
16:03 the bar just rip it but I've been forced
16:05 to kind of slow down with my Approach a
16:07 little bit especially for my coach Steve
16:09 who keeps being checked and make sure
16:10 that I'm doing all the right thing I
16:12 used to like come down and almost do a
16:15 shimmy and shake the bar and lose all my
16:17 positioning right where I try to lock in
16:19 my hips but then I was actually throwing
16:21 myself a weight distribution was like
16:23 kind of weird and it was just too
16:25 aggressive for the technicality of sumo
16:27 devlers because I could do that up to a
16:30 certain point probably around 450 pounds
16:33 and then anything north of that I just
16:35 was not consistent with and we either
16:36 have a really really great day where I
16:38 was strong can muscle up the weights or
16:40 I just sucked and not be able to lock
16:43 out the lift or get it off the floor
16:46 like I said if you get your setup locked
16:48 in started you got a good slack pool
16:49 your foot position feels good your hips
16:51 feel good your knees feel good
16:52 everything's locked and loaded you're
16:54 gonna have a great deadlift day so take
16:55 your time setting up is my biggest
16:57 takeaway of this video because
16:59 it's not a race
17:02 just take your time one more thing thank
17:05 you guys so much for 1 000 Subs I
17:07 started this channel basically almost a
17:09 year ago just to have fun and make
17:12 content that made me laugh so a thousand
17:14 of you following along that's awesome um
17:15 hopefully I'll be able to get out some
17:19 some a mix of goofy content uh a helpful
17:21 content for you guys thank you guys so
17:22 much for watching do not forget to like
17:24 And subscribe if you've not already
17:26 subscribed and I'll see you guys later bye
17:28 bye [Music]
