The MONSTER GARAGE GYM/MAROSCHER COACHING LOG is a weekly Coaching Log by MGG owner, 2-Time WPC World Powerlifting Champion, Eric Maroscher, and is one of the Featured Coaching Logs at EliteFTS.
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THIS WEEK'S Monster Garage Gym/Maroscher Coaching Log: RAW HYBRID DEADLIFTS
*NEW MGG COACHING LOG POSTED HERE EVERY WEEKEND!!!!
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Some deadlifters prefer conventional, some prefer sumo, some can pull equally well with both. But what if you are a deadlifter who isn’t comfortable with either? Perhaps hybrid deadlifts would benefit you. Here is what we mean….
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8HZbb8_a3s]
Last week we called the great Dr. Seuss to help illustrate the lesson found within last week's coaching log. I must be going through a second childhood because this week I am calling on Robert Southey to help us with this lesson. Click HERE to read last week’s EliteFTS/MAROSCHER Coaching Log.
Robert Southey wrote the famed fairy tale, Goldilocks and the Three Bears. You know the premise, Goldilocks, a little girl, basically a young future home invader, tresspasses onto the three Bear’s property and tries out all there stuff, beds, chairs, and food. As she is a little bit of a prude, she tries things until she finds the item that is “just right.” We use this fairy tale for all kinds of other things. Planets that are in the Goldilocks Zone are ones that might be “just right” as they are a certain proximity to a star thus “just right” for the potential for life.
In powerlifting, specifically the deadlift, the “just right” or the Goldilocks Zone for you might not be pulling conventional deadlift, nor sumo, not even Old English Style (we rarely hear about that one anymore). So, for those, what I call the hybrid sumo stance could perhaps be the best for you, or minimally, something for you to try on for size.
The hybrid (anything derived from heterogeneous sources, or composed of elements of different or incongruous kinds) is just that, it is a like the sumo pull in that the hands are inside of the legs, but has traits like the conventional in that the feet are far closer together, and the forearms and calves when starting the pull are much, much closer together than the traditional wide stance sumo.
If you are a squatter whose squat stance is not ultra-wide, but wider than a close stance, the hybrid sumo stance might also be for you. I say that because the stance of the feet. If you were just to look at the lifter from the waist down who used a moderately wide squat stance and hybrid sumo deadlift, from the waist down, the stance for both lifts would look the same. Because of this, there is tremendous carry over when training. Those training the squat with a moderate stance will help the hybrid sumo and training the hybrid sumo will help the moderate stance squatter. This is not the case for example for wide stance squatters who pull conventional. Two very different stances.
The hybrid stance is also great for this huge group of RAW lifters emerging onto the scene. With 90% of the sport now RAW, not all of that 90% is going to go conventional, and a wide sumo like you would see from the traditional geared lifter might not be the best stance for the RAW puller when it comes to pure leverage and lack of support material in the hip as well as groin regions.
To illustrate this, we put together some footage of one of our hybrid sumo RAW lifters, Robert Bain. A little background on Robert. Robert was a “softer” 242LB lifter and talked a lot about nutrition and the like and we cleaned up his diet and sloooowly cleaned him up to a tight 220LBS. He is now growing with a cleaned up diet into the 242LB class and as a 235-238LB, tighter RAW lifter he has a 725LB (gym pull) deadlift. His squat stance and hybrid deadlift stance are almost identical so there is a big transfer and he is getting twice the training bang for his buck. Additionally, Robert has other training days spread out where he pulls conventional. Mostly early on in the training cycle. *This (sumo and conventional training both in one session) is a training method we borrowed from the great Ernie Frantz. Ernie told me the story of he and Ed training pulling sumo (as they were training for famed Hawaii meet). They would pull sumo, then after the other lifters left the gym, Ernie shared that he and Ed then went back to the platform and then did some conventional training. Not every lifter can do two full training sessions, one sumo and one conventional, as Ernie and Ed were/are true powerlifting legends, and put together in a way that we mere mortals could only wish for. That said, we put the two styles on different days, with a lot of days in between, but nonetheless, training both the styles, at least at the start of a long training cycle, has proven to be beneficial.
The training footage in the video is Robert pulling RAW hybrid sumo. Note in the video the follow:
- The close proximity of the arms to the calves
- The head-up position starts the pull
- The shins are perpendicular to the platform at the start of the movement
- The toes are about a 60 degree angle
- The chest is about a 70 degree angle with the rear end slightly above parallel
Not an exclusive thing to hybrid sumo but an over all aspect of the deadlift to keep in mind while training, is the down movement. Each rep Robert pulls is placed down on the platform in a way where the plates lightly kiss the platform when the weight is put down either for another rep or to complete the lift. Although this doesn’t “sound” hard core like an awesome slamming of the weights, the goal is to actually be powerful, vs just “sounding” powerful. For the new lifter out there, there are not white lights for sounding like you are strong. The reality is, the controlled down is what 110% helps build the ability to pull big off of the floor. Also of note, Robert will hold that bar at the top (just like you have to at a meet). Lots of newer to the sport lifter hit the top and then let the bar just drop down quickly. Those lifters are basically just training half of the lift. Said another way, if you can hear the deadlift hit the platform, you are leaving power on the platform. Put your ego in the drawer and get all you can out of your pull.
Wishing you the best in your training and competitions. Ever Onward, Eric Maroscher, Owner: MONSTER GARAGE GYM
You can find ALL of the prior EliteFTS/Maroscher Coaching Logs/articles HERE:
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