Do Sumo Deadlifts Suck...or Is It Just Me?

EXCERPT FROM STEVE'S TRAINING LOG

So it's week three of the sumo experiment and I should have stood by my personal rule of never spreading my legs like a cheap whore in a gang bang video! Real men deadlift conventionally, if a close stance was good enough for Doug Young and Bill Kazmaier...it sure as hell is good enough for me.

Friday's training started out great, we did some snatches and I effortlessly worked up to 100kgs, and felt outstanding. I called it there because I wanted to dig into some heavy pulls. On my third warm-up set, with only 365 pounds on the bar, my partner Bob, is yelling at me to sit my hips back way more. However, my hips were still tight and I tried to sit back and pull – halfway up it felt like someone jabbed my glute with a hot knife. FUUUUDGE! Except I didn't say fudge. It freaking hurt, so I was done deadlifting for the day. I spent the rest of our training time hating on my partners for not being hurt and actually sumo deadlifting really well. Screw those guys.

On Friday, I had a rare opportunity to be visited by not one, but TWO of my Facebook tormentors. These two troll me relentlessly on Facebook every day, but like a true gentleman I offered to have them come in meet me in person to talk about our many misunderstandings. The tall kid in the photo is Vamshi, he is a student from Temple U up in the badlands of North Philly, and will someday own a chain of Dunkin Donuts. He came down here on the train and it turns out that he is a really nice kid who, unfortunately, Paleo-dieted all his muscle away. Or at least that's his story. The short, Asian, cutey is Christle, who might be an undiagnosed dwarf, we are not sure, flew in from Chicago, changed into the oddest workout outfit I ever saw and then deadlifted. They stayed for a while, soaked in the Iron Sport atmosphere, I coached the two of them on a few lifts and everyone went home happy...well they did, I just went home miserable as usual.