How to do the Barbell Sumo Deadlift
Step by step
- Set a wide stance with toes turned out and the bar over your midfoot.
- Drop your hips, grip inside your knees, and pull your chest up with shins vertical.
- Take the slack out of the bar, then push the floor apart and stand up straight.
- Lock out with hips and knees together, then lower the bar back down under control.
The thing people get wrong
Wedge into the bar before you pull so your back is flat from the start - never let your hips shoot up first and leave the bar behind.
Coaching cue
Push your knees out toward your toes and drive your feet straight down into the floor.
Stay safe
Reset your flat back and grip before every rep instead of bouncing the bar off the floor.
Make it easier or harder
- Harder: Pause for one second with the bar at knee height on the way up.
Muscles worked
- Primary: Glutes, Hamstrings, Quads
- Secondary: Upper Back, Core, Forearms
What to do instead
Same job, different movement — useful if you don't have the equipment or it doesn't feel right today.
Daily Coach builds this into a real weekly plan. It picks the exercises for your equipment and experience, swaps around injuries you tell it about, and tracks what you actually lifted.