Sumo Deadlift with Bands

How to do it

1. Loop a band over each end of the barbell and anchor both under the middle of the platform or under heavy dumbbells.
2. Stand with a wide stance, toes turned out, shins close to the bar.
3. Take a grip inside your knees, set your back flat and your hips low.
4. Push the floor apart with your feet and stand up, keeping the bar against your legs.
5. Finish tall — the bands are hardest here, so the lockout is where the set is decided.
6. Lower under control against the bands rather than letting them pull the bar down.

Common mistakes

• Loading the bar as if the bands were not there. Bands add tension as the bar rises, so a weight that feels light off the floor can be immovable at the knee.
• Anchoring the bands where they can slip. A band leaving an anchor under tension with a loaded bar attached is worth setting up carefully rather than discovering.
• Letting the bands accelerate the bar down. The descent is resisted; a band-assisted drop lands the bar faster than the plates were meant to arrive.
• Using bands to fix a weak start. Bands are lightest at the floor, so they train the lockout — a slow first inch is a reason for deficits or pauses, not for bands.

Muscles worked

Primary

• Hamstrings

Secondary

• Adductors
• Forearm Flexors
• Forearm Extensors
• Glutes
• Spinal Erectors
• Rhomboids
• Middle TrapeziusTraps
• Quads
• Traps