Deadlift
Deficit deadlift
Works
Also works
Equipment
How to do it
- Stand on a plate or low platform with the bar over your midfoot and feet hip-width.
- Grip the bar pronated outside your legs with a flat back.
- With your chest up, take the slack out and lift the bar from the deeper range.
- Extend hips and knees, pulling the bar up close to your legs.
- Lock out at the top by squeezing the glutes without over-arching.
- Lower the bar under control to the platform keeping a neutral spine.
Common mistakes
- Rounding the back due to the increased range from the deficit
- Letting the hips shoot up, turning it into a good morning
- Losing tension on the descent because of the deficit
What the evidence says
Sumo and conventional aren't the same lift with a wider stance: sumo activates the quadriceps (vastus medialis and lateralis) and tibialis anterior more, while conventional activates the medial gastrocnemius more.
Escamilla RF, Francisco AC, Kayes AV, Speer KP, Moorman CT 3rd. «An electromyographic analysis of sumo and conventional style deadlifts». Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 2002;34(4):682-688. View the study
With a hexagonal (trap) bar you lift more weight at higher velocity and power, with lower moments at the lumbar spine, hip and ankle but a higher moment at the knee: it's the pick when you want to load the legs without loading the back as much.
Swinton PA, Stewart A, Agouris I, Keogh JW, Lloyd R. «A biomechanical analysis of straight and hexagonal barbell deadlifts using submaximal loads». Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2011;25(7):2000-2009. View the study
The stiff-leg deadlift doesn't cover the whole hamstring: over 9 weeks it grew the semimembranosus (11%) but barely the semitendinosus, which did grow (24%) with the Nordic curl. If you only hip-hinge, you're missing knee-flexion work.
Morin T, Doguet V, Nordez A, Caillet A, Lacourpaille L. «Minimal Role of Hamstring Hypertrophy in Strength Transfer Between Nordic Hamstring and Stiff-Leg Deadlift: A Blinded Randomized Controlled Trial». Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2025;39(9):924-932. View the study
What isn't settled: There is no study that trains one group with sumo and another with conventional for weeks and compares the muscle and strength gained. Everything we know about that comparison comes from single-rep lab measurements: pick the one you can load and hold well, not because a winner has been measured.
Other variations
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All 340 catalogue exercises are in the app, with their technique and your history. You log the set and Myosin works out volume, records and estimated strength.
