The language of strength and conditioning is the language of human movement. So says movement and mobility guru Kelly Starrett, who also founded San Francisco CrossFit.
In this video, he and powerlifter Jesse Burdick demonstrate how they’re saying the same things but with different cues in teaching the sumo deadlift.
The first idea they tackle is “get tight.” For beginners, that can be an esoteric concept that’s difficult to grasp, Burdick says.
“If you’re not tight, if you don’t feel what that is, you’re not going to be able to idealize it,” he explains, “because it’s such a thing that floats around the ethos that you just may not be able to understand.”
Get tight by squeezing your butt at the top, screwing your feet into ground and loading the hips back, Starrett says.
The next concept is “chest up.” For an effective sumo deadlift, you must lead with your chest and not your hips; otherwise, you’re creating more distance to the lockout position, Burdick says.
“So when we say ‘chest up,’” he says, “it’s just making sure that we’re almost rounding thoracically as opposed to rounding from our lumbar.”
9min 22sec
HD file size: 209 MB
SD wmv file size: 112 MB
SD mov file size: 60 MB
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Additional audio: Additional reading: CrossFit Radio Episode 148 by Justin Judkins, published Dec. 1, 2010.