SDLD vs regular Deadlift (what the difference, which is better?)

[asoe209]

Hey all, just wanted to ask what's the difference between these to lift with out stating the obvious lol.

So do these both work the same muscles? and which one do you think is better to do in your routine.

I personally have only used regular deadlifts and never tried the SLDL, I cant wrap my head around the technique with it. like legs being slightly bent and lifting from the hip. it just seems to go against the whole safty side of things.

I'm i right in thinking SLDL is not a heavy weight exercise?

[SpiderDan]

SLDLs will allow you to attack your glutes and hams in a more isolated fashion, you also tend to do these without putting the bar down so you can keep constant tension in those muscles

A regular deadlift will involve a lot more "back" work.

You're only gonna run into trouble if lose your arch and try and lift with your lower back.

[Pkant2002]

I often think this with Sumo deadlifts as well. Looks like they might also work your back more or something as i cant imagine using my legs to push up from such a wide stance.

[stronglikewood]

When I tried sumos a long time ago, I remember them feeling uncomfortable in the groin and hips. I think the back gets a lot less stress from them than pulling conventionally.

You can use SLDL with heavy weight, it just depends how strong you are! I haven't used them in many years as I feel I get enough hamsting work from conventional deadlifts.



Old video of mine from 4.5 years ago! At this point my max on conventional deads was 190kg-195kg for 1.

[fussyjim]

You can SLDL heavy, just really need to focus on form. SLW has excellent form in the above.

^^ Agreed regarding sumos. I feel a lot more stress on my lower back when pulling conventionally compared to sumos. For anyone suffering from poor hip mobility/flexibility sumos are the way to go, while addressing the mobility and flexibility issues of course. Sumos allow you to get your hips lower to the ground without rounding the back.

I'm not sure I will ever be able to deadlift conventionally/SLDL heavy again but I will keep working on my flexibility issues

[LiE]

They are 2 very different exercises, I do both.
Conventional deadlift you are lifting the weight from a dead stop off the floor each rep. You need to pay attention to the angle of your back in this lift especially. Many people do this too heavy and end up only really moving the weight off the floor when their legs are straight, essentially lifting the entire weight with the lower back - this is very bad.

The main difference with the SLDL is that the movement is initiated from the top. The video above is a good example of how to do the lift, at no point should you see the back round. The key difference with this exercise is the stretch reflex you get at the bottom, which you don't get on a deadlift. This is attributed to the lift starting at the top. How low you can go will be down to how flexible you are.