You can't really say whether it's a leg or back specifically as everything is involved. Conventional is mostly hamstings and back while Sumo is mostly glutes and legs being more upright and starting lower. The back/lats is mostly just acting isometrically to hold the bar.


TS:

Yes, you should try it. Don't worry about getting injured. Just do it right. Start with the bar only.

Think of the movement as a hip extension. Whether it's conventional or sumo, you start by driving your feet to the floor and squezzing your glutes to extend your hips (hip thrust) once the bar is over the knees. Imagine you're making love to the bar. It is important to keep your hips and hamstring tight (everything has to be tight anywa - head to toe) at the beginning to generate max power. And of course keep your lower back neutral or arched and never rounded. Your hips is the key. Neithe too high nor too low for conventional. Too high and you will be doing something like a stiff-legged deadlift using too much low back (which is not you want ). TOo low and you will lose power as you lose balance - your hips is too far back to have proper leverage (imagine your hips is the fulcrum balancing the weights like that of a see-saw). These are just main points. There are lots of details which you have to read/observe/see how hte pros do it//do your research on your own for best understanding.

Do a lot reading, watching videos, and practice self-experimentation to "feel right" - everyone has differnet limb length/height, etc so your ideal form may be different from you see in videos. If you want to learn to do it the right way, I suggest you watch how good powerlifters do it - Dave Tate, Diesel Crew videos are the better ones. But you have to remember - powerlifters's Bench press, deadlift, squat form/technique is done to maximise weights lifted and not specifically to isolate a certain muscle group for max hyperthropy and the form may be altered due to lifting gears (suits), fat levels, size of the person limiting range of motion etc. So always keep that in mind.

As you progress further and can handle more weight, get a good belt to maximise intra-abdominal pressue to help you lift more. If everyting is tight, injury won't/ is very unlikely to happen. It is suggested that you do low reps instead of high reps on big lifts like this as you'll lose focus and form deteriorates as you fatigue doing hi reps (save the hi reps for accessories - but again this depends on what you want to achieve - strenght increase - mostly central nervous system adaption or size - hyperthrophy). You may want to do Sumo, which is safer (as you're more upright - not taxing the lower back) (and easier - normally ppl can handle more weight on this vs conventional).

This post has been edited by funfree: Oct 5 2014, 02:11 AM

People who wrecked their backs likely did so because of ignorance/lack of knowledge. The lower back is more involved when you do conventional style vs sumo. This is where people get injured when they round their back awfully if they are ignorant of proper technique. You don't lift the bar with you back. It is just there to maintain support isometrically. The glutes, hamstrings, hips are dong most of the work. You nver pull bar with hands. Imagine your arms are just hooks. People who pull will end up doing it weirdly and use too much lower back.

The key to prevent injury is to keep everything tight. Especially the core (which are your abs, lowerback, obliques, etc) forming some sort of a belt around your midsection. Breathe in a big gulp of air before you lift. This will protect you during the lift. Breathe out only after the most diffuclyt phase (after lifting it). Use a belt to further increase the pressure. More pressure (tightness) = more safety and more weights lifted.

Maintaining overall body tightness is very critical and is analogous to an erect penis. Imaging a big woman is fallin on top of you so you go to keep your little brother as stiff/hard as possible for max protection/penetracion and not break it. This applies to all exercises - Imagine a squat/ overhead press where you have big weights overhead, bench presses, deadlifts (maitaining weight isometrically). You got to maintain tightness esp the core to support these loads of weights safely and generate max power. If you go soft and limp, you increase the chance of injury a lot and you lose lots of power at the same time. To achieve max body tightness, grip the bar as tight as you can, "claw" the floor with your toes, flex all your muscles - lats, glutes, hams, hips, abs, arms, chest, etc especially when you attempt heavy deadlifts, squats, bench. The body works as a unit so tensing one part of the body has effects on the other parts.

Reset each deadlift rep. DO NOT lower the bar slowly. Deadift is an exception where you have to drop the bar during the eccentric phase. Push your ass back and drop the bar (together with your body) down once the bar reaches ard the knees. You MUST drop the bar and not lower it slowly otherwise you will overtax your low back too much.

If you're really concerned, you can do it sumo style. And do your own research/self-experimentaion for max understaning.

This post has been edited by funfree: Oct 5 2014, 12:12 PM