The sumo deadlift high pull joins a deadlift and a pull to the chin. Learn the wide stance, hip extension and high elbows, with clear milestones.
The sumo deadlift high pull (SDHP) is a deadlift in a wide sumo stance followed immediately by pulling the bar up to the chin – with high elbows. In CrossFit it is one of the classic hip-and-pull movements and prepares you for the clean and snatch.
The honest answer to "is it just a deadlift with arms?": no. The arms are only the last station of a chain that starts in the hips. A review of weightlifting pulling derivatives stresses that extension of hip, knee and ankle (the "triple extension") is the decisive part [1]. I found no direct studies on the SDHP itself; the statements in this guide come from studies on the sumo deadlift and related pulling movements and should be read as transfer.
You usually learn the basic form in two or three sessions (experience, not study data). A clean tempo under load takes longer.
Set your feet clearly wider than the shoulders, toes pointing out. The hands grip the bar narrowly, inside the knees. In an analysis of 12 sumo and 12 conventional deadlifters at a powerlifting championship, the sumo lifters' stance averaged about 70 cm wide (conventional about 32 cm), their feet were turned out about 42° instead of 14° and their torso stood 5 to 10° more upright [2]. That is your benchmark: wide, but not painfully wide.
Milestone: 10 clean sumo deadlifts with an empty bar, back straight, knees tracking over the toes.
Press the feet into the floor, extend knees and hips together until you stand tall. The arms stay straight, the bar stays close to the body. In a study of 13 football players, the inner and outer thigh extensors and the shin muscle were more active in the sumo deadlift than in the conventional one, the calf less [3]. So the legs work more, the back less.
Milestone: 10× with explosive hips, the bar slides along the thighs.
From standing, pull the bar up to the chin with high elbows pointing outward. The elbows lead, the hands follow. The bar stays close to the body, the wrists stay loose. A word on performance: in a study of 8 weightlifters, the hang high pull reached more peak power than the hang power clean at 40 to 70 % of the maximum – at 80 to 100 % there was no difference [4]. This is a transfer: the hang high pull was measured, not the SDHP.
Milestone: 10× with elbows higher than the hands, the bar under the chin.
Now deadlift and pull come together. The hips extend first, then the pull follows. Using the arms too early brakes the hips. On the way down you guide the bar back under control; it stays at the body.
Milestone: 10× with an empty bar, pull only after the hip extension.
Only now does weight come in: light plates, sets of 10 to 20 reps at a steady rhythm. You notice that the pull comes from the rhythm of the hips – like a pump.
Milestone: 3×10 with light weight and an even tempo.
The SDHP is harmless as long as the bar stays close and the back is straight. But: in a survey of 456 Czech CrossFit athletes, deadlifts, cleans and snatches were among the movements with the most injuries; the most common sites were the spine (30.7 %) and shoulder (28.3 %) [5]. High rep counts and fatigue are the danger: if your back rounds, stop.
Do not pull the bar higher than the chin and keep the wrists loose. This guide explains and motivates but does not replace supervised training. Have your back at the start filmed from the side once.
Do the pause SDHP: count to two at the start before you pull. The pause forces you to build tension instead of pulling from momentum. And think in an outside image: "push the floor away" instead of "tense the legs". According to a meta-analysis, this external focus helps execution and retention [6].
Wider than shoulder width, with feet turned out. Among powerlifters the sumo stance averaged about 70 cm [2]. There is no fixed number for the SDHP: pick the width at which you start upright and push the knees toward the toes.
That is not proven. The pull to the chin loads the shoulder if the elbows stay too low or the bar swings away from the body. Keep the bar close, do not pull higher than the chin and have your technique checked. Shoulder injuries are among the most common in CrossFit [5].
For learning, 3×10 with light load (experience, not study data). In workouts you often see 20 to 30 reps – then what counts is that the form lasts to the last rep.
Yes, the movement also works with a kettlebell. The basic rules remain: wide stance, hips first, high elbows. Numbers from barbell studies cannot be transferred directly.
The American Kettlebell Swing: Hips Swing, Arms Just Come Along