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Exercises

Sumo deadlift alternatives: keep the glutes and inner thighs without the wide pull

Published October 23, 2026

The best sumo deadlift alternative is the trap bar deadlift: like sumo, it keeps your torso upright and shares the work between your hips and quads, without the wide stance your hips may not like. If you want the inner thighs and glutes the wide stance trains, a kettlebell sumo deadlift or wide-stance leg press keeps that position. With dumbbells, the B-stance RDL loads one hip at a time, and with no equipment, Cossack squats and reverse lunges cover the glutes and inner thighs.

What a sumo deadlift alternative has to replace

The sumo deadlift trains your glutes, inner thighs (adductors) and quads, with your hamstrings and lower back working less than in a conventional pull because your torso stays more upright. It is hardest off the floor, where your hips are low and wide and your knees have to stay pushed out. A replacement should keep heavy hip work with an upright torso, or the wide-stance position if your inner thighs are the point.

How to do the sumo deadlift

Barbell and trap bar

For a heavy pull day: the trap bar if the stance is the problem, conventional if you pull better narrow, the RDL as your second lift.

Closest swap, hip-friendly stance

Trap Bar Deadlift

Quads, Glutes

You stand inside the bar with the handles at your sides, so your torso stays upright like in sumo, but with your feet under your hips. It still lets you load heavy, which makes it the straight swap for a heavy pull day.

How to do it

  1. Load the bar, step into the middle of the frame and line the handles up with the middle of your feet, feet about hip-width.
  2. Sit your hips back and bend your knees until you can grab the center of each handle, so the bar stays level when it lifts.
  3. Pull your shoulders down, take a big breath into your belly and brace before the bar leaves the floor.
  4. Drive your feet into the floor so your hips and knees straighten together, keeping your arms long and your chest up.
  5. Finish standing tall with your glutes tight, then reverse the path: hips back first, knees bend, and set the bar down under control.

Cues

  • Push the floor away
  • Hold the handles in the middle
  • Chest and hips rise together

Common mistakes

  • Gripping the handles off-center: the bar tips forward or back and drags you with it; hold the middle of each handle.
  • Turning it into a squat with the hips dropped too low: set your hips just high enough that your arms hang straight and your shins stay fairly vertical.
  • Leaning back at lockout: stop when you are standing straight with your glutes squeezed; there is nothing to gain past that.
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Same bar, narrow stance

Barbell Deadlift

Glutes, Lower Back

The conventional deadlift uses a narrow stance with your hands outside your legs, so your hips start higher and your hamstrings and lower back do more. Pick it if your hips dislike the wide stance and your back handles it well.

How to do it

  1. Stand with your feet about hip-width apart and the bar over the middle of your feet, close to your shins.
  2. Hinge at the hips and bend your knees just enough to grip the bar overhand, hands a little wider than your shoulders.
  3. Bring your shins to the bar, lift your chest until your back is flat, and squeeze your armpits down as if bending the bar around your legs.
  4. Take a big breath into your belly, brace, and pull until the bar is tight against the plates without lifting it yet.
  5. Push the floor away with your legs and keep the bar against your body; once it passes your knees, drive your hips forward to stand tall.
  6. Lower by pushing your hips back first, then bend your knees once the bar passes them, and set it down under control.

Cues

  • Bar over midfoot
  • Pull the slack out first
  • Push the floor away

Common mistakes

  • Letting the bar drift away from your legs: it makes the lift much harder on your lower back, so keep the bar brushing your shins and thighs the whole way.
  • Yanking the bar off the floor: build tension first by pulling the slack out, then push; jerking it loose is when backs round.
  • Shooting the hips up first so it becomes a stiff-legged pull: keep your chest and hips rising together off the floor, and lighten the bar if you cannot.
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Barbell hinge from the top

Romanian Deadlift

Hamstrings, Glutes

You start standing and lower only as far as your hamstrings allow. It trains your glutes and hamstrings hard with no floor start and less weight than sumo, which makes it a good second lift on a pull day.

How to do it

  1. Stand with your feet about hip width and the bar over your midfoot, squat down to grip it overhand just outside your thighs, and stand up with it.
  2. Stand tall with the bar against your thighs, unlock your knees slightly and keep that bend fixed for the whole set.
  3. Push your hips straight back and let the bar slide down your thighs, chest coming forward as your hips go back.
  4. Stop when your hips stop moving backward and you feel a hard stretch in your hamstrings, usually somewhere between your knees and mid-shin.
  5. Push your feet into the floor and drive your hips forward until you stand tall, without leaning back at the top.

Cues

  • Hips back, not chest down
  • Bar stays on your legs
  • Knees soft and still

Common mistakes

  • Chasing the floor: if your back rounds to reach lower, your hamstrings have already run out. End the rep where your hips stop going back.
  • Squatting the weight down: if your knees keep bending as you lower, the stretch leaves your hamstrings. Lock in the knee angle at the top and only move at the hips.
  • Letting the bar drift forward: a bar a few inches off your legs pulls on your lower back. Drag it down your thighs, and use straps if your grip is what makes it swing.
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Machines and cables

These keep the wide-stance glute and inner-thigh work without loading your back.

Machine swap for glutes and inner thighs

Wide-Stance Leg Press

Glutes, Quads

Feet high and wide on the platform puts your hips in a similar position to the bottom of a sumo pull, with your back supported. It loads your glutes and inner thighs heavy with no lower-back cost.

How to do it

  1. Sit in the leg press and place your feet high on the platform, a bit wider than your shoulders, flat and parallel.
  2. Release the safeties and lower the sled by bending your hips and knees together.
  3. Go as deep as you can while your lower back stays on the seat.
  4. Drive the platform away through your heels until your legs are straight but not locked.

Cues

  • Feet high and wide
  • Lower back stays down
  • Drive through the heels

Common mistakes

  • Letting your hips lift off the seat at the bottom: stop the rep just before that point.
  • Snapping the knees straight at the top: stop just short of locking out.
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Cable hinge with a wide stance

Cable Pull-Through

Glutes, Hamstrings

Take a wide stance and hinge back against a low cable, then drive your hips through. It trains the sumo lockout for higher reps, with almost no load on your lower back.

How to do it

  1. Set a rope on the lowest pulley, face away from the stack, and reach between your legs to grab both ends.
  2. Walk forward two or three steps so the weight lifts off the stack, and set your feet wider than your shoulders.
  3. With a soft bend in your knees, push your hips back toward the machine and let the rope travel back through your legs while your back stays flat.
  4. Stop when you feel a strong stretch in your hamstrings, usually with your torso close to 45 degrees.
  5. Drive your hips forward until you stand straight, squeezing your glutes, with your arms staying long the whole time.

Cues

  • Hips back, not down
  • Arms are just hooks
  • Stand tall, do not lean back

Common mistakes

  • Squatting the weight: if your knees bend a lot and your hips drop, you are using your quads. Keep the shins nearly vertical and reach back with your hips.
  • Pulling with your arms: the rope should rise only because your hips extend. Keep your elbows straight.
  • Leaning back at the top: finish standing straight with your ribs down; arching past vertical shifts the effort to your lower back.
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Heaviest glute swap

Hip Thrust

Glutes

Your upper back rests on a bench and the bar sits on your hips, so you can load the glutes heavy at full hip extension, the end of every sumo rep. Pair it with a hinge to cover your hamstrings.

How to do it

  1. Sit on the floor with the edge of a flat bench just under your shoulder blades, and roll a padded barbell into the crease of your hips.
  2. Plant your feet about hip width, a foot or so in front of you, so your shins will be vertical when your hips are up.
  3. Hold the bar with both hands, tuck your chin slightly and brace as if someone is about to poke your stomach.
  4. Push the floor away through your whole foot and lift your hips until your thighs and torso are level, pivoting on the bench.
  5. Hold the top for one second with your glutes squeezed and ribs down, then lower until the plates almost touch the floor.

Cues

  • Ribs down, chin tucked
  • Shins vertical at the top
  • Squeeze for one second, then lower

Common mistakes

  • Arching your lower back to get the hips higher: stop when your thighs are level with your torso and keep your ribs pulled down.
  • Feet too close or too far: if you feel it mostly in your quads move your feet out, if mostly in your hamstrings move them in, until your shins are vertical at lockout.
  • Bouncing out of the bottom with half reps: let the plates nearly touch the floor and start each rep from there.
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Kettlebells and dumbbells

Lighter than a bar, so use higher reps, slow the lowering, and put more weight on one leg once they feel easy.

Wide-stance swap with a kettlebell

Kettlebell Sumo Deadlift

Glutes, Hamstrings

The same stance and the same upright pull with a kettlebell between your heels. Lighter than a bar, so run it for higher reps; it is also the easiest way to learn the sumo setup.

How to do it

  1. Stand wide with toes turned out and the bell resting below you, between the heels.
  2. Push your hips back and bend the knees until you can grip the handle, chest up.
  3. Drive through your heels and squeeze your glutes to stand all the way up.
  4. Lower the bell back to the floor along the same path.

Cues

  • Knees out
  • Chest up
  • Finish tall

Common mistakes

  • Rounding to reach the bell: put it on a book or step if you cannot reach it flat-backed.
  • Bouncing the bell off the floor: settle it on every rep.
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Wide squat for inner thighs

Sumo Squat

Quads, Glutes, Adductors

Holding a kettlebell at your chest, you sit straight down in a wide stance. It trains the same inner thighs, glutes and quads with an upright torso, and needs only one weight.

How to do it

  1. Stand with your feet wide, roughly one and a half to two times your shoulder width, toes turned out around 30–45 degrees.
  2. Hold a kettlebell by the horns at your chest; with a dumbbell, hold one end with both hands at your chest.
  3. Brace your stomach and sit straight down, pushing your knees out so they point the same way as your toes.
  4. Lower until your thighs are about level with the floor, or as deep as you can go with your chest up and heels down.
  5. Drive through your whole foot and squeeze your glutes to stand, keeping your knees pushed out on the way up.

Cues

  • Knees follow toes
  • Sit between your heels
  • Chest tall, squeeze to stand

Common mistakes

  • Knees caving in: keep them tracking over your toes; if they keep collapsing, narrow your stance a little or turn your toes out more.
  • Leaning forward to get deeper: stop where your torso stays upright; the depth comes from your hips opening, not from bending over.
  • Heels lifting: shift your weight back to your mid-foot and reduce the stance width until your whole foot stays down.
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RIRLift's swap with dumbbells

Dumbbell B-Stance RDL

Hamstrings, Glutes

One foot slides back as a kickstand while the front leg does most of the hinge, so dumbbells that feel light on two legs become hard. This is what RIRLift puts in the sumo deadlift's place when you train with dumbbells.

How to do it

  1. Stand with dumbbells in both hands and slide one foot back so its toes sit level with the heel of the front foot.
  2. Put about four fifths of your weight on the front leg with a soft knee.
  3. Hinge forward by sending your hips back, lowering the dumbbells along the front leg until the back of that thigh is stretched.
  4. Drive the front hip forward to stand up and repeat, then switch legs.

Cues

  • Front leg holds the weight
  • Back foot is only a kickstand
  • Hips square to the floor

Common mistakes

  • Sharing the load evenly between both feet: lift the back heel and keep only the toes down.
  • Twisting the hips open as you lower: keep both hip bones pointing at the floor.
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Two-leg hinge with dumbbells

Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift

Hamstrings, Glutes

The Romanian deadlift with a dumbbell in each hand trains the glutes and hamstrings sumo works, light enough for higher reps. Pair it with sumo squats for the inner thighs.

How to do it

  1. Stand with your feet about hip-width apart, one dumbbell per hand resting against the front of your thighs, palms facing you.
  2. Unlock your knees slightly, pull your shoulders down and back, and take a breath into your stomach.
  3. Push your hips straight back and let your chest tip forward, sliding the dumbbells down the front of your legs with your back flat and knees barely changing angle.
  4. Stop when your hamstrings are fully stretched and your hips will not travel back any farther, typically with the dumbbells somewhere between the knee and mid-shin.
  5. Drive your hips forward and squeeze your glutes to stand tall, finishing upright without leaning back.

Cues

  • Hips back, not down
  • Dumbbells skim your legs
  • Stand tall, don't lean back

Common mistakes

  • Bending the knees more as you go down: that turns the hinge into a squat; keep the knee bend you started with and let the hips do the moving.
  • Rounding the back to reach lower: end the rep where your hips stop going back, even if the dumbbells are only at your knees.
  • Letting the dumbbells drift forward: keep them brushing your thighs and shins so the load stays over your feet and off your lower back.
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Bodyweight and bands

No weights: deep single-leg work and a band for the hinge, with sets taken close to failure.

Inner thighs with no equipment

Cossack Squat

Quads, Adductors

You shift deep onto one bent leg while the other stays straight, which stretches and loads the inner thigh of the straight leg. It needs no weight and builds the hip mobility a sumo setup asks for.

How to do it

  1. Take a very wide stance, about twice the width of your shoulders, with the toes turned out a little.
  2. Bend your right knee and sit your hips down toward your right heel, letting the left leg straighten with the toes pointing up.
  3. Sink as deep as you can with the right foot flat and your chest lifted.
  4. Press the floor away with the right foot to return to the middle, then sit to the left.

Cues

  • Sit down, not forward
  • Flat foot on the bent side
  • Long leg stays straight

Common mistakes

  • Folding the chest down to the knee to get lower: hold a light weight out in front as a counterbalance instead.
  • Rushing from side to side: stop in the middle for a breath between reps.
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Best single-leg swap with no equipment

Reverse Lunge

Quads, Glutes

Stepping back puts most of your weight on the front leg, training your glutes and quads one side at a time. With no equipment it pairs with Cossack squats to cover the glutes and inner thighs.

How to do it

  1. Start tall with feet hip-width apart, hands on your hips or holding a kettlebell at your chest or a weight in each hand.
  2. Shift your weight onto one foot and step the other foot straight back about two feet, landing on the ball of the foot.
  3. Lower your back knee toward the floor until it nearly touches, with your front shin close to vertical and your chest up.
  4. Keep most of your weight in the front foot and push through its whole sole to stand and bring the back foot forward.
  5. Finish standing tall on both feet, then repeat on the same side for all reps or alternate legs.

Cues

  • Weight stays in the front foot
  • Back knee straight down
  • Push the floor away to stand

Common mistakes

  • Stepping back too short: if your front knee shoots far past your toes and your heel lifts, take a longer step.
  • Pushing off the back foot: the back leg only balances you; drive up through the front heel and mid-foot.
  • Front knee caving in: keep it tracking over your middle toes; slow the descent or reduce the weight until it does.
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Hinge with a band

Band Deadlift

Glutes, Hamstrings, Lower Back

Stand on a band and pull it up like a deadlift. It gets harder as you stand, so it trains the lockout well for high reps at home.

How to do it

  1. Step onto the center of a handled band feet hip-width, a handle in each hand.
  2. Push your hips back and bend your knees until the handles are near your shins, with your back flat.
  3. Drive your hips forward and stand up tall, keeping the handles close to your legs.
  4. Lock out with a glute squeeze, then lower back down the same way.

Cues

  • Hips back, chest forward
  • Flat back
  • Lock out with your glutes

Common mistakes

  • Rounding your back to reach the bottom: bend your knees more and stop higher.
  • Leaning back at the top: stand tall and stop.
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Example sessions without the sumo deadlift

Session 1

Gym, the wide stance bothers your hips

Open in the session builder
  • Workouts1× a week
  • Working sets13 a week
  • Per workout~40 min
  • EquipmentTrap Bar, Leg Press, Barbells, Flat Bench +1

You train in a gym and want a heavy pull day, but sumo pinches your hips or you simply pull better with your feet under you.

The trap bar deadlift takes sumo's place as the heavy pull, for low reps with long rest. The wide-stance leg press keeps the glute and inner-thigh work, the hip thrust loads the lockout, and the pull-through finishes with high reps. 13 working sets.

Pull day
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Trap Bar Deadlift2 warm-up sets first 4 × 3–6 2 3:30 min
Wide-Stance Leg Press 3 × 8–12 2 2 min
Hip Thrust 3 × 8–12 2 2 min
Cable Pull-ThroughWide stance, toes out. 3 × 12–15 1 1 min
How to run it
Run it once a week as your pull day, or twice a week on non-consecutive days with the trap bar lighter on the second day.
How to progress
When every set of a lift reaches the top of its range at the RIR shown, add the smallest weight jump next session and start again at the bottom of the range.
Open in the session builder

Session 2

Home, a kettlebell and dumbbells

Open in the session builder
  • Workouts2× a week
  • Working sets24 a week
  • Per workout~30 min
  • EquipmentKettlebells, Dumbbells

You train at home with one or two kettlebells and a set of dumbbells, and no barbell.

The kettlebell sumo deadlift keeps the wide-stance pull for moderate reps, and the B-stance RDL makes dumbbells hard by loading one leg at a time. Sumo squats and Cossack squats cover the inner thighs. 12 working sets.

Pull day
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Kettlebell Sumo Deadlift1 warm-up set first 4 × 10–15 2 90 s
Dumbbell B-Stance RDLSets are per leg. 3 × 8–12 1 90 s
Sumo Squat 3 × 12–15 1 75 s
Cossack SquatReps are per side. 2 × 8–12 1 1 min
How to run it
Twice a week on non-consecutive days. Stand on two plates for the kettlebell pull if your bell is light and you want more range.
How to progress
Add reps first. When every set hits the top of its range, use a heavier bell or dumbbell; at your heaviest, slow the lowering to three seconds.
Open in the session builder

Session 3

No weights, a band or nothing

Open in the session builder
  • Workouts3× a week
  • Working sets33 a week
  • Per workout~25 min
  • EquipmentResistance Bands

You train at home with your bodyweight and maybe a long resistance band.

With no weights, the band deadlift keeps a hinge, and reverse lunges and Cossack squats load each leg with your bodyweight, covering the glutes and inner thighs. Reps run high and close to failure. 11 working sets.

Pull day
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Band Deadlift 4 × 15–25 1 1 min
Reverse LungeSets are per leg. 4 × 12–20 1 1 min
Cossack SquatReps are per side. 3 × 8–12 1 1 min
How to run it
Two or three times a week. Rest only 45 to 60 seconds between sets.
How to progress
Add reps until you reach the top of each range, then slow the lowering to three seconds, then sink deeper on the Cossack squat.
Open in the session builder

Make it fit you

Questions

What is the best alternative to the sumo deadlift?

The trap bar deadlift, because it keeps your torso upright and lets you lift heavy without the wide stance. For the inner thighs, the kettlebell sumo deadlift or wide-stance leg press keeps that position.

Is sumo easier than conventional?

Neither is easier for everyone. Sumo shortens how far the bar travels and keeps you upright, which suits some builds, while others pull more conventional. Use the one you can lift heavier with good form.

What muscles does the sumo deadlift work?

Mainly your glutes, inner thighs and quads, with your hamstrings, lower back and upper back working too. It uses less lower back and more quad and inner thigh than a conventional deadlift.

What is a good sumo deadlift alternative for glutes?

The hip thrust loads the glutes at the same fully open hip position sumo finishes in. Pair it with a Romanian deadlift or B-stance RDL for the stretched end.

What can I do instead of sumo deadlifts with dumbbells?

Do the B-stance RDL to load one leg at a time, or dumbbell Romanian deadlifts for both legs together. Sumo squats cover the inner thighs.

Is a sumo squat for glutes or quads?

Both, plus your inner thighs. The wide stance and upright torso shift more of the work to your glutes and inner thighs than a normal squat.