Deadlift Styles: How to Choose the Right One for You

Deadlift Styles and Individual Suitability

The deadlift can be performed in many ways:
– Conventional deadlift
– Sumo deadlift
– Stiff-Leg Deadlift (SDL)
– Romanian deadlift
– Snatch-grip deadlift

…or combinations of the above.

In competitive powerlifting, only two styles are officially recognized:

Conventional Deadlift

Sumo Deadlift

This article won’t dive into the execution or technique of each variation, but rather focuses on helping you choose the style best suited to your body.

What Do Top Lifters Do?

If you watch videos or livestreams from major powerlifting competitions, you’ll notice that most lifters use the sumo stance—except for the strongest competitors, the world record holders.
There are exceptions, of course—but this pattern is clear.

The General Rule of Thumb

The common advice is:

• If you have long arms and a short torso, you’re likely better suited to conventional deadlift.

• If you have short arms and a long torso, sumo deadlift may work better for you.

But what does it mean to have a “long torso” or “short arms”?

It’s all about relative limb length—not absolute values.
A person who’s 190 cm tall will obviously have longer arms than someone who’s 160 cm.
What matters is proportion—how your limbs compare to your total body height.

To determine that, you need to measure three values:

Anthropometric Measurements

• • Arm Length (AL): From the tip of the longest finger to the shoulder joint (end of humerus)

  • Leg Length (LL): From the floor (barefoot) to the hip joint

  • Body Height (BH): Measured barefoot, standing against a wall

From these, we calculate Torso Length (TL):

TL = BH – LL

Relative Proportions

To understand your proportions, calculate relative arm and torso length as a percentage of your total height:

Relative Arm Length (%) = (AL / BH) × 100
Relative Torso Length (%) = (TL / BH) × 100

Once you have these values, you can compare them to reference tables (not included here) to determine which deadlift style best fits your body mechanics or use online calculator