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TRAP BAR for deadlifting
- Thread starter Lililston
- Start date
super_rice
New member
wish i had access to one of these. don't see them around much
Atomic Punk
New member
I've gotten in trouble for answering this same question before, on account of the fact that I am of the opinion that doing so called "deads" with a Trap Bar is a pussies way out of doing a difficult exercise the right way. Without going too much into that soapbox trip, I'll just say this: Given the positioning of the arms & hands at the side of the body, rather than out in front as in a regular dead, you can NOT even qualify this lift as a dead to start! It doesn't hit your back as much, or even at all as far as I am concerned, due to that reason alone. It is more like an old-fasioned hack squat than it is a deadlift. Anyhow, bottom line: Don't fix the unbroken! Deads are meant to be done with a straightbar. Keep it that way, and you'll continue to get the most out of them. Try switching to this method, and you'll see your gains go down the shitter real quick. Not to mention, that these trap bars are a royal asspain to put weight on anyhow. Why bother?!
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Debaser
Guest
How are they a "pansy exercise"? Are squats a pansy exercise? Trap bar deadlifts are pretty much the same thing, except you hold onto the bar.
majutsu
Well-known member
Al Girard, who invented the thing, was quite a deadlifter. I believe the story is he was quite the powerlifter who got an injury. He couldn't dead, so he came up with the trap bar to train most of the year, then would do deads just a week or two before a contest. His weights continued to rise and he continued to do well . . . I think they're awesome, and I've used them alot especially when I worked out at a Y a while back that always had them lying around. They will exhaust you, and in fact are no pansy exercise at all, feeling metabolically like a 20-rep squat 
But I agree with Atomic Punk to some degree, in that, if you can dead --- dead. But if you have some injury and would otherwise skip deads and all their growth -- by all means find a trap bar and enjoy a growth spurt you haven't seen in years. trap bar is to deads what the leg press is to squats.
But I agree with Atomic Punk to some degree, in that, if you can dead --- dead. But if you have some injury and would otherwise skip deads and all their growth -- by all means find a trap bar and enjoy a growth spurt you haven't seen in years. trap bar is to deads what the leg press is to squats.
Sammy Sosa
New member
I would say using the trap bar is more of a squat than anything.
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Debaser
Guest
majutsu said:
I wouldn't go that far though. I'd simply say it's between the deadlift and the squat. It is basically a more even load distribution than a regular deadlifts (less stress on the back, with more stress on the legs).
majutsu
Well-known member
I think you all misunderstand me, I could care less about the mechanics of the trap bar. In my analogy I just meant trap bar is the dead lift for the injured who can't dead. Like the leg press is the squat for those who can't squat. In both cases, the "replacement" movement is actually different. Trap bar e.g. has more leg involment than a dead, and leg press has less low back involvement than a real squat. Its always better to do the compound movement, but if you are deciding between the trap bar and doing nothing, by all means pick up a damn trap bar already. If you can dead, then dead and quit being a pussy 
Atomic Punk
New member
Debaser said:
That's basicly what I meant brother. Now that I re-evaluate what I did say, saying that they are a "pansy exercise" was definitely wrong. Certainly they aren't. What they also aren't though, are the same as deads. They don't qualify as a dead to me, because the positioning of the hands takes away the primary muscles that are worked by a standard dead, and puts them into a secondary category. If you know what I meant by an "old-fasioned hack squat", done with a straightbar behind the back, then you may agree with me as far as what I said about a trap bar dead equating more to this lift, than to a regular dead, due to the primary muscles that are worked.
Anyhow, my main point was that, they aren't the same as regular deads, in that they don't hit the same muscles groups. In that, to me, they don't qualify as a dead at all. Still though, this lift isn't the same as a cable cross, or leg extensions on the intensity scale. They do take some balls to do. Certainly not a pussy lift at all. No offense meant to anyone who likes them.
I have a trap bar and I find it near useless. Doesn't build my sqaut or my deadlift and without 100's I can deadlift a lot more than the bar will hold.
B True
B True
