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January 9, 2023

Try These 11 Front Squat Alternatives for Powerful Legs and a Stronger Core

Filed under: Fitness,Training — Tags: , , , , , , , — admin @ 12:20 am

The front squat is a staple movement for Olympic weightlifters, CrossFit athletes, and countless other strength-focused lifters. However, some find the unique bar position to be a limiting factor because it requires ample shoulder and wrist mobility.

group of lifters performing barbell squats
Credit: Ground Picture / Shutterstock

Other lifters shy away from the front squat because they can move relatively more weight with other squat variations. Regardless of the reason, while the front squat has plenty of benefits to offer, there are some equally effective alternatives to consider which let you work around any restrictions and find comparable results.

Bruce Lee once talked about “the art of fighting without fighting,” so consider these exercises “how to front squat without front squatting.”

Best Front Squat Alternatives

Front Squat with Straps

One of the biggest limiting factors for many lifters, when it comes to performing the front squat, is holding the bar in the “rack position” — held across the fronts of your shoulders with your arms flexed and your fingertips under the bar.

This position requires flexibility and mobility throughout your wrists, elbows, and shoulders. While those attributes can be improved over time with dedicated work, you can reduce the mobility requirements without compromising results by attaching a pair of lifting straps to the bar. These serve as makeshift handles to offer a slightly adjusted hand and arm position.

When to Use It

The front squat with straps can be used identically to the classic front squat, or any time you need to support the bar in the rack position (across the front of your shoulders). The strapped movement can be programmed with the same sets and reps, and often with the same weights. This exercise is particularly useful for any lifters with pre-existing upper-body joint issues which may restrict their mobility.

How to Do It

Set a barbell in a rack at roughly upper chest-level. Secure a pair of lifting straps to the bar just outside shoulder-width. Grab one strap in each hand with your palms facing each other.

Step to the bar, bending your arms as you unrack the weight with your thumbs near the front of your shoulders. Keep tension on the straps without lifting the bar off your shoulders. Take a small step back and squat, keeping your elbows aimed forward and your torso upright.

Front Squat to Box

While the front squat with straps addresses upper body mobility restrictions, the front squat to box can be used to address lower body mobility restrictions. By using a box to limit your range of motion, you change the muscle recruitment and alter the stress on muscles and joints. (1)

When to Use It

Program the front squat to box if you have hip or ankle mobility issues which prevent you from achieving a deep front squat position. A box can also be used by beginners as a target to ingrain consistent squat depths and technique.

How to Do It

Set up a stable box or series of aerobic steps at a comfortable height, generally above knee-level, a few feet behind a barbell set in a rack. Setup for a standard front squat and carefully step back to position yourself above the box.

Descend under control, lowering your glutes to the box. Don’t rest your full weight on the box — pretend it’s a deck of cards that you don’t want to knock down. Pause very briefly without losing tension. Explode upwards to a powerful lockout.

Safety Bar Squat

If your gym has a safety bar, easily spotted with its thick pads and jutting handles, it can be a key player in building your lower body without straining your joints. (2) The safety bar squat allows a more upright torso and increased upper back engagement, which can reduce lower back stress. The forward-facing handles allow a more natural arm position which reduces stress on your shoulder and elbow joints.

When to Use It

The safety bar squat is an ideal alternative if you cannot maintain the elevated arm position required for front squats. This exercise is also an efficient way to increase upper back training because the thick pads offset the center of gravity and increase trapezius and upper back activation.

How to Do It

Set a safety bar in a rack at roughly shoulder-height. Duck under the bar and position the padded cradle around your trapezius, upper back, and shoulders. Grab the handles and pull your elbows toward your ribs.

Brace your core and pinch your shoulder blades together before unracking the weight. Step back and squat down. Don’t allow the weight to tip your upper body forward. Squeeze the handles and keep you elbows near your ribs as you drive upward to lockout.

Zercher Squat

The unconventional bar position of the Zercher squat, named after American weightlifter Ed Zercher, almost looks like a very poorly attempted front squat. By cradling the barbell in the crook of your arms, you can hold it very close to your body, which  improves your leverage and power output. While the Zercher squat requires little-to-no shoulder or elbow mobility, the strain of the bar on your forearms and elbows can be uncomfortable for some lifters.

When to Use It

Perform the Zercher squat in place of the front squat if you have significant upper body mobility restrictions. The Zercher squat can also be used toward the end of a workout, after first fatiguing your legs with other movements. This will let you get an efficient training stimulus with relatively lighter (and likely more comfortable) weights.

How to Do It

Set the bar in a rack near your belly button or lower chest-level. Step up to the bar and place your elbows on it, curling your arms around the barbell, with your palms up. Brace your core and stand up before taking a step back.

Squat down until either the bar or your elbows gently touch your thighs. Pause briefly before standing upright. Keep your elbows tight to your body and don’t allow the weight to pull you forward.

High-Bar Back Squat

Strangely, sometimes the best front squat alternative is a back squat variation. The high-bar back squat is a useful choice for competitive powerlifters, who must perform the back squat at meets. This exercise allows increased quadriceps recruitment and relatively less lower back strain while maintaining a sport-specific movement.(3)

When to Use It

The high-bar back squat can be used at any point in a training program to emphasize the quadriceps muscles, which can benefit leg size as well as carry over to improved squat and deadlift strength.

How to Do It

Place a bar at upper chest-level in a rack. Position the bar across your trapezius and upper back. Unrack the back and take a roughly shoulder-width stance. Brace your core, pull your shoulder blades together, and squat as low as possible.

Keep your upper body mostly vertical as you descend. Aim to reach a depth with your hips nearly in line with your knees (thighs roughly parallel to the ground) before returning upright.

Trap Bar Squat

A trap bar can be a versatile piece of equipment, but is commonly used to perform the trap bar deadlift. The neutral hand position (palms facing your body) keeps the weight in line with your body’s center, which helps to reduce joint strain in your back and shoulders. Shifting your body position to keep a more upright torso when performing a trap bar squat will further emphasize the front of your thighs (quadriceps).

When to Use It

Use the trap bar for any type of squat or deadlift variation to decrease joint strain without reducing muscular stress. The trap bar squat can be particularly beneficial for sneaking extra upper body recruitment into your leg training, because your grip, arms, shoulders, and back help support the load during the exercise.

How to Do It

If your trap bar has two sets of handles, one “high” and one “low,” begin using the high handles and save the low handles for a more challenging progression. Stand in the center of the bar with your feet roughly shoulder-width. Squat down to grab the handles.

Be sure to bend at your knees and dip your hips down, to put your legs in an optimal pulling position. Puff your chest up and pull your shoulders back. Think about keeping your head over your tailbone as you drive upward to lockout.

Front Rack Lunge

To reap the core stability and upper back strengthening benefits of a front squat, with increased focus on each individual leg, performing a front rack lunge can be an extremely useful movement. You can build upper and lower body strength with less total load, because the movement is primarily performed unilaterally (with one leg at a time).

When to Use It

Unilateral movements like the lunge help to address strength and developmental discrepancies that can occur from exclusively bilateral (two-leg) exercises. Lunges can also build more complete athleticism and power than over-focusing on two-legged squat movements.(4)

How to Do It

Set up a barbell in a rack at shoulder-height. Grab the bar in the rack position and take a two or three steps backward. Stabilize the weight and brace your core.

Take one longer than normal step forward and plant your foot flat. Squat down until your rear knee lightly touches the floor. Keep your shoulders back and your upper body close to vertical. Drive up through your front foot with maximum force and return both feet together in a standing position. Perform all reps with one foot before switching legs. Re-rack the bar after performing the exercise with each leg.

Goblet Squat

While the front squat supports the bar across your shoulders, the goblet squat is as close as you can get to an identical movement using a single dumbbell. By supporting the weight in front of your chest, you train the same type of front-loaded squat movement which builds core strength and overall mobility.

However, the goblet squat doesn’t require a large degree of shoulder mobility because your upper arms remain pointed mostly downward instead of forward.

When to Use It

The goblet squat is a much more convenient and practical exercise for many lifters, requiring only a single dumbbell instead of a barbell and power rack. It can be performed as part of a general warm-up prior to heavy front squats or it can be trained heavily on its own to deliver a shoulder-sparing squat workout.

How to Do It

Place a dumbbell vertically on its end atop a flat bench. Squat down and place your palms on the bottom side of the top weight plate, getting your chest as close to the dumbbell as possible. Brace your core and pull your shoulder blades back.

Stand upright, supporting the weight with bent arms. The dumbbell should be near your collarbones or neck. Squat as deep as possible while keeping your torso vertical. Don’t allow the weight to pull your arms down or forward during the movement.

Dumbbell Front Squat

The dumbbell front squat could be seen as the next-step progression from the goblet squat. Instead of holding a single dumbbell as your chest, you’re supporting a weight in each hand. This more closely mimics a barbell from squat.

In fact, it puts you in nearly an identical hand and arm position as the front squat with straps, because your hands are in a neutral position (palms facing each other). This reduces the mobility requirements needed to perform the exercise,

When to Use It

Choose the dumbbell front squat if you’re training with limited equipment (such in a hotel gym or limited home gym) because you don’t need a barbell and rack. The dumbbell front squat is also an effective choice for lifters training around wrist or shoulder issues, since the joints are less stressed during the movement.

How to Do It

Stand with a dumbbell in each hand, resting at your sides. Bring the dumbbells up to the front of each shoulder in a hammer curl-type motion. Using some body English to control the swing of the weights is acceptable as long as it’s done with leg drive (as a quick jump), not bending at the waist or heaving with your lower back.

Hold the weights in the shoulder-supported position throughout the exercise. In a wider than shoulder-width stance, squat as deeply as possible. Aim your elbows forward and lean back to keep your upper body vertical. Don’t allow the weights to fall forward or sideways off your shoulders. 

Single-Arm Kettlebell Front Squat

A classic kettlebell exercise, the single-arm kettlebell front squat emphasizes core strength just as much as (possibly more than) leg strength. The “imbalanced,” single-sided load forces your abs and lower back to fire constantly to resist the sideways pull. This builds serious core stability which can play a key role in reducing the risk of lower back injuries. (5)

When to Use It

Because your core strength will likely be the limiting factor for most lifters, it may be more beneficial to treat the single-arm kettlebell front squat primarily as a core-building exercise that delivers leg size and strength as an added benefit, rather than primarily as “a leg exercise.” Improved core strength and stability can carry over to stronger lifts.

How to Do It

Bring a kettlebell to shoulder-height, either by performing a kettlebell clean or using your free hand to get the weight into position. Your thumb should be nearly resting on the front of your shoulder with the ball of the kettlebell resting on your forearm.

Stand upright, without leaning sideways into the weight or excessively counterbalancing to the opposite side. Take a relatively wide stance, beyond shoulder-width, and descend into a deep squat. Hold the kettlebell close to your body and don’t allow it to shift your torso. Perform all reps on one side before switching hands.

Front Squat Hold

This front squat alternative doesn’t actually involve any squatting at all. By reinforcing the locked out position, you create significant tension in your core stabilizers, as well as actively stretching the muscles directly involved in holding the rack position. This cumulative effect can lead to a stronger and more stable front squat.

Because static holds put you in the strongest mechanical position, you can also “overload” your system with heavier than normal weights, which can stimulate strength gains.

When to Use It

The front squat hold should be the first exercise performed on a lifting day, after a general warm-up. Not only will it help to recruit more muscle units in the training to follow, but performing the hold with any muscle fatigue can drastically increase the risk and decrease the benefits.

How to Do It

Set up for a standard front squat, with the bar in a rack near shoulder-level. Unrack the bar and take one or two small steps back. Instead of commencing a squat, hold the top position with maximum focus.

Concentrate on fully engaging your core and upper back. Flex your glutes and legs to further reinforce the lockout position. This exercise is typically performed “for time” (often three to five seconds, up to 10 seconds) rather than for multiple repetitions.

Benefits of Front Squat Alternatives

While the front squat is an essential movement for certain strength athletes like Olympic weightlifters and CrossFit athletes, front squat alternatives can be used by many lifters to deliver key benefits when the primary movement is no longer an option.

Reduced Mobility Requirements

Some lifters have crossed the front squat off their list of potential exercises because they cannot get their arms into the rack position needed to support the weight or because their hips or knees don’t allow the type of deep front squat commonly associated with the exercise.

black and white photo of person performing front squat
Credit: xamyak / Shutterstock

Several front squat alternatives allow lifters of any mobility level to benefit from the squat squat movement by reducing the mobility and flexibility requirements. These alternatives can also address and improve restrictions over time, which can progress to a full front squat.

Decreased Lower Back Strain

One key benefit of the front squat is its reduced lower back strain compared to the back squat. Each front squat alternative preserves that back-sparing advantage, making each movement a potential exercise choice for lifters prone to lower back issues.

Quadriceps Size and Strength

Front squat alternatives continue to emphasize the quadriceps, on the front of the thighs, relatively more than the glutes or hamstrings. (6) This is a key reason why many physique-focused lifters prioritize the front squat over the back squat. These alternatives are equally effective in emphasizing the quads, while back squats and deadlift variations are more commonly used to focus on the hamstrings and glutes.

Get Back to Front Squatting

The front squat can be beneficial for strength athletes, physique-conscious lifters, and any gym-goer looking to build lower body strength and muscle, a stable core, and a stronger lower back. If you’re not yet ready to tackle the Olympic-level movement, choose the variation that best suits your individual needs and start racking up the results.

References

  1. Kubo, K., Ikebukuro, T., & Yata, H. (2019). Effects of squat training with different depths on lower limb muscle volumes. European journal of applied physiology, 119(9), 1933–1942. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-019-04181-y
  2. Hecker, Kara & Carlson, Lara & Lawrence, Michael. (2018). Effects of the Safety Squat Bar on Trunk and Lower-Body Mechanics During a Back Squat. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 33 Suppl 1. 1. 10.1519/JSC.0000000000002912. 
  3. Glassbrook, D. J., Brown, S. R., Helms, E. R., Duncan, S., & Storey, A. G. (2019). The High-Bar and Low-Bar Back-Squats: A Biomechanical Analysis. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 33 Suppl 1, S1–S18. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000001836
  4. Speirs, Derrick E.1,2; Bennett, Mark A.3; Finn, Charlotte V.4; Turner, Anthony P.2. Unilateral vs. Bilateral Squat Training for Strength, Sprints, and Agility in Academy Rugby Players. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 30(2):p 386-392, February 2016. | DOI: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000001096
  5. Huxel Bliven, K. C., & Anderson, B. E. (2013). Core stability training for injury prevention. Sports health, 5(6), 514–522. https://doi.org/10.1177/1941738113481200
  6. Coratella, G., Tornatore, G., Caccavale, F., Longo, S., Esposito, F., & Cè, E. (2021). The Activation of Gluteal, Thigh, and Lower Back Muscles in Different Squat Variations Performed by Competitive Bodybuilders: Implications for Resistance Training. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(2), 772. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18020772

Featured Image: Berkomaster / Shutterstock

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December 29, 2022

15 Deadlift Variations for Muscle, Strength, and More

Filed under: Fitness,Training — Tags: , , , , , — admin @ 9:49 am

The deadlift is considered by many lifters to be the king of exercises. It could be considered the ultimate display of full-body strength, and it’s likely an exercise that recruits the most muscles in the human body. Deadlifts are also a very natural and instinctive movement — useful in everyday life as well as being transferable to many sports. It is the quintessential “hinge” exercise, one of the five basic human movement patterns popularized by coaches in recent years, along with “squat,” “push,”, “pull,” and “carry.”

Man in gym performing barbell exercise

Credit: Qilin’s prance Filmmaker / Shutterstock

As such, this primordial lift is so versatile, it can be used for a multitude of goals — strength, muscle growth, speed and power, grip strength, core stability, and more — as long as you can perform it properly. But human ingenuity, and necessity, also helped to create countless variations, each focusing more on one or more of these aspects.

Whether you want to target a precise muscle group, improve your deadlift technique, a specific weak point, or improve your athletic abilities, there’s a variation for you. The traditional deadlift will build total body size and strength, but we can take things even further. Here’s a list of 15 deadlift variations to include in your training regimen and tailor your sessions to your specific needs.

Best Deadlift Variations

Deficit Deadlift

Standing on a plate or elevated platform will make the lift more difficult. The increased range of motion requires you to reach and crouch down further, placing you in a less-than-optimal position.

That’s usually not something you want to do on purpose, but the poor leverage improves your strength at the start of the lift, making it useful for lifters who are “weak off the floor,” or have trouble with the initial phase of the deadlift.

When to Do It

This variation is often used by lifters interested in strength sports (specifically powerlifting or strongman/strongwoman) or those looking for maximal deadlift strength. It is a perfect fix if you fail at the start of the lift, at floor-level or just above it. Being elevated means that the range of motion is increased and you’ll have to use more knee flexion, which will increase your quadriceps strength and power off the floor.

Deficit deadlifts are also a great teaching tool if you have trouble getting deadlift technique right, as it forces you to use less weight and focus on perfect form. Finally, you can also use it as a variation to increase quadriceps recruitment, either for strength or size.

How to Do It

Stand securely on a small platform or a weight plate. Grab a barbell and perform a regular deadlift. Because your feet are elevated, your hips will have to get lower in the starting position because the bar will be further down. Do not make the mistake of turning it into a stiff-leg deadlift — be sure to bend your knees and use your quads.

Don’t get crazy with an extremely high deficit or it won’t have much transfer to your basic deadlift. Elevating yourself just a few inches will be right for most lifters When in doubt, start with the lowest height and increase gradually.

Rack Pull

Working the opposite spectrum from the deficit deadlift, the rack pull provides a reduced range of motion. Sometimes called a partial deadlift, the rack pull starts with the bar in a power rack and skips the starting phase near the floor.

By starting with the barbell in a higher position, you can use more weight and stimulate more growth. You can also focus on the “end range” (lockout portion) of the movement if locking out deadlifts is your specific weakness.

When to Do It

The rack pull is ideal for emphasizing your glutes and back. It is also a relatively less technical lift because of the shortened range of motion. Rack pulls are suitable for many people because the movement requires less mobility and can put less strain on your lower back because you can begin in a more stable position.

Use this version to focus on hypertrophy (muscle growth), as a powerlifting tool to improve your lockout strength, or in lieu of the conventional deadlift if it’s not suited to your body type or injury history.

How to Do It

Set the safety pins in a rack so the barbell starts at your mid-shins, or higher if needed. Grab the barbell, flex your abs as hard as you can and perform the upper portion of a deadlift — pull your shoulders back and drive your hips forward.

Remember that overconfidence is a slow and insidious way to kill your results, so don’t set the barbell too high just to lift more weight. The higher the bar, the more weight lifted, but the less carryover to the actual movement. A shorter range of motion may also be less effective for growth, so choose an appropriate height.

Trap Bar Deadlift

With this variation, we’re using a trap bar instead of a straight barbell. This hexagon- or diamond-shaped specialty bar is now a common occurrence in many gyms around the world, and for good reason: this is an amazing lift that delivers size and strength with less joint strain.

This relatively easy to learn exercise is a hybrid between a squat and a standard deadlift because of the adjusted body position. This combination of benefits makes it excellent for developing size and strength.

When to Do It

If you’re a beginner who can’t make the regular deadlift work for you, give this variation a go. It will help you master overall positioning, hip hinging, and core bracing, while increasing total-body size and strength.

It is also a favorite for developing lower body strength and athleticism. Because you can keep your torso more upright, and put less strain on your lower back, it can be less risky than the conventional deadlift. It’s a great fit for people who only use weightlifting to get better at their sport. If you’re playing football, rugby, hockey, or combat sports, the trap bar deadlift can become your primary lower-body builder. 

How to Do It

Step into the trap bar and grab it by the handles. Brace your whole body, push through your legs and pull with your back to lift the weight up. You can use either the low or high handles if you flip the trap bar. Using the high handles is the basic and most common configuration which is recommended for most, and especially taller lifters whose leverages make barbell deadlifts too uncomfortable.

Using the low handles can be great to stimulate more quadriceps growth by forcing knee flexion, similar to performing a deficit deadlift. You can also perform the trap bar deadlift more like a squat, keeping your hips low and driving as much as you can through your legs to trigger quadriceps growth. This technique used by some bodybuilders so focus on leg growth more than strength and power.

Sumo Deadlift

This “controversial” lift has gotten a bad rap and is even seen as cheating by some lifters, because you can greatly reduce the range of motion compared to a conventional (close-stance) deadlift.

But the sumo deadlift also has a number of unique benefits: It puts less pressure on the lower back, it’s better suited to some morphologies (body types with varying limb lengths), and it will improve size and strength in the quadriceps, glutes, and adductors.

When to Do It

For some people, the sumo deadlift simply feels more natural. If that’s the case, then make it your default deadlift of choice. If you’re a competitive powerlifter and are stronger with this technique, do not hesitate to make it your competition lift. Some coaches argue that a good lifter should be efficient with both styles, for they both have their strengths and weaknesses and teach you different key positions and techniques. 

Studies have shown that the sumo deadlift puts less stress on your spine than a conventional deadlift, so if you’re a veteran lifter with an achy back, consider this lift as your deadlift of choice. (1) You can also simply rotate the sumo deadlift with the conventional deadlift to periodically rest your spine, for instance during a deload.

How to Do It

Take a stance that it is wider than shoulder-width. The specific foot position will depend upon your morphology, mobility, and preferences. Let your arms hang straight down to grab the barbell near the center of the bar, and sink your hips down. Your hips should be as close to in-line with the barbell as possible, rather than remaining in a high position.

Take a deep breath and brace your core. Contract your lats while keeping your upper body close to vertical. Push through the ground with your feet. Imagine trying to split the ground in half with your feet as you drive up. Pull the weight until your hips are locked out.

Stiff-Leg Deadlift

This strength-focused variation is all about your lower back. By extending your legs and keeping them almost straight in the starting position, you change your body’s leverage and muscle recruitment.

The stiff-leg position decreases involvement from your quadriceps and make it a pure posterior chain exercise — emphasizing your spinal erectors (lower back) and hamstrings.

When to Do It

This variation is mostly done by strength enthusiasts to strengthen their posterior chain, especially their lower back. (2) Compared to the traditional deadlift, the stiff-leg deadlift is more difficult because fewer muscles are involved in moving the weight, but that doesn’t prevent it from being used as a main exercise. Use it if your posterior chain is a weak point, strength-wise, or if you want to build a more muscular set of spinal erectors.

How to Do It

Set yourself like you would for a conventional deadlift — stand in front of a bar with your feet roughly hip-width, grabbing the barbell slightly outside your legs — but keep your hips higher and your legs only slightly bent. Your torso should be roughly parallel to the ground. The farther the barbell is from your shins, the more strain will be put on your lower back and core. As long as you’re conservative with the weight, this adjustment can be used deliberately to focus even more on these muscles. 

Create tension in your whole body and hinge at your hips. This is a pure hip hinge exercise with little-to-no leg drive. Extend your body completely to stand up and squeeze your glutes at the top. Reverse the motion with control until the barbell is back on the ground.

Romanian Deadlift

The Romanian deadlift, or RDL, is all about triggering hypertrophy by providing a great stretch, constant muscular tension, and a long time under tension — all drivers for muscle growth. (3)

It was popularized by Romanian Olympic weightlifter Nicu Vlad when he arrived in the United States. Vlad supposedly complemented his Olympic lifting with this variation instead of rounded-back stiff-leg deadlifts which were common at the time.

When to Use It

This classic exercise is one of the most efficient exercises for developing your hamstrings and glutes. Use it for moderate repetitions (eight to 12 per set) as your posterior chain exercise of choice during a bodybuilding-focused session or as an assistance exercise in your strength programming for sets of five to eight repetitions per set. Beginner lifters and elite athletes alike can rotate this lift into their training plan.

How to Do It

The Romanian deadlift is often confused with the stiff-leg deadlift, but technique for each movement is slightly different. The RDL starts from the top position, and not with the bar on the floor like the stiff-leg deadlift. Grab the barbell from a power rack, take a step backwards, and bend at the hips while keeping your back flat and your knees barely bent. Think about pushing your hips backward as far as you can. 

Descend until you cannot push your hips back anymore, or until you feel your back starting to round, and reverse the motion by flexing your glutes and driving your hips forward. You should feel a deep stretch in your hamstrings. Your mobility will determine how low you can go — don’t necessarily try to reach the bar to the ground. Keep in mind, when done consistently the Romanian deadlift may improve your flexibility and mobility. Consider using a pair of lifting straps to ensure your grip doesn’t fail or distract you from feeling your leg muscles working.

Single-Leg Deadlift

The single-leg deadlift requires some coordination, but it can challenge your core, balance, glutes, and hamstrings like no other. It may seem simple in appearance: “deadlift while standing on only one leg.” But sometimes, the simplest things are the best.

The unilateral (single-leg) exercise focuses on more core stability while also shifting the work load to each individual leg. This single-sided focus can help to correct potential strength and size imbalances. (4)

When to Do It

This exercise can improve mobility, coordination, and balance, while also training your hamstrings, glutes, and lower back. Your core also development, especially the obliques through anti-rotation. 

Whether you’re an athlete, a bodybuilder, a strength athlete, or simply someone who wants to be more functional, you can find a place for this exercise in your training. It’s also a great warm-up exercise that will lubricate your joints, teach correct mechanics, and prime your body for the heavier lifts.

How to Do It

Hold a barbell, a pair of kettlebells, or a pair of dumbbells and extend one leg behind you so that only the toes of that foot are touching the ground. Keep your front leg slightly bent and shift the majority of your body weight onto your front leg. Pitch your torso forward and lift your extended leg behind you until your body forms a T-shape. Reverse the motion by squeezing your hamstrings and glutes. Keep the weights relatively light, the repetitions moderate, and your form impeccable. Moving at a slightly slower pace can help to keep your technique and balance in order.

Snatch-Grip Deadlift

No, the snatch-grip deadlift is not only reserved for Olympic lifters. It does initially come from the world of weightlifting, and the snatch exercise itself, but it’s essentially a deadlift performed with a very wide grip.

This posterior chain exercise will recruit your whole back, with emphasis on your upper back muscles. It can also improve your drive off the floor because it requires you to start in a lower position.

When to Do It

If you’re an Olympic weightlifter, it’s a no-brainer as you can overload the snatch movement pattern, target the related muscles, and improve the starting position. If you’re a powerlifter who’s weak off the floor in the conventional deadlift, rotate the snatch-grip deadlift into your training to focus on your weak point. And if you’re only interested in aesthetics, the snatch-grip will overload your lats and upper back even more than the traditional deadlift.

How to Do It

Use a slightly wider stance than a conventional deadlift, lower your hips a bit more, and grab the barbell with a wide grip. Exactly how wide will depend upon what you want to achieve. If you’re a weightlifter, use the same grip as your normal snatch — which can be collar to collar for taller lifters. If you’re a powerlifter, you should employ a grip slightly outside your shoulder-width to have maximal carryover to your conventional pull. Consider using lifter straps for this variation, as your grip will be extremely challenged and you cannot use a mixed grip (one overhand grip and one underhand grip).

The wider your grip, the lower your hips will have to be to achieve a strong starting position. This means more work for your glutes, quads, and lats. Brace your core and drive through your legs while keeping a flat spine until you’re standing tall. Descend with control to the ground.

Zercher Deadlift

This one’s for the most unconventional lifters. Ed Zercher was a strongman who would perform lifts with the barbell in the crooks of his elbows. It led to the Zercher squat, Zercher carry, Zercher deadlift, Zercher good morning, and so on.

Holding a barbell in this awkward style will tremendously increase the stress on your core, upper back, and biceps, leading to more growth and strength. 

When to Do It

Most people in the gym seeing you perform this unique lift may think you’re a little crazy or misinformed, but the Zercher deadlift will challenge your core like almost no other movement. It is performed with a slightly rounded back, and as such, should be reserved for experienced lifters who’ve mastered bracing and core stability. It’s also a great exercise for competitive strongmen and strongwomen to train for the Atlas stone event, as it replicates the motion. If you want to build your back and core, try the Zercher deadlift.

How to Do It

Use a wider-than-usual stance to accommodate your arms, and squat deep to place the barbell in the crook of your elbows. Flex your abs as much as you can and lift the bar off the ground. If it’s too painful for your elbows, use a bar pad or try to use a thicker axle bar. The Zercher deadlift requires a lot of mobility, and might prove too stressful for your lower back. In that case, elevate the bar in a rack or on blocks and perform a partial motion.

Chain Deadlift

This powerlifting favorite is not available for most people, but if you can have access to chains, adding them to your standard deadlift will spice up your training and unlock new gains.

Using this accommodating resistance in conjunction with regular weights will change the curve of resistance: the weight will be lighter at the bottom, and heavier at the top. This can provide new training paradigms. This can also be performed for a similar effect using resistance bands on each side of the bar.

When to Do It

Because the weight is heavier at the top, chain deadlifts are perfect if you want to emphasize this portion of the lift and target the specific muscles responsible for the top-end motion, namely your back and glutes.

If the top-end is already your forte, you can also use the chain deadlift for overload, using a heavier weight than you could normally lift, which can unlock new growth. (5) It’s also invaluable if you want to do speed work — a specialized kind of strength training moving light-to-moderate weights as fast as you can. Bands and chains allow you to accelerate and be even more powerful through the phenomenon of compensatory acceleration, making you even stronger. (6)

How to Do It

Attach chains to the barbell so that they hang from it as the bar elevates, but not so high as they completely come off the floor. Some links should remain on the floor for to keep the bar balanced and stable.

A good weight is to aim for around 25% of your one-rep maximum in chains, and at least as much regular weight in plates. For example, if your max deadlift is 405 pounds, use around 100 pounds of chains. Then, perform a normal deadlift.

Sweeping Deadlift

If you have trouble with keeping your upper body tight and braced, coach Christian Thibaudeau popularized the sweeping deadlift. It’s the perfect fix for learning how to engage your lats and improve your posture during the deadlift.

Fighting the band’s pull will force you to constantly engage your lats and maintain total-body tension during a deadlift.

When to Do It

The deadlift can be hard to master, as it is a total body lift that requires lots of coordination and technique. A common flaw is having the barbell “moving away” from you during the ascent. This results in a strength leak and puts more stress on the lower back. To fix this, integrate the sweeping deadlift, either as a warm-up movement or a supplemental exercise. It will teach you to engage your lats and keep the bar close to your body at all times, which is the optimal pulling position.

How to Do It

Loop one end of a band around the center of your barbell and the other end to a sturdy object like a rack. Step in front of the barbell, facing the rack, so that the band is pulling the barbell away from you. Perform controlled deadlift repetitions while keeping tension in your lats and on the band. Keep the bar close to you at all times and don’t allow it to drift forward.

Kettlebell Deadlift

This beginner-friendly variation is a great introduction to the hip hinge pattern, but can also serve as an effective glute and hamstring builder. The kettlebell deadlift allow you to really push yourself without risking form breakdown or causing too much fatigue.

The kettlebell deadlift is a simple and efficient way to drill the deadlift movement. You can reinforce general technique while building strength and targeting all of the involved muscles, from your legs to your upper body and grip.

When to Do It

If you’re new to the gym, the kettlebell deadlift is the perfect tool to teach you proper hip hinge mechanics. Because the weight is closer to your centerline and not in front of you like a barbell, it is an easier and more natural-feeling exercise. You can start with lighter weight, which is great for inexperienced lifters. But if you have access to heavy kettlebells, it can also become a great lower body exercise for more advanced lifters, as it will put less strain on your back than a barbell.

How to Do It

Depending on the size of the kettlebell and your mobility, you might want to elevate it for a higher starting position. Step in front of the kettlebell and assume a shoulder-width stance. Hinge forward and grab the kettlebell. Brace your core, flex your lats by squeezing an imaginary ball under your armpits, and spread the floor apart with your feet. Drive your hips forward to full extension and exhale. Lower the weight with control to the ground.

If you want to make the exercise a bit harder, drive as hard as you can and squeeze your glutes at the top, so the weight rises up in a slight arc, similar to the beginning of a kettlebell swing.

Landmine Deadlift

The landmine is a little piece of equipment designed to hold one end of a barbell and allow for a myriad of exercises using it as a fixed anchor. Among these exercises, we can find the deadlift.

The landmine variation of the deadlift is simpler and safer than a barbell, making it a perfect variation for beginners. The bar follows a somewhat fixed path with the landmine, so this movement necessitates less coordination and technique than a barbell

When to Do It

The landmine deadlift is a great way to learn the hip hinge pattern and to develop the confidence for lifting heavier weights. It also puts less strain and shear forces on the spine because you can keep your upper body more upright  — a perfect variation for battered-up lifters dealing with aches and pains.

Because the exercise doesn’t require as much coordination and balance as a barbell deadlift, you can focus more on the desired muscles and improve mind-muscle connection, which makes it a perfect variation to improve size.

How to Do It

Place a barbell in a landmine, and load plates on the free end. Take a shoulder-width stance and grab the collar. Keep your back flat, your chest puffed, and your abs flexed. Drive your hips forward until you’re standing tall. If you’re more interested in hypertrophy, consider performing a landmine Romanian deadlift and stop the descent before the weight reaches the ground, to maximize time under tension.

Suitcase Deadlift

Who knew holding luggage could host so much benefits? This deadlift variation mimics lifting a heavy suitcase off the ground and delivers massive core and grip strength.

Using a barbell will challenge your grip to the extreme, as you’ll have to keep the long bar level and engage some rarely used grip and forearm muscles.

When to Do It

What’s interesting with this exercise is that it provides unilateral benefits for your upper body. It can improve core and bracing strength, most notably in your obliques via anti-lateral flexion, but also your upper back and lat posture and strength. If you feel you lack core strength or have upper-back imbalances, include this variation as supplemental exercise or as your core movement of choice.

How to Do It

Stand next to a heavy dumbbell or a barbell. Grab it and, if using a barbell, take extra care to hold it right in the middle for stability. Brace your whole body and perform a standard deadlift. It may seem simple, but you can’t just rip it off the floor if you want to reap the benefits. Remain level and don’t allow your body to bend toward one side or the other. This will demand a great deal of bracing and core strength. Do not rush your reps, and do not use heavier weight until you’re sure you can maintain perfect posture.

Using a barbell will also require lots of grip and wrist stability to balance the barbell. If you tend to fail deadlifts because of a weak grip, consider this variation. Having stronger grip and forearms will also improve elbow and shoulder health at the same time.

Reeves Deadlift

Also called a “pinch-grip deadlift,” this variation gets its name from bodybuilder and actor Steve Reeves. He was known to deadlift while holding a barbell by the plates, to exacerbate upper back and forearm strength.

If you’re up for an unconventional yet highly effective lift, try it. Think of the Reeves deadlift as a more intense variation of the snatch-grip deadlift, with a major grip strength challenge added to the mix.

When to Do It

This tough exercise is even more difficult than the snatch-grip deadlift, and amplifies its benefits and weaknesses. Forget all hope of lifting really heavy with this one. But if you want to vastly improve your grip and forearm strength, as well as your lats, rhomboids, and middle traps, this is the right choice.

How to Do It

Load a barbell and grab it by the holes in the plates, which would be a very wide grip. If the weight plates don’t have cutout holes, grab the lip of the plate. If you want to increase the load, use one 45-pound plate to grip, followed by smaller plates afterwards.

Pack your scapulas (shoulder blades) back and down and hold a neutral posture for the whole lift. If you don’t have extra-long arms, consider using a trap bar as they are shorter than a standard barbell. 

Muscles Worked by the Deadlift

This total-body lift is one of the few movements that recruits most of the muscles throughout your body. Even though these variations emphasize some muscles more than others, all of the following muscles will actively participate in any deadlift exercise.

Legs

Your quadriceps, hamstrings, and even your calves will be recruited during the deadlift. The hamstrings are a series of posterior muscles that flex or bend your knees. They also help extend the hips in conjunction with the glutes. In the deadlift, your hamstrings assist the glutes in driving the weight up from the bottom position by extending the hips.

long-haired person in gym doing deadlift

Credit: YAKOBCHUK VIACHESLAV / Shutterstock

The quadriceps are among the biggest and strongest muscles in the body. This group of four muscles goes from the tibia on top of the knee and ends up on the top of the femur (thigh bone) or the hip. They extend your knee, and as such, the more flexed your knees will be during any variation, the more your quadriceps will be trained. The calves, the muscles on the back of the lower leg, also assist the upper legs by extending the ankles.

Glutes

Like any hip hinge, the glutes will be heavily involved in the deadlift. The gluteus maximus, medius, and minimus are a group of three large muscles that govern hip movement. In the deadlift, their main role is to extend the hips — bringing the body from a bent-over position to an upright posture.

Back

Even though you’re not pulling with your upper body or arms, several back muscles contribute to the deadlift. The latissimus dorsi (lats), the biggest back muscle, are engaged to provide spinal stability and maintain a strong arm position. Your trapezius, rhomboids, and rear deltoids across your upper back all work in conjunction to protect your shoulder joints and guide the barbell along its path. The wider your grip will be, the more these muscles will contribute to the exercise.

Erector Spinae

Sometimes called the spinal erectors, this is considered the “lower back,” when it’s actually a length of muscle that goes from the pelvis up to the base of the skull. This postural muscle helps keep the spine in place and also contributes to hip extension. It will work primarily to stabilize your upper body in the deadlift.

If your back rounds over during the deadlift, you put the erector spinae into a more active role and increase the risk of injury. You don’t want to use them as the prime mover during a deadlift.

Abdominals

Your abdominals work together with the erector spinae to form your “core” and provide a stable upper body. The abs control torso rotation and flexion (bending forward), as well as resisting extension (leaning backward). During the deadlift, your abs are highly active to maintain a neutral spine position.

Forearms

Your forearm muscles (wrist flexors and wrist extensors) are responsible for your grip strength, which is a big part of the deadlift. Some of these variations will challenge it even more, through thick handles or a wider grip.

Deadlift Form Tips

The deadlift can seem like a daunting task, but as long as you’re following these cues, you can get bigger and stronger, safely and efficiently. A very common flaw is to try to “squat” the deadlift, meaning lifting with your hips very low as if you were performing a squat. This will result in an inefficient bar path and strength leakage, making the exercise less effective.

You have to move around the bar, not the other way around. If you deadlift with low hips, you will either push the barbell away from you to avoid your knees or you’ll shoot your hips up first and perform a pure hip hinge afterwards.

person in gym bending forward with barbell in hands

Credit: YAKOBCHUK VIACHESLAV / Shutterstock

If you want to be optimal and efficient, remember that the starting position of the deadlift is not the same as the squat. Your hips have to be higher, your knees only slightly bent, and your shoulders directly over or slightly in front of the bar. If your hips and your shoulders raise at the same time, and the bar follows a straight path, then you know you’re doing right.

Another dreadful and potentially dangerous form issue is to round the back. Experienced lifters can sometimes use this technique in very specific and deliberate contexts, but in general, you should deadlift with a stiff and neutral back if you want to minimize the risk of injuries.

To help you engage your lats and keep a flat back, think about bending the bar like a horseshoe or think of squeezing imaginary balls under your armpits. Keep your chest puffed and your shoulder blades packed. Hold a big breath of air in your belly and brace your core as much as you can during the lift.

Deadlift Yourself Up

Now you have no excuses not to fit some form of this quintessential exercise into your training plan. The deadlift is a fundamental movement that should be done by every lifter. Whether you’re a beginner, a gym veteran, an athlete, or someone that just wants to pack on some more muscle, now you can find a variation that will benefit your goals and situation. 

References

  1. Cholewicki J, McGill SM, Norman RW. Lumbar spine loads during the lifting of extremely heavy weights. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1991 Oct;23(10):1179-86. PMID: 1758295.
  2. Martín-Fuentes I, Oliva-Lozano JM, Muyor JM. Electromyographic activity in deadlift exercise and its variants. A systematic review. PLoS One. 2020 Feb 27;15(2):e0229507. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0229507. PMID: 32107499; PMCID: PMC7046193.
  3. Krzysztofik M, Wilk M, Wojdała G, Gołaś A. Maximizing Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review of Advanced Resistance Training Techniques and Methods. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Dec 4;16(24):4897. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16244897. PMID: 31817252; PMCID: PMC6950543.
  4. Manca A, Dragone D, Dvir Z, Deriu F. Cross-education of muscular strength following unilateral resistance training: a meta-analysis. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2017 Nov;117(11):2335-2354. doi: 10.1007/s00421-017-3720-z. Epub 2017 Sep 21. PMID: 28936703.
  5. Peterson MD, Pistilli E, Haff GG, Hoffman EP, Gordon PM. Progression of volume load and muscular adaptation during resistance exercise. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2011 Jun;111(6):1063-71. doi: 10.1007/s00421-010-1735-9. Epub 2010 Nov 27. PMID: 21113614; PMCID: PMC4215195.
  6. Swinton PA, Stewart AD, Keogh JW, Agouris I, Lloyd R. Kinematic and kinetic analysis of maximal velocity deadlifts performed with and without the inclusion of chain resistance. J Strength Cond Res. 2011 Nov;25(11):3163-74. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e318212e389. PMID: 21993040.

Featured Image: BAZA Production

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October 28, 2022

How to Do the Trap Bar Deadlift — Variations, Benefits, and Common Mistakes

Filed under: Fitness,Training — Tags: , , , , , — admin @ 1:37 pm

In growing numbers, most commercial gyms are adding at least one trap bar to their arsenal of available equipment. As a gym member, you should be counting your blessings.

With all of the unique benefits a trap bar can provide for almost every serious lifter, there’s a good case to make for it to become the number one tool for lower body training. Sorry, barbell, you had a good run.

person in gym doing deadlift
Credit: carlesmiro / Shutterstock

Though the trap bar can be used for a handful of different exercises, its most commonly put to use for the highly effective trap bar deadlift. Here’s how to get started.

How to Do the Trap Bar Deadlift

The trap bar is typically a hexagonal shape with two long necks on either end for plate loading and a set of handles at the sides. There are often two types of handles on each end, one elevated higher than the other depending on the bar’s orientation.

The trap bar can work well with either the higher handles facing upward or the higher handles facing the floor. In gym-speak, this is referred to as pulling “high handle” or “low handle” and each has its merits. Here’s more about the movement.

Step 1 — Get Set to Pull

Flip the trap bar with the high handles up, which provides a shorter range of motion as you get the hang of the exercise. Step inside the trap bar with a stance that fits your comfort. Something around hip-width is most common for lifters using a barbell, but when you’re lifting a trap bar, a slightly wider stance — between hip-width and shoulder-width — is a more ideal position. With your feet lined up with one another, reach down and grab the handles.

Be sure to hold the bar in the center of the handles for a balanced grip. Since it’s a large cradle, going off center by even a half an inch can cause the trap bar to tip forward or back, which can wreak havoc on your strength and stability.

Form tip: If your gym has them, load the bar with bumper plates if you’re not yet able to lift 45-pound plates on either side. Lighter bumper plates are still the same size as 45-pound iron plates; they provide the proper elevation off the ground to make for the ideal lifting point. Smaller plates will extend the lift’s range of motion, making it a harder and more limiting exercise.

Step 2 — Get Tight

muscular person in gym preparing to deadlift trap bar
Credit: boyceperformance / YouTube

Set your back position and “wedge” yourself into position. To do this, drop your hips down while keeping your heels on the floor. Think about making your spine “long” by sticking your butt out and simultaneously pushing your chest up tall. Think about squeezing your armpits tight to engage your upper back musculature at the same time.

You should feel tension building in your upper back, arms, glutes, and legs. Take a big breath in and hold it before beginning the lifting phase.

Form tip: Keep your knees in line with your toes. It’s okay if your knees end up a bit in front of them, but they must point in the same direction as your toes to reduce strain on your knee and hip joints.

Step 3 — Pull Up

muscular person in gym doing trap bar deadlift
Credit: boyceperformance / YouTube

Dig your feet into the floor, squeeze your glutes and quads, and stand tall with the weight. Your glutes will tell you when you’ve reached full extension. There’s no need to lean backward or overarch your lumbar spine. Once you’re near the top, exhale as you approach lockout.

Your shoulders, hips, and legs should end up nearly in alignment in the top position. Pause briefly to ensure a strong, stable posture and to minimize any swaying of the weights.

Form tip: Keep your arms straight throughout the entire repetition. Pulling a deadlift with bent arms not only reduces your power output, but dangerously increases stress on the relatively smaller biceps muscle and elbow joint.

Step 4 — Lower the Weight

muscular person in gym doing trap bar deadlift
Credit: boyceperformance / YouTube

Reverse the motion to lower the weight under control. It’s important to remain tight and braced the entire way back down. Think about “sticking your butt out” to ensure your back stays flat and doesn’t round as you descend.

Form tip: As you approach the ground, you have the option to either let the weight briefly glance off the ground (sometimes referred to as “touch and go”) or to freeze and let the weight settle on the floor between reps. Each is valid and perfectly acceptable. What’s not acceptable is lowering quickly and actively bouncing off the floor to use the rebound as momentum, making the next repetition easier.

Trap Bar Deadlift Mistakes to Avoid

Simply following the instructions on proper execution will leave you ahead of the game when it comes to avoiding mistakes, but there are still a few things to consider.

Losing Control of Your Knees

The safe and efficient execution of the trap bar deadlift requires your knees and toes to be aligned. It’s unfortunately very common for knees to cave inward during deadlift. This isn’t ideal as it will place stress on the wrong places (like the medial sides of your knee joint).

person in gym doing trap bar deadlift
Credit: MDV Edwards / Shutterstock

Part of the issue may be in the footwear being used. Too much cushioning, as well as too little support, can highlight the instability of a lifter’s feet and arches. Your knee will almost always follow the arch of your foot. In the event of arch collapse, your knees will be guaranteed to move in toward each other, especially if serious amounts of weight are being lifted.

Avoid it: Be sure to choose good quality, flat footwear that still offers enough support. Furthermore, help yourself by creating a “tripod” with your feet — raise your arches, spread the toes, and dig in to the ground during your initial setup.

Forgetting Your Head Position

You might get so transfixed on your lumbar and thoracic spine(lower and upper back, respectively) that your forget your head is directly connected to another crucial part of the spine — the cervical region. Respecting proper spinal alignment, from top to bottom, is integral to a safe lift.

long-haired person in gym doing deadlift
Credit: YAKOBCHUK VIACHESLAV / Shutterstock

Many lifters will use the sky or ceiling as their “target,” thinking that looking at the place they want to finish will help them through the lift. Though this might help as a visual cue, it isn’t a wise course of action to lift something heavy from the floor while your neck is in full extension (looking upward). Doing so can strain the smaller support muscles of your neck and excessively stress the cervical spine.

Avoid it: Pick a spot two meters (roughly six or seven feet) in front of you on the ground and focus on that spot. It may even help to place an object like your water bottle or cell phone there. Since your head will instinctively follow your eyes, this will keep your neck in the right position.

How to Progress the Trap Bar Deadlift

The trap bar deadlift is adaptable to lifters of many experience levels and abilities. To more finely tune your practice and master the exercise, there are a few specific progressions to consider.

Elevated Trap Bar Deadlift

Adjusting the bar height can be a critical step to customizing your range of motion. If you’re well above-average height, even the high handles might be too low to properly get into a safe and strong pulling position. Placing steps or platforms under each side of the weight plates can put the bar into better alignment.

Of course, it’s essential that you raise both sides to the same height. Double-check your bar before beginning a set to make sure it’s level. An imbalanced bar will put you in an asymmetrical pulling position which would make proper technique nearly impossible.

Deficit Trap Bar Deadlift

Once you’ve mastered the trap bar deadlift (and truly mastered it, not simply gotten tired of learning proper form), you can eventually tackle one of the most challenging progressions, provided you’ve built significant mobility and muscle control.

By standing on a plate or small platform, you increase the range of motion. This is a drastic challenge to total-body mobility, stability, and strength. This can also be used to “bridge the gap” between the high handles and low handles, allowing a more incremental change in the range of motion.

Benefits of the Trap Bar Deadlift

Any type of deadlift is, rightfully, known as an undeniable total-body strength-builder. Because of the postural differences and varied muscle recruitment between a trap bar deadlift and a barbell deadlift, these benefits can be amplified.(2)

Building Better Posture

The trap bar deadlift can be a great way to improve your posture while building strength. Particularly, maintaining a stronger spine is crucial for lifters as they age.(3) For most lifters, the trap bar will be a more accessible version of pulling from the floor and it can allow a lifter to continue training heavy without excessive lower back strain.

Better for Mobility Issues

If you’re a lifter who struggles to achieve the mobility or flexibility for a conventional barbell deadlift, the high handles of the trap bar coupled with its neutral grip will allow you to much more easily attain the correct starting position. This lets you get into a powerful and efficient pulling position with less joint strain.

Ideal Position for Tall Lifters

The trap bar deadlift is a staple movement among professional sports athletes, who often carry larger levers and taller frames. Think of the typical NBA or NFL player — big overall frames often with long limbs.

If you’re a taller or long-legged lifter, you’ll probably be counting your blessings by incorporating the trap bar deadlift instead of force-feeding your oversized body a barbell deadlift. The mobility demands and overall body position, once again, become the movement’s biggest saving grace.

Versatile Strength-Builder

Plainly put, this lift is great for everyone in the gym. Whether it’s a lifter who can’t quite get the flexibility or mobility for a barbell deadlift, a taller lifter with unfavorable leverages for the deadlift pattern, or a strength- or size-focused trainee who’s looking to get more out of a deadlift as far as quadriceps strength and development go.

The trap bar deadlift, with all things equal, is one of the few “do no wrong” exercises that can be invaluable to pretty much anyone’s program.

Muscles Worked in the Trap Bar Deadlift

The deadlift is a movement that spares very few muscles , from gripping the bar with your hands, to stabilizing your core and upper back, to driving wth your legs. However, it is predominantly a lower body movement.

Quadriceps

When performing a trap bar deadlift, there’s one major change to the muscles involved compared to the more familiar barbell deadlift. Since your body can sit a bit taller because your knees and shins can travel forward (due to no bar blocking them), it creates a deeper knee flexion and includes much more quadriceps involvement.(4)

This makes the trap bar deadlift a more complete leg exercise that, unlike the barbell deadlift, isn’t as biased toward the glutes and hamstrings. This is also important information to consider if you struggle with squatting in general, or if you’re dealing with an upper body injury that prevents barbell squatting from being on the menu.

Posterior Chain

Any deadlift movement will heavily recruit the muscles of the posterior chain — especially the glutes, hamstrings, and lower back. However, the overall body position during a trap bar deadlift actually reduces lower back recruitment compared to the barbell movement.

The neutral-grip of the trap bar disperses weight more evenly across your body, decreasing the lower back strain, while your glutes and hamstrings are significantly recruited during hip extension to lift the weight and achieve a locked out position.

How to Program the Trap Bar Deadlift

There’s a little bit less wiggle room here compared to other movements in the gym. The trap bar deadlift usually serves as a substitution to the more common deadlift and is best programmed similarly.

Heavy Weight, Lower Volume

The trap bar deadlift is a huge movement that typically enables a lifter to move the greatest amount of weight possible as far as plate-loaded free weight exercises go. It’s best positioned at or near the very beginning of your workout. That’s when your central nervous system will be the sharpest, enabling the greatest outputs of power and strength.

It’s also when your body as a whole will be the freshest compared to later in the workout. It invites a bit more risk to train a deadlift while fatigued near the end of a workout.

Apply a fair amount of intensity and volume to the trap bar deadlift as the “leading” movement in your lower body workout. Let the remaining lifts of the day serve as “assistance exercises” that take on relatively less volume with lower intensity. A heavy strength workout with the trap bar would be five sets of five, six sets of four, or even eight sets of three, using weight between 85 and 90% of your one-repetition max.

Trap Bar Deadlift Variations

Technically, the trap bar deadlift could be considered a “variation” of the barbell deadlift. However, there are other exercises the compare to the trap bar deadlift for variety and a range of separate benefits.

Low Handle Trap Bar Deadlift

Going “low handle” with the trap bar deadlift is in order once you’ve mastered the standard version of the movement. This will be the first variation most lifters progress to. Keep aware that low handles properly will mean having the requisite mobility to maintain a flat spine.

If you can’t do it, don’t sweat it. Continue going with the high handle and working on your mobility and flexibility until you can safely achieve a deep position with a flat back.

Heels-Elevated Dumbbell Squat

It can be beneficial to lower body health, strength, and size to let your knees go into deep flexion using the right movements. Many gyms have specific a slant board which puts your feet into a forward slope, creating more room for your knee to travel forward while your torso stays upright.

This is huge knee-strengthener and a major quad-developer, but the position takes some getting used to because many lifters have engrained “knees behind toes” for much of their lifting career. Practicing this exercise with light weights is a great way to prepare for the transition from straight bar deadlifts to a trap bar, especially if you’ve done a lot of barbell deadlifting in your days.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the difference between the trap bar deadlift and a barbell deadlift?

The trap bar involves a cradle that surrounds you, rather than a straight bar that rests in front of you when deadlifting. This distinction makes for a few major differences when it comes to the overall execution and geometry of the lift.

In any big lift, the goal should be for the weight’s center of mass to be positioned over your feet (or within the lifter’s “footprint”). This will be the strongest and most efficient way to move the weight with the lowest potential for risk.

In the case of a straight barbell, your shoulder blades need to be positioned over the bar for forces to be properly transferred up the body to support the weight’s vertical path. To achieve this starting position, your shins need to remain fairly vertical which will make for a more angled torso position (a deeper “hinge” at the hip joint).

Comparatively, the trap bar doesn’t block your shins from traveling forward, so your knees can position themselves more naturally forward and your hips can drop for a deeper seated position, resulting in a taller torso with less lumbar strain.

Also, a barbell asks for a double overhand grip (palm down) in front of the body. That keeps your shoulders in an internally rotated position while bearing load, which can strain the shoulder joints. A trap bar allows a lifter to use a neutral-grip (palms facing each other), which can be better for shoulder health and overall posture. It’s also slightly less challenging to your grip strength.

Lastly, using the high handles in the trap bar can reduce the pulling space and overall range of motion, which can suit taller lifters and beginners. All of this explains why many lifters’ trap bar deadlifts are stronger than their barbell deadlifts.

Why do some trap bars look so different from others?

When it comes to individual trap bars, the manufacturer of the bar can make a significant difference. For some trap bars, the entire cradle is longer and the bar’s total mass is heavier — one unloaded bar might weigh 40 pounds while another weighs 75 pounds before you add any plates.

Some trap bars have taller high handles, while others are lower. Some can even rotate. Some bars have a wider hexagon, making the handles farther apart, while other brands are a bit tighter to your body.

All of these things need to be taken into consideration when it comes to tracking your numbers and paving the way to progressive overload. It may end up that you’re lifting much more (or less) than you think if you’re using the guide of a classic 45-pound Olympic bar as your reference point. Do your best to know the weight and dimensions of the trap bar you most consistently use.

Step into the Trap Bar

The trap bar deadlift is a go-to movement for lower body strength and muscle development. As long as you have the key points down pat, this is a game changer for making the deadlift accessible to lifters who otherwise may be frustrated with the movement. If your gym has this wonderful piece of equipment, put it to good use rather than let it collect dust in the rack. This is the one move in the gym that deserves much more popularity and much less disrespect.

References

  1. Valleser, Christian Wisdom & Santos, Garizaldy. (2017). EFFECT OF DEADLIFT TRAINING ON CORE STRENGTH IN PREVIOUSLY-UNTRAINED MALES. Journal of Physical Education Research. 4. 10-18.
  2. Lake, J., Duncan, F., Jackson, M., & Naworynsky, D. (2017). Effect of a Hexagonal Barbell on the Mechanical Demand of Deadlift Performance. Sports (Basel, Switzerland), 5(4), 82. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports5040082
  3. Carpenter, D. M., & Nelson, B. W. (1999). Low back strengthening for the prevention and treatment of low back pain. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 31(1), 18–24. https://doi.org/10.1097/00005768-199901000-00005
  4. Camara, K. D., Coburn, J. W., Dunnick, D. D., Brown, L. E., Galpin, A. J., & Costa, P. B. (2016). An Examination of Muscle Activation and Power Characteristics While Performing the Deadlift Exercise With Straight and Hexagonal Barbells. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 30(5), 1183–1188. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000001352

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