Trap bar dead only if you don’t compete in powerlifting?

This week’s question comes from…us.

If you’re not competing in powerlifting, are there any good reasons to deadlift with a straight bar rather than at trap bar? What would you be giving up, and what would you be gaining? If you do compete, should you do trap bar deads at all?

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Episode Transcript

(00:07):
Welcome to One Good Question our Fridayepisodes of Facts. This week this is
this is a self generated question.I haven't seen anybody ask it anywhere,
but it's worth talking about for sure. The question is, if you were
not planning to compete in powerlifting,Yeah, should you do a regular deadlift

(00:34):
if you have access to a trapbar? Yeah? I think yeah,
trap bar versus deadlift or even likeconventional versus sumo, there's kind of like
three options. Yeah. I thinkshould is just so basic, right,
so, like, yeah, arewe focusing on physique? Do we care
about strength? I do think thatthe straight bar conventional deadlift has probably the

(00:55):
best like forced levers to grow hammyand glute strength and all around connect because
as soon as you get into thetrap bar, depending on how you pull
it. Obviously, if you havereally good body control, you can do
it however you want. But majorityof folks the benefit is that you can
get more upright torso yeah, butthen you're taking away your hammies and glutes

(01:17):
like you're still using them, butit's a lot more quad driven, and
then it's like a lower loaded squat. So tons of athletes and stuff.
I think it's great because you know, you can hop onto a machine.
It really is like personal previence becausethen you can hop on a leg,
curl and work your hammies separate.You can do an RDL with a cable
or dumbbells and hit your hinge.But I think the biggest thing for me

(01:40):
is that a conventional straight bar deadliftis probably the best hinge in the game.
Okay, but the trap bar becauseit's not a direct replacement, although
it is a deadlift. Yeah,same with like a dump squad people would
call it, but that's kind oflike a sumo deadlift people call it it.
I think a dump squad where it'slike a kettlebell between your legs,
so you're kind of sumo stance.But again, like even the sumo deadlift

(02:04):
is more quad dominant than hammy andglute compared to the conventional so it depends
what you're kind of focusing on.For a long time, people thought the
sumo hit more glutes, but itliterally just doesn't. We have to look
at range of motion of the ofthe hip itself and the hip extension,
and then you know how much kneebends happening, and the sumo obviously depending
on levers of your arms. Thetruth is, and we I literally just

(02:28):
did the YouTube on it, Like, you don't need a deadlift at all.
Picking up something off the ground isprobably good. You know, there's
probably nothing bad there. But iflike you're just worried about your physique or
even general movement, I mean,you can do lunges and stuff, right
that gets you through a deeper rangeof motion of kind of picking something off
the ground. You don't have toperfectly emulate that, but right now I'm

(02:49):
kind of like that, right.I don't compete and bodybuilding, power lifting,
I don't compete in shit but life. And I conventional deadlift because I
enjoy it. I conventional deadlift becauseI think it's just like one of the
best like pure strength movements. Uh. And then it's my main hanmy and
glute movement. A thing to sayfor trap bar deadlifts, the load is
more central to your body, soyou just see, you can you can

(03:12):
be more upright. You have lessneed of a belt often, yeah,
because you're more upright. Less you'reupright sure, and your arms are like
kind of at your hips already,or a conventional deadlift, your arms are
going to kind of be in frontof you kind of torquing on your rigidity
or torso testing it. And thenumber of people that I have seen over
the course of the time that I'vebeen been involved in powerlifting who've actually hurt

(03:36):
their lower back. Deadlifting is relativelylow ybe maybe hurt, but maybe not
injured. Right. However, ifyou're someone prone to lower back stuff,
and you know, usually that's youknow, related to strength, but sometimes
it's you know, arthritis or there'syou have a disc problem or whatever,

(03:57):
a trap bar deadlift does really loadyour lower back the same way, Yeah,
which is good and bad. Right. It's good because you're not going
to hurt your low back or feeltension, But it's bad because your low
back probably has to be in acompromise position to really train the hammies,
right right. That's kind of likethe we're moving these scales of what you
need. So if that's the thing, like you should be working on strengthening

(04:18):
that another way. Yeah, Yeah, you definitely could do a cable ar,
dumb belts, lighter loads, moremanipulative, like you can move the
weights around how you need. Yeah, but again, like, yeah,
what makes a dead conventional deadlift goodis also what makes it like difficult and
like I guess I hate to sayit, but yeah, like a hair
sketchy Because the truth is, youlook at all the data, and Jim

(04:40):
just said it, you look atlike legitimate empihicle data rather than our anecdotal
fifteen years thirty years together training.Literally, it goes like the safest activities
on the planet go walking, bodybuilding, powerlifting, and then I think swimming.
I think swimming. There's more realinjuries than fucking powershold yeah, just
yeah, repetition, right, orlike lungs who knows what? Or like

(05:03):
because you're kicking force more stuff onyour joints there, like moving shit faster
baseball. Who has the most doubleshoulder issues ever? Baseball? Right,
it's not heavy weights, it's whippingthat shit fast. And yeah, water
kind of stops that. Actually,resistance probably helps it a little bit,
right, because sprinters get injured morethan swimmers. Why is that because they're

(05:24):
throwing force with no resistance. Swimmingthere's light resistance in you're throwing force.
And you can look it all theway. If I go sprint right now,
my chance to rip my hammi isway high. If I sprint with
the sled chances go down. Resistancetraining is insanely safe and even the deadlift,
despite many podcasts and many people onbodybuilders and people in the world saying
it's not, they're literally just wrong. I find that right right now I

(05:48):
can pull more with the drap barthan I can with the straight bar.
Yeah, I think you'd be practicebecause it's next to your it's sortady auto
in your mid foot. You couldprobably trap bar deadlift more than squad and
deadlift probably, so you know,that's everyone, that's everyone because and depending
on the height, a typical trapbar does have heightened hand handles all available.

(06:09):
Yeah, many have low ones aswell, but either way, Yeah,
it's dead midfoot, it's based aroundyou. You get to be more
upright. It's just more more leverageadvantageous. And we have the kabuki open
trap bar. Yeah it feels good. Yeah, you can kind of shrug
it, row with it, walkwith it. Even athletes, you know,
like most people can deadlift, youknow, and you don't have the

(06:31):
max deadlift to get the bennies fromit. But trap bar for someone who's
not a lifter is probably easier tooverload over time. Yeah, I hate
to say safer but it's probably easierto overload because the forms easier. Your
body just like gets into the perfectposition. You learn how to brace,
and you can you can trap ourdeadlift. Conventional deadlift is more technical,

(06:54):
and I think like people who havehave jobs picking up things, that's the
position that they try to get youto be right to pick things up.
Yeah, big boxes or whatever yougotta do. Yeah, so that you're
your center of gravity is like verymidline. I would I would probably throw
one of those in your repertoire ifyou want to have a good life base.
You know, a lot of peoplesay they train for life or whatever,

(07:15):
whether they do or not. Ifyou're purely aesthetic BAS, you can
probably ignore both to be honest,And then if you are trying to be
a powerlifter, I'd probably ignore thetrap bar. That's kind of where i'd
probably throw those categories. If yougot a job and try to do life,
you know, trap bar is probablyyour easiest best mixed or general athletics.
If you're a basketball player, etcetera, you could probably do either,

(07:35):
but probably lean towards the trap bar. If you're purely aesthetic BAS,
you could do either, but youdon't need either, and then if you're
a powerlifter, you just got toget your hand on a straight bar at
some point. Sounds good, Ladiesand gentlemen. New episodes every single Friday,
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(07:56):
catch you the next one. Iam at the Jim mcd and all those
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