Trap Bar Deadlift: Friend or Foe?

by Mitch Hauschildt, MA, ATC, CSCS

For one reason or another, I have found myself in the same discussion a lot lately, either online or in person, regarding whether or not the trap bar deadlift is a good movement or not.  I have had conversations with our staff at Missouri State, with another collegiate strength and conditioning staff, and with several brilliant fitness professionals who are friends of mine via online conversations.  The great thing about all of the conversations (and our profession for that matter) is that everyone seems to have a slightly different opinion as to why they feel the way that they do and for most part can justify it. I decided that given the ongoing discussions, I should just go ahead and explain my thoughts on the Trap Bar Deadlift.

Before I go further, I do want to state clearly that for the most part I believe that there are no bad exercises; just bad times and/or ways to implement an exercise. So, if you like to use a specific movement and have a good reason for using it, then by all means, go ahead use it.

The arguments for a trap bar deadlift that I hear are:

• Simplicity: Most coaches that I know who use the trap bar love it because it is a pretty simple movement to teach.
• Positioning: Because the hands are placed in a neutral position and the load is placed in line with the center of mass (instead of out in front), it puts athletes at a perceived mechanical advantage (at least in the athlete’s mind).
• Mobility: Closely related to the positioning argument, those people who have some sort of a mobility restriction (can be upper or lower extremity) can usually utilize the trap bar much more easily that a traditional barbell.
• Load: Because of the reasons listed above, most coaches feel that they can add a big load to their athletes quickly, which can add strength and lean muscle mass fast.
• Teaching Tool: Some coaches find that the trap bar can be successfully used as a teaching progression for both the RDL and the Squat because of its unique grip and load properties.

The arguments against a trap bar deadlift seem to be as follows:

• Hip Position: Because the load is shifted more towards the center of mass, a trap bar deadlift tends to be more of a quad dominant deadlift than a traditional barbell deadlift. Quad dominance has been associated with ACL tears, poor pelvic position, core dysfunction and even foot issues.
• Load: The same reason that can be used as an advantage of the trap bar can also be seen as a disadvantage. Someone who isn’t absolutely ready for a larger load, should not allowed to utilize a tool which helps them accelerate the amount of load which they are carrying.  Gray Cook would call this “layering strength on top of dysfunction.”
• Positioning; Again, the argument above can be used both for and against the use of the trap bar. If someone doesn’t have the mobility to perform what many consider a proper deadlift, then they shouldn’t be loading a dysfunctional movement pattern and reinforcing the mobility restriction.
• Functionality: For the most part, we don’t lift heavy objects with them at our sides, especially symmetrically (unless we are doing a lot of farmer’s carries), thus the trap bar deadlift isn’t functional because it doesn’t teach a proper hip hinge, which is important for athletes and the general population alike.

My Assessment:

For me, the hip position is the most important part of this argument. As someone who has studied injury prevention practices extensively over the years, I take the injury risk associated with quad dominance seriously, which is why I tend to shy away from the trap bar deadlift. I don’t want to feed a dysfunctional pattern at all if I can at help it.

During my discussions I have raised this point, and the most successful argument against the argument is that as long as they are doing a lot of other hip hinging movements to reinforce hip dominance, it shouldn’t be an issue because they are essentially out training the quad dominance with hip dominance by also performing Kettlebell swings, bridging, RDLs, Glute Ham Raises and a variety of other movements to improve hip function.

While I can see and appreciate their thought process, I personally don’t get a enough time with my athletes to be performing movements that I have then augment with other movements to improve their poor mechanics.

I find myself consistently only having time to perform dense, highly effective exercises that accomplish one very specific task…Improve a  movement pattern and then load it.

I also understand the argument that some athletes can’t perform a barbell deadlift well because of one reason or another, so loading them with a trap bar is one of the only ways that they can deadlift. My response to this argument is, “Why can’t they perform a barbell deadlift correctly?”  Typically it is a mobility issue. If this is true, loading the mobility issue is layering strength on top of their dysfunction. That is a recipe for disaster.

More and more, I am coming to believe that some people just aren’t meant to deadlift.  The people who immediately come to mind are our very tall basketball players.  The lengths of their limbs puts them at a disadvantage, making a deadlift a poor choice for them.  I personally wouldn’t deadlift that individual, but I would also argue that if I really want to deadlift with them, then I should make a modification, such as bringing the floor up to them via some jerk boxes.

The final part of this discussion that I want to address is the functionality of the deadlift. I get that some personal trainers work with housewives who just want to look good in a bathing suite. They don’t care if they have good lifting mechanics and aren’t concerned with where their next injury may come from. At this point, I do believe that the trap bar deadlift makes more sense for this population than anyone else. There is a strong correlation between lean muscle mass and burning fat, so I get that the more muscle they can build, even in suboptimal patterns is advantageous for their goals. My only concern with this point is that while the housewife may not care about proper lifting mechanics most of the time, they will care when they lift their 50lb suitcase wrong and hurt themselves on the way to their Hawaiian vacation. Function is probably the biggest reason in my mind for everyone to lift heavy and get strong, but it is also the biggest reason to do it correctly.

To be fair, I mentioned that my biggest reason against the trap bar deadlift is that I dislike anything that promotes quad dominance. I don’t want to be hypocritical with my argument, because I am also a big fan of the front squat, which is also a more quad dominant positioning than a back squat.   So, I want to clear this up for those who know me and know how much I like the front squat. The reason I like the front squat so much is because it is a self limiting exercise. If you get into trouble with a front squat, you simply dump the weight and save your back, shoulders and whatever else you were about to injure. The same cannot be said for the back squat. Thus, for a lot of people (especially the inexperienced lifter), the safety of the front squat outweighs the risk of the quad dominance, especially when performed in conjunction with hip dominant movements.

Overall, I don’t hate the trap bar deadlift by any means. I just think that there are better alternatives for my athletes. But, if you love it, have a good reason for it, can justify it and aren’t seeing issues with injuries, then feel free to keep using it. For me, I’ll likely stay away until a stronger argument comes along that changes my opinion.

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