I have some amazon credit from selling back books and want to buy something for my home gym. I can get a good trap-bar and am strongly considering it. I have read before that the trap bar is good for people who have lower back issues. I don't have lower back issues, but I also don't care about competing in the lifts, so if it is a safer alternative I would be all for it. Anyway, just wondering what you guys think about it and its uses.
The trap bar is a good piece of equipment, its definitely enables a more "leg" driven deadlift when done with the hips starting low. The nice thing about it is that you can start with high hips like an rdl or sldl, or get down low, even put plates under your feet and make it into a squat type movement with the load in your hands.
I throw in trap bar work with athletes every now and then to give them a break from squatting for the week, and we also use it for jumps. One little trick if you decide to get one and do explosives with it is to make sure and start with the bar at the TOP, and include the dip. Having to stop and reverse the load quickly is key to getting more transfer to on court/field performance.
Ive never used it as a "main" lift for long enough to say whether or not it could replace squatting, front squats and back squats always take priority here for us but defranco and others have and swear by it. I think that if youre not doing much pulling, either power clean, power snatch, rdl, etc, then using the trap bar can fill that gap very nicely for athletes.
