How to Trap Bar Deadlift

It’s normal for people to incorporate strength training as a stress-relief tool. But when it comes to deadlifting, the goal is often to create as much tension as possible between you and the bar.

In this case, tension between you and the trap-bar deadlift is a good thing. The trap-bar deadlift is a relatively safe, but equally effective variation of arguably the most essential strength move in our exercise encyclopedia. Because of its design—with the handles alongside you as opposed to in front of you like a barbell—the trap bar gives you a much more natural pulling feel, while still allowing you to produce explosive power using a heavy load.

To do it requires the proper mechanics, says Men’s Health fitness director Ebenezer Samuel C.S.C.S., as he and fitness editor Brett Williams, N.A.S.M., demonstrate the essentials that help make the difference between nailing or failing a new PR.

“It’s going to be a lot easier and a lot more natural for you to pick up in the trap bar, you’re going to be able to get explosive with this, use it for power and still move some serious load,” Samuel says. Create some deadlift tension the proper way with these quick tips.

Know Your Position

The first key to a proper trap-bar deadlift, Samuel says, is aligning yourself with the bar: Make sure your shins are lined up directly with the center of the trap bar. You want to keep the weight in front of you—not behind you—so make sure to be a little bit in front of the bar to create optimum leverage. “Instantly you’ve got the weight out in front of you,” Samuel says. “And we want that weight center so that all we have to do when we deadlift is stand up.”

Men’s Health

The second step in proper positioning is pushing those glutes back as far as possible, then bending your knees before you approach the bar. From there, it’s critical that you get a good and hard grip on the bar. “Be aggressive, don’t let this hang in your fingers,” Samuel says. “You’re going to need all the strength and stability in this position, and holding the bar tightly is a major component.”

When it comes to head and neck positioning, a few options are available. While it’s not necessarily wrong to be looking up throughout the lift, Samuel says it could potentially lead to some neck discomfort. Instead, look to create a more neutral head position. (An additional tip, Samuel says, is to have a partner place a broomstick on top of you to find that proper deadlift alignment.)

Create Tension

Now that you have your glutes and grip set, create proper tension by protecting your shoulders and biceps. Samuel suggests squeezing your shoulder blades tight, then turning the pits of your elbows forward. “You’ve instantly turned on your rotator cuff musculature on, your lats. Now you want to carry all of this tension into the deadlift,” Samuel says.

Before you finally begin that pull, another tip Samuel suggests is to make sure your hips are lower than your shoulders. Get your hips higher than your shoulders, your back becomes the lever for the deadlift. “We don’t want that to happen,” Samuel says. “We want our hamstrings and glutes to drive this motion. And to do that, we’ve got to make sure that hips stay lower than shoulders.”

There’s one final point to mark off your checklist, an important one, Samuel says. Do not sabotage your setup by “diving down” with your arms in a misguided attempt to create more power. “There’s no point in doing that,” Samuel says. “As soon as you drop your arms, you lose your back position, your hips are higher, and you’ve lost all the tension you worked to create. You wasted everything you did before the rep.”

Want to master even more moves? Check out our entire Form Check series.