Trap Bar
A great tool for Building Muscle!

A trap bar is another one of the better pieces of weight lifting equipment available. This is not a required piece of equipment, but it does allow you to do several compound exercises that are great muscle builders!


As an example, I use this weight bar for stiff legged deadlifts because I feel my hamstrings so much better with this exercise than other versions of the stiff legged deadlift. You can see my doing stiff legged deadlifts with the bar in the image above.


Mos people know this bar as only a weight bar that you can do shrugs with. Many people call this a shrug bar and have no idea the variety of exercises you can do with this bar.

A trap bar is simply a weight bar in a hexagonal shape that you can stand inside with parallel handles at your sides. I prefer to use this weight bar with the raised handles on the bottom side so the bar sits lower to the ground for better range of motion on deadlifts and stiff legged deadlifts.


With the raised handles on the bottom side, you can get better depth on your exercises! You can also load the bar with smaller weights like 25's and 10's if you want an even larger range of motion at the bottom of the exercise. Here's a picture of a bar without raised handles:

All you have to do is turn the bar over if your weight bar has raised handles. This will give you a bar without the offset handles.


The bar is designed for working your traps by doing shrugs with heavy weight. This special bar puts your arms at your sides for shrugs instead of in front or behind you with a regular barbell. I've found that you can do much more weight for shrugs with the handles at your sides instead of gripping a barbell from the front or rear.


Many people will and should argue that you can simply use dumbbells at your sides to get the same effect. There's something about using a shrug bar that allows you to use much heavier weight. Sometimes it's tough to find large enough dumbbells for shrugs at your side.


I personally never use the bar for shrugs. I don't specifically work my traps. I rely on heavy deadlifts to take care of the entire upper back area!

One of the best exercises you can do with this bar is a deadlift. It's a mix between a barbell squat and a regular barbell deadlift from the floor. It's a great exercise and comparable to the two best exercises out there: the squat and the deadlift! This exercise is called a trap bar deadlift. Many serious weight lifters abbreviate it as TBDL.


Many weight lifters choose a TBDL over a squat because the pressure is taken off the spine. Many people have trouble supporting weight that is sitting on their shoulders. The weight is held around hip height and is held in your hands and not on your upper back.


For those people that have back problems and can't support heavy weight on their shoulders, I recommend either TBDL or hip belt squats. Heavy weight does not have to be supported by your back and shoulders in both of these exercises!


In order to do deadlifts with this bar, you have to have the bar! This form of the deadlift gets your quads involved more than a regular barbell deadlift. You'll be able to feel the difference! I also suggest that people with weaknesses in thier quads use this exercise for their back depth exercise on the WLC Program.


Like I've already mentioned, you can also use this bar for stiff legged deadlifts and shrugs. You can also do romanian deadlfits. I'm sure there are other weight lifting exercises you can do, but I've never experimented with any others. Feel free to contact me if you know of any other exercises I should add to be used with this bar.

You can usually find them for $150 to $200 dollars without shipping. I think I paid $150 for mine, but it's been at least 3 or 4 years. I recommend you compare your options at Big Fitness and Amazon. I've provided links for you to do so below.

Bars & Attachments from Big Fitness

If you have trouble with barbell squats due to pain or injuries in the past, you might want to think about purchasing one of these to replace barbell squats. Or you can do hip belt squats instead for your quads. If you want to try stiff legged deadlifts with this shrug bar, I'm sure you'll be as happy with the new exercise as I am! I really feel those hamstrings due to the different hand and arm positions.

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