Currently doing my modified 4-day Texas method routine, where I deadlift twice a week: volume one day, intensity one day. I’m doing trap bar deadlifts, and to spice things up I do low handles/high handles/deficit from a 3’’ platform on a rotating schedule.
Did deficit lifts yesterday. My left knee is kinda feeling it though, and while it’s not that big of a deal, I’m wondering if this would work (mind you, I’m not good at theorycrafting!):
I want a big trap bar deadlift, and it seems to me that you need the most quad recruitment in the beginning of the lift. Could I, therefore, do sumo deadlifts instead of deficit trap bar lifts?
Well for one sumo makes you gay, so you shouldn’t use it unless that’s your thing (JK I pull 550 sumo).
The deficit is quite aggressive, try maybe just a 1" deficit. The transfer to the initial pull off the floor will be much greater than with a huge deficit that alters the mechanics of the lift…
Yeah. I simply happened to have a suitable 3’’ thick piece of glulam left after I built a workbench, so it became my deficit platform (even gave it a handle to make it easier to carry around!). However, it does change the lift into something else - probably an ugly squat I do not have the mobility to handle properly - and if every third deadlift session I do is a quad thing anyway I figure I might as well sumo for the sake of variety.
Sumo is a great exercise, and I have seen many lifters see transfer from Sumo to the initial pull of the floor in conventional deads.
I have no idea whether sumo will give superior quad gains in comparison to trap bar deads or if sumo will work better for the initial pull of the floor in trap bar deads.
I do know though, that a slight deficit will strengthen the initial pull of the floor, and wont fuck up the form of your trap bar deads
In the end, it has to make sense, be practical and inspiring to you.
