Why the Trap Bar Deadlift is Completely Useless

Bigger Stronger Leaner
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Left without comment:

EDIT: okay, can’t help myself… Silly old man.

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I can’t think of a single reason why I actually watched most of that video.

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The only positive is that the video is a mere 4 seconds under the 10 minute money-making length (is that still true?), so I guess he’s not doing it for the money?

Otherwise. Man, all of his acolytes and hangers on can’t be that dumb, to let him put this out?

Literally, if you wanted to discredit the man, you couldn’t do a better caricature than this -complete with the technical jargon BS.

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Odd that several strength coaches who train athletes would disagree…

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I haven’t trained the trap bar Deadlift so I won’t comment on the contents of the video.

One problem I noticed is:

Video: explains reasons why he thinks the regular barbell Deadlift is better than trap bar. Says things like “regular Deadlifts are more stable, a better option etc.”, goes on and ends with “the trap bar has some issues and is just optional”

Title: here’s why the trap bar Deadlift is completely useless

I don’t understand if he’s doing it as a click bait thing, or if he thinks that saying something isn’t the best option for a given goal and saying it’s utterly useless are equivalent?

Also, I used to listen to some of his podcasts last year and I knew something was off when he made a video criticizing the bent over barbell row, and his main point was “if you don’t touch the bar to your hips even by half an inch, the rep isn’t valid and therefore isn’t a training rep, so you might as well not have done it.” Wait, what?

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The basic issue is Rippetoe has a dogmatic approach. (I used “acolytes” for a specific reason.)

And he blindly twists things around to fit his dogma. It works with people who don’t know better, and he’s an entertaining presenter, so he’s been successful with it. Why change?

This is why Rippetoe has no successful athletes on his resume.

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Well, if I was talented enough to come up with a system so groundbreaking that it could show improvements in beginners, I’d believe the first thoughts that pop into my head as gospel and run with them too.

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Pulling with 1mm pads under the plates makes the deadlift less effective in the eyes of Mark Rippetoe. Same if you stood on 1mm pads. The deadlift is the most perfect movement and any changes to it only serve to make it less effective. Same of the squat, bench and press.

Man, Plato was lame 2000 years ago.

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I think sometimes he just likes to pull the pin on a given subject and chuck it into the crowd.

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Well regrading Marks groundbreaking system two words… Bill Starr

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This just in: pulling weight outside of your center of gravity is now less safe than pulling weight alongside your center of gravity.

This is the first Mark Rippetoe video I’ve ever watched in its entirety, and it was very difficult to get through, because he sounds so fucking self-righteous the whole time.

And was that his son doing the deadlifts?

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Or like he’s had a few.

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Just for context, Mark’s best total on openpowerlifting is around 1550lbs. Just putting it out there for people to judge as they see fit.

Edit: I should probably include the actual link:

Mark Rippetoe openpowerlifting page

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I know you’re being facetious, so not busting your balls.

If that were completely true, why do our arms stick out the sides and not protrude from the front?

It almost seems more natural to lift and carry farmers walk or trap bar style. He’s talking about a moment created by the design of the contraption (its not really a bar, it’s a frame) and completely ignores that it’s essentially neutral and the massive torque that pulling a bar puts on the spine.

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In all I will admit I respect the man. But that doesn’t mean I have to agree with 100% with what he says which is the mentality on line regarding anyone of note.

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There’s some decent lifts there for that time. Not world class or anything but decent. Was single ply…

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He’s no Jim Wendler. But he’s also no Jason Blaha.

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Single ply no less.

Edit: I see that was already mentioned, so let me just keep saying he is a silly man.

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I will let you call him anything you like.

The link was just provided for context on the results of his training methods. I don’t know enough about powerlifting to say whether they’re good or not.