Trap Bar Training: Part I
by Thom Van Vleck
Al Myers doing a 650 pound Trap Bar Deadlift at the 2010 USAWA National Championships.
I have been training for over 30 years. I realized the other day that I have competed in 5 different decades. My first meet was in 1979, so I have competed in the 70’s, the 80’s, 90’s, 00’s, and 10’s. Not sure if that makes me proud or makes me feel old! When you do the same thing for many years you need to do things to “change it up” and stay fresh. Not only by putting new physical demands on your body but more importantly, in my book, staying fresh mentally. I do two things to try and stay motivated and avoid a rut. I will travel to other gyms to train to get ideas and I will buy new equipment.
About a year ago, I bought a trap bar. I had never really used one in my training even though it was available at a gym I used to work out at. I had just considered it kind of a gimmick. I mean, aren’t you just deadlifting? When I first got it, I had used it to do some shrugs, some jump shrugs, and some “frame carry’s” (think “farmers walk”). But funny enough….I didn’t deadlift with it. My offseason training switched over to my throwing season as a Highland Games athlete and for man years that meant lots of throwing and no lifting. What I’m setting up here is that I had a trap bar, but had not used it in the way it was intended….deadlifting!
Then, in July, I traveled to the Ledaig Highland Games held by Dave Glasgow. Dave also held a USAWA record day that same weekend. On Monday I traveled to visit Wilbur Miller and then Tuesday I headed to Al’s Dino Gym for the “Big Tuesday” workout. My plan was to work out with Al and “steal” some secrets! HAHA.
Workout day arrived and I planned on doing whatever Al did. Now, I have to say, this throwing season I have been following Al’s training advice (after all, he WAS a world record holding PROFESSIONAL Highland Games thrower before his USAWA days!) and lifting heavy while “in season”. Something I had not done for some time. I mean, really, why would I go to Al’s and do my regular lifts when I’m there to learn.
One of the lifts we did was the trap bar deadlift. At first, I did not do well with it. I’m a decent deadlifter with a 640lb lift to my credit and I had recently pulled 555 with just a little work. It was an ego buster, and I ended up with a 551lb lift while Al shot up to 700! But then we did sets and reps and I began to get a feel for it. I realized a couple of things so when I got home I did a 4 week cycle on the trap bar deadlift and pulled a nice 645lb lift. I was ecstatic! I know that it doesn’t compare with the 640 I pulled about 10 years ago, but I was still thrilled.
Next up: Part II Trap bar training and the “rules”.