Exercise of the Week: Trap Bar Deadlift
The STACK Exercise of the Week will help you improve your overall sports performance—including strength, speed, conditioning and flexibility. This week, we highlight the Trap Bar Deadlift, an exercise that builds lower-body strength and power.
Who’s Doing It
- Roy Hibbert, Indiana Pacers center
Muscular Benefits
- Increases lower-body strength and power
- Increases core strength, particularly in the lower back
Sports Performance Benefits
The Deadlift is one of the foundational exercises for all sports. It teaches you to put more power into the ground, which directly translates to increased speed, quickness and jumping ability—and overall improvement in your sports skills.
The Trap Bar variation is preferred for athletes who are new to the lift or have difficulty getting into a low stance. Since Hibbert is over seven feet tall, he uses this variation to minimize the risk of injury to his back.
Trap Bar Deadlift How To
- Assume athletic stance in center of trap bar
- Squat down and grasp trap bar handles
- Fully extend elbows, stick chest out and look straight ahead
- Simultaneously extend hips and knees to stand up
- Squeeze glutes to complete movement
- Repeat sequence in reverse to lower bar to ground
- Repeat for specified reps
Sets/Reps: 4×3
Coaching Points
- Perform exercise from squat rack pins if height requires it
- Push feet into ground and drive hips forward to lift weight
- Keep back flat and chest up
- Add weight once technique and experience allow it
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Exercise of the Week: Trap Bar Deadlift
The STACK Exercise of the Week will help you improve your overall sports performance—including strength, speed, conditioning and flexibility. This week, we highlight the Trap Bar Deadlift, an exercise that builds lower-body strength and power.
Who’s Doing It
- Roy Hibbert, Indiana Pacers center
Muscular Benefits
- Increases lower-body strength and power
- Increases core strength, particularly in the lower back
Sports Performance Benefits
The Deadlift is one of the foundational exercises for all sports. It teaches you to put more power into the ground, which directly translates to increased speed, quickness and jumping ability—and overall improvement in your sports skills.
The Trap Bar variation is preferred for athletes who are new to the lift or have difficulty getting into a low stance. Since Hibbert is over seven feet tall, he uses this variation to minimize the risk of injury to his back.
Trap Bar Deadlift How To
- Assume athletic stance in center of trap bar
- Squat down and grasp trap bar handles
- Fully extend elbows, stick chest out and look straight ahead
- Simultaneously extend hips and knees to stand up
- Squeeze glutes to complete movement
- Repeat sequence in reverse to lower bar to ground
- Repeat for specified reps
Sets/Reps: 4×3
Coaching Points
- Perform exercise from squat rack pins if height requires it
- Push feet into ground and drive hips forward to lift weight
- Keep back flat and chest up
- Add weight once technique and experience allow it