Goosey
.
*
The debate over the trap/shrug bar deadlift, and how to name it runs the risk of steering focus away from the most important issue — that the exercise has tremendous potential value for many trainees.
This explanation and tips from Stuart McRobert reads well, and although I don't really like his "hardgainer" and overly cautious approach, he has a lot of good things to write.
On the Name Front*
The trap/shrug bar deadlift isn’t a squat. But by standing “inside” the bar, using SUFFICIENT leg flexion and not leaning forward excessively, the involvement of the legs is increased and involvement of the back is decreased, relative to a straight-bar deadlift, generally speaking.
The deadlift, squat and trap/shrug bar deadlift involve some major common musculature, but the distribution of stress over that musculature, and the ranges of motion involved, vary.
The trap/shrug bar deadlift is a deadlift because the bar is held in the hands and not across the upper back, and the shoulders are extended against resistance. The trap/shrug bar deadlift can be done with reduced leg flexion (but increased forward lean) like in a straight-bar regular deadlift, thus reducing quadriceps involvement, but increasing the role of the lower back.
There are multiple types of bars that can yield a trap/shrug bar-like deadlift-like exercise — rhombus frame, hexagonal, rectangular and square, some specially bent bars which don’t actually enclose the trainee, and even a Hammer Strength machine.
A pair of dumbbells can mimic a trap or shrug bar, if they are held at the sides of one’s legs, using a parallel grip.
The dumbbell deadlift has been around a lot longer than the trap bar deadlift, so the trap bar and other devices are, actually, simulations of the dumbbells, for the purposes of deadlifting and shrugging.
The trap bar deadlift isn’t an adequate name because a number of bars/devices can be used to produce the same movement. A general-purpose name is needed for the exercise, to prevent confusion and accommodate all the involved bars/devices.
The parallel-grip deadlift reflects both the deadlift-like movement AND the parallel grip that the gripping sites of the trap bar, shrug bar and other related bars/devices permit.
FThe pgdl name isn’t my creation, but I put it forward for the first time in HARDGAINER as the best choice since it clearly describes the exercise. The parallel-grip deadlift refers to the bent-legged version, while the parallel-grip stiff-legged deadlift refers to the form that has either straight legs or just slightly unlocked legs.
Individuality*
Both the pgdl and the squat can be super exercises, depending on the individual user and the form used.
The balance of pros and cons for each exercise, and the precise relative degree of difficulty and worth of the squat and pgdl, will vary among individuals according to body structure, history of injury or accident, technique and equipment availability.
Squat afficionados need to accept that the squat isn’t as great for everyone as it may be for them; and pgdl afficionados need to accept that the exercise isn’t as great for everyone as it may be for them.
You can’t change your body structure — arm length, leg length, the relative proportions of femur length to tibia length, and relative proportions of torso length to leg length, and arm length to leg length. All these factors have substantial influence on deadlifting, pgdling and squatting efficiency.
By adjusting your technique and/or exercise selection you can influence the effects of body structure on your training and physique.
Some people who are well built structurally for the squat get tremendous leg development from the squat.
Some others, with very different structures, are ungainly squatters and can’t avoid leaning over heavily.
This turns the movement into more of a lower-back exercise than a leg one, and greatly increases the risk of injury.
Of those who can’t squat well no matter what flexibility, form, program or poundage progression adjustments they make, and of those who can’t squat because of knee or back limitations due to injury or accident, some have found the pgdl a true godsend — it has enabled them to train their legs safely and productively like the squat never could.
The biggest disadvantage of the pgdl is the lack of universal supply of the required purpose-built equipment, and few gyms have sufficiently large dumbbells for long-term parallel-grip deadlifting.
Whereas almost all gyms are set up for the squat, few are set up for the pgdl. Considering the WHOLE weight-training population, very few people have tried the pgdl as compared with the squat — fewer than 1%.
But out of the relatively few users of the pgdl there has been a lot of success, often from folk who previously didn’t do well on the squat.
Matters of Technique*
The pgdl is technically simpler to perform than a barbell squat. That’s not to say that the pgdl is inherently safe and the squat is inherently dangerous.
It should, however, be noted that some trainees consider the difficulty of performing the squat as a positive challenge instead of a negative, even though there’s an accompanying increased level of risk.
The pgdl is less technically challenging than positioning a barbell near the top of the spine and backing out of the squat stands with the bar teetering somewhat on the upper back, getting the feet into position with the weight bearing down on you, squatting, returning to the rack (perhaps shakily, after a hard set) and then putting the bar back in the saddles. Spotters and/or safety bars are not needed for the pgdl like they are for the squat, and the pgdl doesn’t require squat stands or a power rack; and it’s much easier to dump a failed pgdl than a failed squat. These are significant advantages, especially for the home trainee on a limited budget.
Everything considered, and generally speaking, the pgdl carries a lower level of risk than the squat, but that isn’t to say the pgdl is safe and the squat isn’t.
It’s easy to injure oneself in the pgdl if one doesn’t use good form.
Good form in the pgdl includes keeping a flat or arched back at all times, keeping forward travel of the knees to the minimum, and avoiding extremes of torso positioning — neither leaning forward greatly, nor exaggeratedly upright.
Trying to perform the pgdl in an exaggeratedly upright manner, in order to further increase stress on the quadriceps, should be avoided because of the overly limited back involvement and increased knee stress (which may lead to knee problems).
A “natural” spread of work between the legs and back produces a more balanced division of the stress.
Heavy quadriceps involvement from the pgdl is desirable, but not in a skewed way that distorts the natural form of the movement.
How much lower-back work the pgdl and squat provide varies according to the degree of forward lean that’s used, which is related to body structure, stance and form.
If you pgdl with substantial leg flexion, hands never forward of your legs, and only moderate forward lean, the exercise would work the quadriceps much more, and the lower back, upper back and hamstrings proportionately less than if you were to pgdl with less leg flexion, hands forward of your legs and substantial forward lean, like in a straight-bar deadlift.
But the latter isn’t the pgdl I’m referring to in this article, or what the pgdl is typically considered to be.
With a straight-bar deadlift the bar should graze the legs throughout the movement, but in the pgdl the hands should be a little behind the line they would be in during a straight-bar deadlift.
A good general guideline to follow, in the pgdl, is for the finger joints to follow a line along the center of your femurs and, further down, along the center of the sides of your calves.
If your hands get behind that line you risk being too upright. Your hands can, however, be a tad forward of that line.
It’s having to get the straight bar around the knees that produces the increased forward lean and less leg flexion of the regular deadlift as compared with the pgdl.
With the pgdl, you’re “inside” the bar as against behind it with the straight-bar deadlift.
This is what permits the reduced forward lean and increased leg flexion in the pgdl.
You can increase the range of motion in the pgdl by standing on an elevated surface.
If you can safely perform elevated pgdls, you can probably also perform squats safely and productively. Squat-disadvantaged trainees may be best off sticking with regular-range-of-motion pgdls, or even reduced-range-of-motion pgdls.
The range of motion should never exceed what can be handled with an arched or flat lower back.
Parallel-grip bar design — specifically the spacing between the gripping sites and “room” inside the bar — affect stance, and stance can heavily affect form.
Adjustments to bar design and form can make a big difference, but in the pgdl you don’t have the same stance width freedom as in the squat, since the gripping sites’ placement sets the limit on stance width.
If you plan to get a parallel-grip bar, check with the manufacturer that the gripping sites will be sufficiently spaced for you — according to your physical size and stance requirements — to permit you to take at least a medium-width stance, or otherwise you could be so constrained that you may not be able to pgdl safely and well.
In my exercise technique book I went into great detail on the squat and the pgdl (using the trap bar as the illustration of a parallel-grip bar).
While every possible detail isn’t there, a tremendous amount of information is — enough to give trainees the best chance of making one or both exercises work for them. Unless you use impeccable form, not only would you jeopardize the chance of fully exploiting the squat and/or pgdl, but you’d put your body at serious risk of injury that could permanently limit your training.
Excellent form in these major exercises is THAT important. There’s absolutely no room for compromise on perfect form.
Either squat and pgdl with impeccable form, or don’t use those exercises at all; and for the squat this includes the use of a power rack/cage with safety bars set appropriately for you, AND preferably spotters too.
Fair Trials*
Knees and lower back permitting, both the squat and the pgdl should be experimented with, to give each fair trial.
But before you write off the squat, be sure you’ve given it a genuinely good shot — that you’re flexible enough, have really used good form that has been personalized to suit you, have not overtrained, and have used sensible progression methods (i.e., slow and steady progression, not rapid using big poundage jumps).
Many people have given up on the squat simply because they weren’t limber enough, didn’t use good form personalized to suit them, but added poundage to the bar faster than they could adapt to, and squatted too often for their recovery ability.
In such cases, the exercise didn’t fail, but the individual user’s application of it. The same comments can, of course, be applied to the pgdl.
If you don’t use the pgdl properly, it will fail for you.
Program Design Concerns*
If you’re cutting your program right back to absolute bare bones, you would squat OR pgdl OR deadlift as your major lower-body exercise.
But if you’re not cutting back that far, choose the squat or pgdl AND the deadlift or stiff-legged deadlift or partial deadlift according to which is safe and productive FOR YOU.
If none of the straight-bar deadlift variations are practical and safe FOR YOU, I’d recommend you use a back extension (regular or reverse), or a hip-and-back machine, to specifically target your lower back, so long as at least one of those is safe for you.
And even if you do use a straight-bar deadlift, a hard set or two once a week of back extensions or a hip-and-back machine would still be valuable, PROVIDING that the additional work is safe for you.
The Wrap-up*
The deadlift, pgdl and squat are three different but potentially super exercises from which, through experience, trainees should choose. All three exercises may work well for you, or perhaps only one, or perhaps two.
Do your absolute best to be successful at at least one of them, as doing so is a major part of the strategy needed for developing a substantially stronger and better developed physique, especially for hard gainers.
The debate over the trap/shrug bar deadlift, and how to name it runs the risk of steering focus away from the most important issue — that the exercise has tremendous potential value for many trainees.
This explanation and tips from Stuart McRobert reads well, and although I don't really like his "hardgainer" and overly cautious approach, he has a lot of good things to write.
On the Name Front*
The trap/shrug bar deadlift isn’t a squat. But by standing “inside” the bar, using SUFFICIENT leg flexion and not leaning forward excessively, the involvement of the legs is increased and involvement of the back is decreased, relative to a straight-bar deadlift, generally speaking.
The deadlift, squat and trap/shrug bar deadlift involve some major common musculature, but the distribution of stress over that musculature, and the ranges of motion involved, vary.
The trap/shrug bar deadlift is a deadlift because the bar is held in the hands and not across the upper back, and the shoulders are extended against resistance. The trap/shrug bar deadlift can be done with reduced leg flexion (but increased forward lean) like in a straight-bar regular deadlift, thus reducing quadriceps involvement, but increasing the role of the lower back.
There are multiple types of bars that can yield a trap/shrug bar-like deadlift-like exercise — rhombus frame, hexagonal, rectangular and square, some specially bent bars which don’t actually enclose the trainee, and even a Hammer Strength machine.
A pair of dumbbells can mimic a trap or shrug bar, if they are held at the sides of one’s legs, using a parallel grip.
The dumbbell deadlift has been around a lot longer than the trap bar deadlift, so the trap bar and other devices are, actually, simulations of the dumbbells, for the purposes of deadlifting and shrugging.
The trap bar deadlift isn’t an adequate name because a number of bars/devices can be used to produce the same movement. A general-purpose name is needed for the exercise, to prevent confusion and accommodate all the involved bars/devices.
The parallel-grip deadlift reflects both the deadlift-like movement AND the parallel grip that the gripping sites of the trap bar, shrug bar and other related bars/devices permit.
FThe pgdl name isn’t my creation, but I put it forward for the first time in HARDGAINER as the best choice since it clearly describes the exercise. The parallel-grip deadlift refers to the bent-legged version, while the parallel-grip stiff-legged deadlift refers to the form that has either straight legs or just slightly unlocked legs.
Individuality*
Both the pgdl and the squat can be super exercises, depending on the individual user and the form used.
The balance of pros and cons for each exercise, and the precise relative degree of difficulty and worth of the squat and pgdl, will vary among individuals according to body structure, history of injury or accident, technique and equipment availability.
Squat afficionados need to accept that the squat isn’t as great for everyone as it may be for them; and pgdl afficionados need to accept that the exercise isn’t as great for everyone as it may be for them.
You can’t change your body structure — arm length, leg length, the relative proportions of femur length to tibia length, and relative proportions of torso length to leg length, and arm length to leg length. All these factors have substantial influence on deadlifting, pgdling and squatting efficiency.
By adjusting your technique and/or exercise selection you can influence the effects of body structure on your training and physique.
Some people who are well built structurally for the squat get tremendous leg development from the squat.
Some others, with very different structures, are ungainly squatters and can’t avoid leaning over heavily.
This turns the movement into more of a lower-back exercise than a leg one, and greatly increases the risk of injury.
Of those who can’t squat well no matter what flexibility, form, program or poundage progression adjustments they make, and of those who can’t squat because of knee or back limitations due to injury or accident, some have found the pgdl a true godsend — it has enabled them to train their legs safely and productively like the squat never could.
The biggest disadvantage of the pgdl is the lack of universal supply of the required purpose-built equipment, and few gyms have sufficiently large dumbbells for long-term parallel-grip deadlifting.
Whereas almost all gyms are set up for the squat, few are set up for the pgdl. Considering the WHOLE weight-training population, very few people have tried the pgdl as compared with the squat — fewer than 1%.
But out of the relatively few users of the pgdl there has been a lot of success, often from folk who previously didn’t do well on the squat.
Matters of Technique*
The pgdl is technically simpler to perform than a barbell squat. That’s not to say that the pgdl is inherently safe and the squat is inherently dangerous.
It should, however, be noted that some trainees consider the difficulty of performing the squat as a positive challenge instead of a negative, even though there’s an accompanying increased level of risk.
The pgdl is less technically challenging than positioning a barbell near the top of the spine and backing out of the squat stands with the bar teetering somewhat on the upper back, getting the feet into position with the weight bearing down on you, squatting, returning to the rack (perhaps shakily, after a hard set) and then putting the bar back in the saddles. Spotters and/or safety bars are not needed for the pgdl like they are for the squat, and the pgdl doesn’t require squat stands or a power rack; and it’s much easier to dump a failed pgdl than a failed squat. These are significant advantages, especially for the home trainee on a limited budget.
Everything considered, and generally speaking, the pgdl carries a lower level of risk than the squat, but that isn’t to say the pgdl is safe and the squat isn’t.
It’s easy to injure oneself in the pgdl if one doesn’t use good form.
Good form in the pgdl includes keeping a flat or arched back at all times, keeping forward travel of the knees to the minimum, and avoiding extremes of torso positioning — neither leaning forward greatly, nor exaggeratedly upright.
Trying to perform the pgdl in an exaggeratedly upright manner, in order to further increase stress on the quadriceps, should be avoided because of the overly limited back involvement and increased knee stress (which may lead to knee problems).
A “natural” spread of work between the legs and back produces a more balanced division of the stress.
Heavy quadriceps involvement from the pgdl is desirable, but not in a skewed way that distorts the natural form of the movement.
How much lower-back work the pgdl and squat provide varies according to the degree of forward lean that’s used, which is related to body structure, stance and form.
If you pgdl with substantial leg flexion, hands never forward of your legs, and only moderate forward lean, the exercise would work the quadriceps much more, and the lower back, upper back and hamstrings proportionately less than if you were to pgdl with less leg flexion, hands forward of your legs and substantial forward lean, like in a straight-bar deadlift.
But the latter isn’t the pgdl I’m referring to in this article, or what the pgdl is typically considered to be.
With a straight-bar deadlift the bar should graze the legs throughout the movement, but in the pgdl the hands should be a little behind the line they would be in during a straight-bar deadlift.
A good general guideline to follow, in the pgdl, is for the finger joints to follow a line along the center of your femurs and, further down, along the center of the sides of your calves.
If your hands get behind that line you risk being too upright. Your hands can, however, be a tad forward of that line.
It’s having to get the straight bar around the knees that produces the increased forward lean and less leg flexion of the regular deadlift as compared with the pgdl.
With the pgdl, you’re “inside” the bar as against behind it with the straight-bar deadlift.
This is what permits the reduced forward lean and increased leg flexion in the pgdl.
You can increase the range of motion in the pgdl by standing on an elevated surface.
If you can safely perform elevated pgdls, you can probably also perform squats safely and productively. Squat-disadvantaged trainees may be best off sticking with regular-range-of-motion pgdls, or even reduced-range-of-motion pgdls.
The range of motion should never exceed what can be handled with an arched or flat lower back.
Parallel-grip bar design — specifically the spacing between the gripping sites and “room” inside the bar — affect stance, and stance can heavily affect form.
Adjustments to bar design and form can make a big difference, but in the pgdl you don’t have the same stance width freedom as in the squat, since the gripping sites’ placement sets the limit on stance width.
If you plan to get a parallel-grip bar, check with the manufacturer that the gripping sites will be sufficiently spaced for you — according to your physical size and stance requirements — to permit you to take at least a medium-width stance, or otherwise you could be so constrained that you may not be able to pgdl safely and well.
In my exercise technique book I went into great detail on the squat and the pgdl (using the trap bar as the illustration of a parallel-grip bar).
While every possible detail isn’t there, a tremendous amount of information is — enough to give trainees the best chance of making one or both exercises work for them. Unless you use impeccable form, not only would you jeopardize the chance of fully exploiting the squat and/or pgdl, but you’d put your body at serious risk of injury that could permanently limit your training.
Excellent form in these major exercises is THAT important. There’s absolutely no room for compromise on perfect form.
Either squat and pgdl with impeccable form, or don’t use those exercises at all; and for the squat this includes the use of a power rack/cage with safety bars set appropriately for you, AND preferably spotters too.
Fair Trials*
Knees and lower back permitting, both the squat and the pgdl should be experimented with, to give each fair trial.
But before you write off the squat, be sure you’ve given it a genuinely good shot — that you’re flexible enough, have really used good form that has been personalized to suit you, have not overtrained, and have used sensible progression methods (i.e., slow and steady progression, not rapid using big poundage jumps).
Many people have given up on the squat simply because they weren’t limber enough, didn’t use good form personalized to suit them, but added poundage to the bar faster than they could adapt to, and squatted too often for their recovery ability.
In such cases, the exercise didn’t fail, but the individual user’s application of it. The same comments can, of course, be applied to the pgdl.
If you don’t use the pgdl properly, it will fail for you.
Program Design Concerns*
If you’re cutting your program right back to absolute bare bones, you would squat OR pgdl OR deadlift as your major lower-body exercise.
But if you’re not cutting back that far, choose the squat or pgdl AND the deadlift or stiff-legged deadlift or partial deadlift according to which is safe and productive FOR YOU.
If none of the straight-bar deadlift variations are practical and safe FOR YOU, I’d recommend you use a back extension (regular or reverse), or a hip-and-back machine, to specifically target your lower back, so long as at least one of those is safe for you.
And even if you do use a straight-bar deadlift, a hard set or two once a week of back extensions or a hip-and-back machine would still be valuable, PROVIDING that the additional work is safe for you.
The Wrap-up*
The deadlift, pgdl and squat are three different but potentially super exercises from which, through experience, trainees should choose. All three exercises may work well for you, or perhaps only one, or perhaps two.
Do your absolute best to be successful at at least one of them, as doing so is a major part of the strategy needed for developing a substantially stronger and better developed physique, especially for hard gainers.
