Why You Should Ditch the Barbell and Hit The Trapbar Deadlift
Lower body force production and power output are critical to a solid start and efficient turns, both key components for a fast time! So the question is, how do we train swimming athletes to get strong and powerful? There is an abundance of ways but one of our favourites has to be the Trapbar Deadlift. The Trapbar Deadlift starts from the floor (or elevated platform), the athlete starts inside the hexagonal shaped bar, squats down and powerful stands up with the bar, lowering back down for the next repetition, that’s it!
This movement is a staple in nearly every athlete that we coach in the gym, once they hit certain criteria in their training, such as psychological maturity, motor skills, training ages etc. We absolutely love this movement for a number of key reasons such as safety, specificity and efficiency, so let’s take a look at these key points.
Safety
The Trapbar Deadlift can be a much safer exercise than more traditional movements when performed correctly. The bar is from the floor rather than placed on the athlete as in barbell squatting and thus keeping pressure off the shoulders. The start position is often a safer position at the start of the movement compared to the traditional Deadlift due to the elevated handles, often we find swimming athletes struggle to achieve a safe Deadlift position or simply do not enjoy it. The shape of the bar also allows the load being lifted to travel through the centre of the athlete, rather than being forward like in other lifts, helping to reduce pressure and strain on the low back, a common area for injury in swimmers. The athlete is also able to bail out of the lift much easier than in other exercises, they may descend back down or just drop the bar.
Specificity
The Trapbar Deadlift is also highly specific to the demands of swimming. Think about starts, there is zero downward movement or countermovement in staggered stance squat position before a powerful leap into the water. Turn the start 90° and it’s easier to see how similar these two movements are, and this is one of many reason why we love the Trapbar Deadlift for swimming athletes.
Efficiency
Motor skill proficiency is critical for safe, effective and efficient training, and different movements take longer to learn than others. It’s considered by some that the Olympic lifting movements (cleans, jerks, snatches and derivatives) take a long time to learn, and while that may or not be true, we would argue the Trapbar Deadlift is one of the easier movements to learn. If a movement can be coached and learned faster, the earlier we can start the process of build strong and powerful athletes, rather than spend hours learning complex and often unnecessary movements.
As much as we love the Trapbar Deadlift however, and favour this movement over the more conventional movements such as Back Squats, Front Squats and traditional Deadlifts, we would not blindly prescribe the Trapbar Deadlift. We have swimmers to which this movement simply doesn’t fit nor would we stop an athlete from performing other lifts, such as a Back Squat, if they enjoyed it and showed a high level of motor skills. It’s important to remember that this movement is one of many ways to train an athlete, and coaches must keep their own biases out of their training.