Conventional or trap bar deadlift?

Clem Duranseaud
2 days ago
4 min read

Should you focus on doing deadlifts conventional, or using the trap bar? Which one is best to develop strength and hypertrophy? What contexts make one better than the other?

In this article, we’ll break down the differences between the two, cover proper technique, and show you how conventional and trap bar deadlifts can complement each other in a well-structured training program.

Table of contents

Conventional deadlift
Trap bar deadlift
Using both

Let's be clear, both conventional deadlifts and trap bar deadlifts are incredible exercises. They both have more advantages than disadvantages and at least one of them should be in most training plans.

Let's dive in the details.

Conventional deadlift

Pros:

Dubbed the king of exercises for a reason: works almost all your muscles.
Makes you extremely strong
Great back exercise

Cons:

Requires a high level of technique for it to be safely effective
Can mess up your recovery if programmed poorly
Can be low back intensive

Technique pointers:

Grab bar at shoulder width distance
Hand width for conventional deadlift
Hinge from your hips, think about closing a door with your bum when you reach down.
Brace core before lifting, pretend like someone is about to punch you in the guts.
Think about bending the barbell. This cue engages your upper back. When coupled with a tight core, this will completely stabilize your spine. This movement has to originate from your lats. While you think about bending the barbell, think about squeezing your armpits.
Think about pushing the ground away with your feet rather than pulling the bar up.

Man in orange shirt lifting a barbell with blue weights labeled "ELEIKO" in a gym. Mirrors and colorful weight plates in background. He is doing a deadlift — Hips are back, bar below shoulder blades

Trap bar deadlift

Pros:

More natural/intuitive position for more people
Offers more options on the setup
Easier to properly execute
Easier on the lower back

Cons:

Not every gym has a trap bar

Technique pointers

I like to keep things simple and think about the exact same things as the conventional setup: hinging at the hips, bracing core, bending the barbell and pushing the ground away.

Because of this exercise's position, the hinge won't be as pronounced. In fact, you can almost squat your way down to pick up the bar.

Man in orange tank top lifts heavy weights in gym. Red sneakers, serious focus. Mirrors and weight racks in background. He is doing a trap bar deadlift — My trap bar setup is very similar to my conventional, the main difference being my arm position.

As far as muscle worked, the trap bar will favour the quads more. Conventional deadlifts will hit the posterior chain and hamstrings more.

The big, big difference, is how much easier on the lower back the trap bar can be.

Which one is better?

If a client came up to me and told me their goal was just to get stronger and build muscle, I would point them to the trap bar deadlift.

In fact,

For 80% of people whose goal is strength and muscle, the trap bar is the better primary choice.

Simply do to do the fact that it's easier to execute safely.

So why even bother with conventional?

Simply put, some people (including myself), enjoy it.

We like it for it's own sake. For people interested in power lifting, it's a no brainer. Some people simply enjoy it like others enjoy running or rock climbing.

Done properly, conventional deadlifts are very, very fun.

What matters for strength and muscle building

Getting stronger and building more muscle is a result of progressive overload, training close to failure, and proper programming.

Whether you do this with a conventional deadlift or trap bar is irrelevant. Both lifts will make you incredibly strong.

Using the trap bar to help the conventional deadlift

If the goal is to get a stronger conventional deadlift, the trap bar is an incredible auxiliary exercise.

Because the movement is easier, we can use more weight on the trap bar than the regular bar.

This introduces the body to greater loads, on an easier exercise.

Physically, this will train your muscles to get stronger, resulting in a better conventional pull.

Mentally, this will help your brain feel ok with trying new weights. I use to have a mental block at 180kg. I could lift 175kg easily, but 180kg wouldn't come off the gym's floor.

Then I introduced the trap bar into my training program. Right off the bat, I was able to pull 180kg for three reps. After a few weeks of this, 180kg finally went up with the conventional.

Our brains often put up barriers with new weights. Finding ways to introduce these new feats of strength in mechanically easier exercises is one way to familiarize ourselves with them.

How to program these exercises for strength

My favourite way to program these two exercise is the 5-4-3 method.

Week one: 5 sets of 5 reps

Week two: 4 sets of 4 reps

Week three: 3 sets of 3 reps

Week 4: Recovery or back to 5 sets of 5

I like having one or two sets followed by however many back offs the week calls for.

I take 3-4 minutes recovery.

A few pointers:

Deadlifts are tough on the nervous system and require lots of inter workout recovery. I like to put three days in between each deadlift session, usually one on Mondays and one on Thursday.
I alternate weekly to go heavy with each pull. If I go super heavy on the conventional, I'll go slightly lighter in my trap bar efforts that week.