"OPEN" TRAP BAR QUESTION - ADVICE

[mbasic]

For those of you that have the Open-style of trap bar ....
....how easy it for you to lunge with it?




Please take a few reps and report back, with what brand of bar you have.

I googled this before, but always looked sketchy to me .... but the Ad^ above popped up in my feed and it looks doable now (0:16)

What I WAS thinking, if getting some cheap trap bars for my son's school (they are talking about revamping the weight room).
There is barely enough room INSIDE for 3 racks in there. (say 3 or 4 kids per station is 12 kids + coaches and that's even pushing it)
Typically what they've done with the bigger sports-teams (say 20-25), is put half (10-12) the kids outside, and they do somekind of bullshit circuit thing while the kids on the inside use the racks.

I thought of trap bars with bumpers outside, because trap bars are small, and trap deadlifts and trap-"squats" require no racks.
We could get those vertical post rolling storage gizmos for bumper plates and roll those outside.
Then I was thinking walking DB lunges after that, and then "partnered" GHRaises ....(hold legs down with thick pads)...and some other shit.

If we could also do lunges (step forward, back, or walking) with those open type trap bars, that'd be great!
It would save us from adding to (spending money) our already shitty hodge-podge dumbbell collection.

The only bad thing is, most of the open ones are pricey.
Bells of Steel has a cheaper one, that has the deadlift-jack feature....which would be nice to have outside to in a group setting.
Quickly changing loads between sets for three different kids per "station".

[Hanley]

For those of you that have the Open-style of trap bar ....
....how easy it for you to lunge with it?

I splurged on the Eleiko. I love it for unilateral quad work (step-ups, lunges, rfess...all of it).

I honestly think it's worth the splurge.

I'll take some video. I'm doing a bunch of unilateral stuff these days.

###

You could knock out a pretty great HIIT-y style open trap bar complex in 15-20 mins to get almost all of your accessory work. Same weight for :

- lunges
- step ups
- rdl
- rows

[asdf]

I have no experience with open trap bars, but I've faced similar space challenges coaching at two different high schools. Personally, I'd rather have barbells. They're so much more versatile. I ran lots of teams through programs without racks or benches. I've also run programs that were dumbbell only, because that's all that was available. Both worked well. A "shitty hodge-podge dumbbell collection" might be perfect for outside use (and abuse).

[mbasic]

I have no experience with open trap bars, but I've faced similar space challenges coaching at two different high schools. Personally, I'd rather have barbells. They're so much more versatile.

We have standard barbells too .... 3 or 4 of them.
They can also use those for squats and deadlifts (bench, ohp, etc) as normal.

Trap bar lifts are generally idiot proof (although nothing is 100% idiot proof). Especially when it
Also thinking about all the other sports too: girls volleyball, boy's basketball (tall kids), etc.
Those teams' coaches aren't the greatest when it come to the S&C aspect to their own kids' training.

I ran lots of teams through programs without racks or benches. I've also run programs that were dumbbell only, because that's all that was available. Both worked well. A "shitty hodge-podge dumbbell collection" might be perfect for outside use (and abuse).

If you adsf or I were coaching all the sports teams, sure I could get them to (maybe) deadlift, squat, OHP, and possibly even powerclean halfass correctly ..... but you or I ain't available for that.

[asdf]

If you adsf or I were coaching all the sports teams, sure I could get them to (maybe) deadlift, squat, OHP, and possibly even powerclean halfass correctly ..... but you or I ain't available for that.

Ah, so it's not just a space problem, but a coaching problem as well. I might prefer dumbbells in that case.

[mbasic]

If you adsf or I were coaching all the sports teams, sure I could get them to (maybe) deadlift, squat, OHP, and possibly even powerclean halfass correctly ..... but you or I ain't available for that.

Ah, so it's not just a space problem, but a coaching problem as well. I might prefer dumbbells in that case.

I don't (or wouldn't) expect various sport coaches know how to coach the barbell lifts very well .... other than the football staff....which right now is in shambles.

Our school is super small; we don't have a weight room coach or S&C guy or anything like that (its not an option, or any fault of the school).

Trapbar deads (or 'dead-squats') are a pretty no brainer movement (despite what rip says, lol) to teach.
Same with DB lunges or step ups.

But trap bar lunges would allow more gradual loadings, etc.
Our dumbbells jump in 10# increments (5# jumps per hand x 2), and ours stop at 40 or 50 sadly....my 9th/10th grader does 40's already for 8's.
... and we only have one set.
Also they're fixed weight type DBs.....so one one set of each weight.