Question:
Do you prefer Trap bar or straight bar when training athletes for performance?
Answer:
Honestly, I really don’t use either of them very much. I know that’s blasphemous to some people. The way I see it, majority of sports are asymmetrical, which means athletes are going to have an asymmetrical way of loading most exercises. That load will usually take place either at the hips or the shoulders. Both areas are connected to the spine.
Most of the athletes we train are pretty high level, which means they all play a lot, which means they usually have some kind of injury they’re dealing with. Back/hip/shoulder injuries are super common among most sports.
*Sidenote: If you’ve never been injured, you’ve never come off the bench.*
So, because of this laundry list of injuries, I do whatever I can to not add insult to them, while still attempting to achieve the desired adaptation – whether it be strength, speed, power, etc. To combat/mitigate these micro/macro insults, majority of our work is done unilaterally, and if it’s bilaterally, it’s more common for us to perform them without being confined/restricted by a bar that requires symmetry to mitigate risk.
