w8pedia:Equipment:Trapbar

The trapbar is an implement used in weight training. It is an assemblage of bars welded into a shape which lies flat in a plane, comprised of:

1. A barstock welded into a circular, square, trapezoidal, or hexagonal shape, sized to allow a human to stand in the middle
2. 2 (almost always) coaxial stub bars, welded to opposing positions on the outside of the perimeter of the hollow portion
3. A set of handles pointing forward and back, welded inside the hollow portion.

The trapbar was invented by Al Gerard, a competitive deadlifter.

The stubs are used for loading the trapbar with plates.

The handles are used (obviously) to hold the trapbar while an exercise is performed. Note that these handles are aligned at 90 degrees to the plate-loading bars.

The trapbar is used primarilly for two exercises: the trapbar deadlift and shrugs.

The trapbar's use in shrugs was promoted by Paul Kelso, in his book "The Kelso Shrug System".

Variants are produced by several vendors.

Proponents of trapbar deadlifts include Hardgainer Magazine, Bob Whelan, the Cyberpump website,and Ken Leistner.

Data originally published on Wikipedia
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