“The point of lifting weights is to force stress into a movement pattern.” – Gray Cook

When it comes to heavy bilateral lower body strength training I am a much bigger fan of the trap bar deadlift as opposed to back squatting or front squatting for various reasons;

1. 1. Lower barrier of entry because less joints are involved when compared to squatting
   2. Zero spinal loading
   3. If you don’t use straps, you can’t out-train your grip which means you can’t out-train your stabilizers
   4. At the end of the day, strong is strong
   5. Hip hinging is arguably more sport specific then squatting
   6. People generally grasp the pattern quicker then squatting
   7. You can coach it to be more of a squat or more of a deadlift/hip hinge depending on what your goals are

Above and beyond all these potential reasons, I believe it is simply a safer movement for most people. Our goal is to never get hurt as a result of our off court/ice/field training. The trap bar allows us to train heavy in a bilateral stance and stress the movement pattern in a safer manner for most of the people we work with.