Deadlift vs hex bar

Athletes will benefit from the lower injury risk using a hex bar instead of the barbell. Weightlifters and powerlifters might want to use the tool that is more relevant to their sport unless their lower back needs a rest.

What are your goals

Why do you compare the barbell deadlift and the hex bar deadlift? Do you have problems with your lower back? Do you think the barbell deadlift is not secure enough? Do you want to pack on some muscle and don’t know where to start? Whatever brought you here it is important that you know why you are training. The clearer your goals the more likely it is that you will achieve them. Fussy goals get you fussy results. I observe three main trends in fitness:

Looks
Performance
Health

If you are all about looks you are in for a hard time. The perfect physiques you see on television and in the magazines do not form overnight. You have to be disciplined. Expect to be hungry, angry and tired along the way. The main driver to achieve this goal is a clean diet. Exercising plays a secondary role to it. Cardio will usually be a better choice than strength training to get that six pack. Your choices will not always be healthy or help performance on the pitch. As long as you can pull off that T-shirt and crack a perfect smile that is ok with you.

The second group mainly cares about performance. When you belong to this bracket you mainly care about athletic achievements. The main driver for your success will be the intensity at which you train. Diet becomes a fuel for your ambitions. It is it the main focus of everything you do. As you push yourself to the limit and beyond on regular basis injuries occur. You know how to deal with them without having a major meltdown. The choices you make are not always healthy and pretty. That does not matter when you are smiling down on the competition at the end of the day.

The last group is mainly interested in health. For you, it is all about balance. Choosing the middle path to fulfillment and bliss. You will try different diets just to see what they are like. You avoid the stress of always looking pretty or having to compete. You might never be the greatest of all time or Miss Universe. The good thing is you don’t care that much.

As you are comparing barbell deadlifts and hex bar deadlifts you are most likely not n the looks or performance group. Take care to prioritize. It will make your training more effective.

The barbell deadlift

The barbell deadlift is one of the most iconic movements you can do in the gym. You will find it in programs like Wendler 531, Stronglifts 5x5 and other strength programs.

The deadlift is so popular because it is a full body exercise. You get a lot out of it for every repetition you do.

The deadlift starts with the barbell on the ground. Walk up to it and place your midfeet under the bar. Grip the bar with both hands and get tight. Build maximum tension before you initiate the pull. The pull is initiated by pushing your feet and into the ground. Flex your glutes and straighten your hips until lockout. There is more to it than this so check out the material at the end of the post for more detail.

The biggest advantages of the barbell deadlift are its heavy load and low technical challenge. Even though the deadlift is hard to master it is easy to start with. It will also be the lift that you can lift the most with the least amount of training.

The biggest disadvantages of the deadlift are that you can not do it for high repetitions and that it can hurt your lower back. My biggest back injury came from deadlifting. I overdid it and it put me back a year in training. The barbell deadlift is also not ideal for hypertrophy programs which ask for many repetitions. If you still want to pull for high reps try the sumo stance instead of the conventional.

The hex bar deadlift

The hex bar deadlift is also known as the trap bar deadlift. It is called hex as the frame of this special bar is formed in a hexagon.

To perform the hex bar deadlift you step inside of the frame. Grip the bar at the handles on both sides. Get tight and build maximum tension. Initiate the pull by pushing your legs into the ground and squeezing your glutes. Pull the bar up to hip height and set it down.

The biggest advantages of the hex bar deadlift are that it puts less strain on your lower back and that the bar has no drift during the movement. This makes it a good option for beginners or experienced lifters with overworked lower backs.

The biggest disadvantages of the hex bar deadlift are that you have to keep a single purpose bar in your gym and that all competitions are done with barbells. There are almost no powerlifting, weightlifting or strongman competitions in which the trap bar deadlift is performed. For this accessory, the movement takes up a lot of space in the gym. Especially when you have multiple hex bars to store.

Should you do barbell or hex bar deadlifts

Beginners can start out with the hex bar deadlift and then graduate to the barbell deadlift. Especially when you have limited hip and lower back mobility this is a good option.

Experienced lifters can use the hex bar deadlift to give their lower backs a rest. If you want to keep the volume high and feel fatigue in your lower back switch to trap bar for your high repetition work.

Ultimately if you want to train safer and do not need any carryover to the barbell the hex bar is a good option long term.

Most popular Rogue bars in 2020

This is an overview of the most popular Rogue barbells per views and click through rates for Marathon-Crossfit.com in 2020. If you want more details on how the data was collected you can dig deeper in what were the most popular Rogue products in 2020.

This is an overview of the most popular barbells on Marathon-CrossFit.com during 2020. The ranking is as followed:

That the operator bar was so popular on Marathon-CrossFit in 2020 came as a surprise to me. It is one of the cheaper Rogue barbells which still has a cool name rather than being a variation of the Rogue Ohio barbell. If you want to feel a little more camouflaged in your life, go with this one. You can read the full review of the operator bar via this link.

The West side bar is a variation of the Ohio bar specifically for powerlifting. It is very similar to the Rogue Ohio power bar which recently has gotten a little more attention from influencers. This is a solid bar if you do not intend to do the Olympic lifts and stick to the bench press, deadlift, and barbell back squat in your training. You can read the full review of the west side bar via this link.

The Rogue Russian bar is another surprise on the Marathon-CrossFit popularity list. While it is one of the most expensive bars you can get from Rogue I personally find that it is more of a collector's item with nostalgia attached to it. It is a great piece of craftsmanship to recreate a bar from the Soviet era. Unfortunately, the collar system is not used in competition anymore and also tenders the bar useless once you lose one of the collars. Rogue also does not provide an option to buy the custom collars separately in case you do lose them. Based on this I would take the Pyrros bar over the Russian bar any given day for this budget. You can read the full review of the Rogue Russian bar by following this link.

The Rogue Multi-grip bar is a great additional tool to bring your bench press training to the next level. Especially if you are a big fan of the Westside training method as it asks for many grip variations. This bar might not be your first purchase, but fun addition to your gym once all the essentials are covered. You can read the full review of the Rogue Multi-grip bar by following this link.

The Chan bar is my personal favorite if you want to do it all with your barbell. It is reasonably priced, has a cool design, and can be used for Olympic lifts and the big three alike. If you are a CrossFit fan who wants to workout from home, this is a great pick. You can read the full review of the Rogue Chan bar by following this link.

Classic barbell

The classic barbell is what you you will find in most gyms. They vary widely in their quality with the York ones being the most cost efficient and therefore at the lower end of the quality range. You might find barbells with bushing or bearing, still most of them will have bushing in your local gym.

If your local gym is serious about lifting you might find specific olympic weightlifting and powerlifting barbells. These have a more aggressive knurl to ensure more grip for the professionals. You will experience these to be rougher on your skin which has the benefit of being able to lift more and the downside of higher likelihood to get your skin damaged.

In addition the knurl marks are slightly different between olympic and powerlifting bars to show you where to put your hands. Usually the powerlifting bars are built to withhold more psi (basically tells you how mch weight you can put on the bar until it breaks) than olympic bars due to the fact that there is more load moved in the powerlifts than in olympic lifts.

Lifting is not always for beginners. You need proper technique, balance and a bit of strength to do it. Otherwise you might hurt your shins on the deadlift or pulll some muscles when squatting. Improper squatting might also harm your spine. So get proper advise or start deadlifting with other bars.

Further reading