Hex bar vs barbell for deadlifts

Last Friday I was deadlifting next to a guy who was doing this
First time I saw it done
I can't do it, because I do my deadlifts (and squats) sumo

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Am I missing out on any additional benefits the barbell brings?

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A standard barbell usually holds more plates....

My gyms hex bar maxes out at 4 plates. No bueno

Are you competing in powerlifting or Olympic lifting?

If no, then do whatever you feel your best at.

The differences are minuscule.



And if you really want to see some weird shite, look up Jefferson deadlifts.

It took me awhile but I found an article on hex bar deadlifts I read about a year ago. A trainer in CA preps college players for the NFL Combine and calls the hex bar deadlift the "perfect exercise" for developing total body strength and power/speed. I've trained at EXOS (formerly Athlete's Performance) and they are huge advocates of hex bar deadlifts. Good read.

Hex bar deadlifts

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Also known as the “trap-bar” deadlift, it gets its name from the hexagonal-shaped bar the lifter steps into, effectively allowing him to center himself over the weights (see above). Unlike a traditional straight-bar deadlift, a lift using the uniquely shaped hex-bar takes pressure off the lifter’s spine, lower back, and hamstrings. Also, because of the more balanced range of motion, out of every lift in the gym, it’s the one on which your body can lift the most weight. (Yes, even more than a squat.) Because the hex bar is so efficient, every rep utilizes 90% of skeletal muscle.

What’s more, these are the same muscles you rely on to run, jump high, and explode upward, fighting gravity.

When he ran the numbers, Flaherty found that the Force Number calculated from a one-rep max for the hex-bar deadlift yielded the exact same correlation as the ratio derived from force-plate treadmill numbers. He also discovered that the bigger your hex-bar deadlift, the bigger your Force Number. In other words: Congrats! You’re a better athlete. (For the record, Jamaican sprinter and reigning world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt, holds the highest Force Number ever recorded: 3.9.)

In 2014, Flaherty used the hex-bar deadlift to skyrocket Manziel’s combine numbers. Manziel arrived at Flaherty’s camp with a maximum hex lift of 530 pounds, a vertical leap of 27.5 inches, and a 5.09-second 40-yard dash. Weighing 201 pounds, his Force Number was 2.39. After two months of Flaherty’s deadlift program, Manziel had packed on eight pounds of muscle—and could lift 680 pounds for a Force Number of 3.2. Official combine stats recorded Manziel with a 31.5-inch vertical leap and a 4.68-second 40-yard dash, an improvement of about 0.4 second.

At the high school in California, hex bars are everywhere, scattered about like weapons in an armory. Later that afternoon I watch first as NFL hopeful Jake Brendel, a 6'4", 300-pound offensive lineman sporting a UCLA T-shirt and red Viking beard, steps into the center of one that’s stacked with so many weights, there’s no room for collars. He grips the handles, bends his knees, straightens his back, raises his chin. The bar elevates and then crashes down, over and over again, like a monstrous piston. I do the math in my mind: five 45-pounders on each side plus the bar itself over five reps means he’s lifted over a ton.

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*Sorry for the use of "you". Just shitty grammar and not directly talking about you in this reply.

That increase could be from he had shitty form to begin with and the hex bar is directly below the shoulders so when you lift up, it is a straight path. This is what we try to do with conventional/sumo but legs get in the way. Don't equate having more lbs on the bar to more exertion. Because the bar is further out from the body means that there is a longer lever arm to the weight thus increasing the force.

You have pressure in your lower back because you have shitty form. Hamstrings are part of the posterior chain and should be worked and is a target muscle in the deadlift. Hamstring strength correlates to faster sprint times.

Hex bar is GOAT for doing farmer carries. Doing a deadlift with a hex bar is not a real deadlift though IMHO.