Coach Kevin Don tackles two listener questions.
Does the conventional deadlift have any benefits over the trap/hex bar? Do you really need that caffeine jolt before hitting the gym to crush your session? Coach Kevin Don gives his take on two listener questions.
Get-Fit Guy is hosted by Kevin Don. A transcript is available at Simplecast.
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Hi listeners old and new—Coach Kevin Don here with another weekly injection of fitness facts! This week, I’m answering a listener question about drinking caffeine before a workout. But before that, let’s hear from Chris in Australia, who wrote in to ask about trap bar deadlifts.
Chris writes:
Hi Kevin,
I really enjoy your no nonsense evidence-based approach to strength training. I'm an experienced lifter; however, I would like to know your thoughts on the Hex, or Trap bar, deadlifts as a replacement for conventional deadlifts. I have lower back and glutes issues which were irritated by conventional deadlifts so I swapped over to hex bar deadlifts and they seem to be much better for me. Does this variation still hit the same areas as the conventional deadlift or do I need to add in some additional exercises to make up for any deficiencies. Appreciate your help.
Thanks for writing in, Chris.
Hex bar/trap bar deadlifts are not generally something I prescribe to my clients. In fact, I think the only time I have done so was to use it for heavy carries.
I'm, of course, well-versed in what people see as the benefits, which are mainly that they put less pressure on the lumbar spine which could be useful in any lifter with a low back injury and that they are easier to learn and therefore more accessible to more people. I have my own reasons for not using it.
As you noted, the muscles being utilised MAY be somewhat (although not hugely) different. It's a hard thing to say definitively because it depends on anthropometry. That being said, in the conventional deadlift, the main “error” I see in the set up is being too far from the bar, with the lifter squatting down to the bar, rather than hingeing. When you squat down, the shins will touch the bar and then push it away from you to the wrong start position. So that's a really helpful way to be in the right position because you have both visual and tactile feedback.
In the hex bar/trap bar, there isn't that tactile feedback from the bar in front of you and therefore a lifter CAN squat down rather than hinge. This would turn the movement more towards quads than hamstrings and glutes.
This could be problematic as far as well-rounded strength development and pattern development go, since it's less like a hinge. In fact, there is a spectrum or continuum with 100% squat on the left and 100% hinge on the right. At the left, in 100% squat, we would have really upright positions using more quad like a goblet squat or a front squat, and on the far right, at 100% hinge, we would have the “good morning” or the Romanian deadlift. The way most people perform the hex bar deadlift would be closer to the middle than it would be to the right and the conventional deadlift would be closer to the right (the hinge side). So, I consider it a poor choice to use to develop the hinge with.
The next reason is that MANY people get a sore low back deadlifting because they over-extend the back at the top. This is in spite of the fact that they have a bar against their thighs preventing this occurring too dramatically. In the trap bar deadlift, they can over-extend all they want. I think the risk-to-reward ratio here is off. In addition, you have to stabilise a load which is able to swing side-to-side AND front-to-back. I think it’s a higher risk factor for people than the conventional deadlift.
The hands are also much wider in trap/hex and wider hands means middle back muscles that are more spread out, which makes middle back rounding easier (and we don’t want that). The closer the hands, the less likely that is because the shoulders externally rotate and move the shoulder blades together.
I would say that the real solution here is to investigate the low back and glutes and fix that, then return to hingeing rather than moving to another exercise. I'm a big believer in humans being able to express the primordial patterns of hinge, squat, lunge, push, pull, and core and if we can't, things will just get worse in a “use it or lose it” scenario.
I hope that helps and thank you for the email. Remember, if you have any questions for me, email me on getfitguy@quickanddirtytips.com and I will do my best to get a reply to you or answer your question on the show!
Now, onto caffeine and training. Is it healthy? Do we need it? Is there an optimal time of day to consume caffeine?
So, this is a tricky one because there are a few things to unpack here! First up, I want to dispel the idea that caffeine is a stimulant. That word is used a lot around caffeine and it’s not the truth. Caffeine is actually an inhibitor. It inhibits the production of adenosine. Adenosine is linked to sleep because it signals to the body that it should sleep to recover when fuel (ATP—adenosine triphosphate) runs out. By blocking the adenosine receptors, caffeine inhibits drowsiness.
It’s really popular preworkout for that reason—it lets you train longer without feeling tired and if you are in a slump, it blocks the receptors telling you that you are sleepy!
The issue for me here isn’t caffeine itself, but where you source the caffeine. It may come as a surprise to hear that there are natural and synthetic caffeine sources. Natural sources being, as you would expect, drinks such as coffee and tea, but also other sources like dark chocolate. Synthetic caffeine is made in a laboratory. It was heavily used by the Axis powers in WWII because blockades prevented coffee reaching Europe in meaningful quantities and they used caffeine to keep troops engaged for longer (along with other substances!).
Here is how it is made:
Ammonia (a by-product of the waste system of an organism) is converted to urea. This is combined with a chemical called chloroacetic acid to from a compound called uracil. This is then converted into a chemical called theophylline and combined with methyl chloride to form synthetic caffeine (methylated theophylline). This new substance actually glows bright blue, so is rinsed in substances—including chloroform and others which have been listed as possible carcinogens—to remove the blue coloration.
Because it is significantly cheaper to make huge amounts of this synthetic caffeine than it is to refine caffeine from natural resources, almost all the readily available caffeine-containing beverages from the major players use the synthetic version. In fact, in the US market alone, the two largest soft drinks manufacturers use over 3.5 million lbs of it a year in just two of their products. This doesn’t include the other caffeinated beverages those companies produce.
Aside from the chemical firestorm listed above, synthetic caffeine doesn’t need to be processed in the same way by the body. So it hits the bloodstream very fast and with full power! Natural caffeine sources gradually build up in the bloodstream. This sudden spike in alertness (or lack of drowsiness technically) from the synthetic source results in a similarly sharp drop off, which has you reaching for another can or bottle of the good stuff! This is how we end up in a cycle of reaching for more and more caffeine.
As someone who greatly believes in fitness as the absence of disease in the human organism, I can’t say its ever advisable to knowingly expose oneself to known potential carcinogens or to a potential for a reliance on a substance to get through training or indeed, the day.
So, is caffeine a useful tool for training? Yes, because being alert and able to go to train is going to be more useful to you than being sleepy and going home instead. But I would advise everyone to look for natural caffeine sources over synthetic and to be mindful of the 5 hour half-life. If you go to the gym in the evening, a caffeine jolt might not be the best because of the impact upon the sleep-wake cycle.
How do you like your caffeine? My go to is a flat white… so good!