The seed for this idea came from Ben Bruno’s 100-Rep-Trap Bar Workout* but I am not nearly advanced enough to know if it has value outside of it making sense in my head.
Basically, I’ve been tracking my total volume per session and have noticed that my trap bar deadlift has a ridiculously lopsided effect on the amount of weight lifted during any session it’s included in. I may lift 5000kg (11,000lb) in one session and 3000kg (6,600lb) of that comes from trap bear deadlift sets that aren’t really taxing^. On days when I’m not using the trap bar, my entire volume maxes out around 2500kg/5500lb.
So, here’s the idea:
Trap Bar Deadlifts 5x10@100kg per session five days a week. This isn’t a taxing weight, I’ve done workouts where I knock out sets of 20 with 100kg on the bar and don’t feel it the next day, however, I thought I’d start light to be safe considering I’ll be doing it a lot.
Outside of that, I’ll alternate between compound movements, I was thinking dumbbell chest press since I’ve been doing straight bench forever and could do with a break from it, military press, landmine rows and chin ups. I wasn’t going to do any squatting since the week will be so lower body intensive but I could probably throw in some goblet squats to keep mobility.
The logic behind it is that lifting 25,000kg/55,100lb a week will have a much larger effect on the physiology of muscle building (upregulating mTOR, blah blah blah) than simply sticking with heavier weights at a higher intensity that ultimately add up to significantly less total volume.
The goal is to get stronger and boost my BMR and adding a little lean mass is never a bad thing
(although I’m not looking for strict hypertrophy as I’m not eating a significant surplus, most days I’m in a slight deficit though I am keeping protein high).
Does this make sense? Or does it sound like a shortcut to sore knees and burnout?
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https://www.T-Nation.com/workouts/100-rep-trap-bar-workout
^ 3x5@140kg + 1x10@100kg