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05-24-20 10:44 AM - Post#898420
Great thread: As an alternative to barbell deadlifts, trap bar deads are great. Of course, trap bar deadlifts seem to be a very different exercise, but that's not a bad thing. I have found them much easier on the back, though sometimes my knees squawk a bit from them. A lot of bodybuilders don't deadlift from the floor, but prefer rack deads from knee height or lower. This is also a more forgiving approach.
People have mentioned incline presses. I recall that Bill Starr sung the praises of that exercise in The Strongest Shall Survive and in some of his Iron Man columns. I find the barbell version tough on my shoulders, and the fixed incline benches in most commercial gyms seem too steep. I prefer to use dumbbells on an adjustable incline bench. The dumbbells allow for more natural movement and you can adjust movement path and hand orientation based on whatever is hurting that day. The adjustable bench similarly allows you to fine tune the exercise better. The only problem is getting the dumbbells into position. I try to keep my reps on inclines above 8, so that I am forced to use reasonable weights and don't have to use dumbbells that are heavy enough to frighten me.
A workout of trap bar deads, incline dumbbell presses, and maybe either chins or chest supported rows would cover the body nicely if you want a consolidated routine. Maybe finish with face pulls or Ys (cable, band, or whatever) and a superset or two of triceps and biceps ("beach work"). Of course, some of us like a lot more variety and bodypart specialization, and with the gyms closed now in a lot of places, this (for me at least) is a not-now, if ever, idea.
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