Now, for many years serious trainees chose the dead-lift with a straight barbell as their preferred exercise for training these areas.

The results were very good, if not outstanding, but training with the barbell did have its disadvantages:

While dead-lifting, the barbell would scrape against the shins, knees and thighs as it was lifted, even drawing blood in some cases

Not to mention that the barbell is also lifted out in front of the body, which increases stress on the back and knees.

Shrugs and rows, two other very important and productive exercises, are also somewhat uncomfortable when performed with a straight barbell for the very same reasons.

Well about 20 years ago, Al Gerard, a power-lifter from North Carolina, was sick and tired of dealing with this situation. He had to keep missing workouts because his back was so beat up from dead-lifting with a straight bar -- but he had to keep dead-lifting if he wanted to keep competing.

One day he had a great idea...

He created a sort of "frame" bar which he could stand in while dead-lifting. This design moved the weight in line with the body's natural center of gravity, instead of out in front of it, and more importantly it took stress off the lower back... He began to train.

After several months of training with his new invention, Al found that he could now dead-lift AND squat with more weight even though he rarely trained those exercises with a barbell.

Al also could not help but notice his traps had grown substantially larger and more muscular and his grip improved tremendously. He was undoubtedly on to something BIG -- and the Gerard Trap bar was born!

- A Great Idea Spreads -

The Gerard Trap Bar soon became one of the most well-known and valuable training tools for all kinds of athletes. Dr. Ken Leistner trained many of his power-lifters on with the Trap Bar and they experienced incredible gains and increased totals.

Paul Kelso, another well-known strength author, adapted the Gerard Trap Bar to his awesome "Shrug" system and featured it in many training articles throughout various publications.

Brooks Kubik, easily one of the most influential strength authors of modern times lauded the Trap Bar throughout his writings.

Many professional football teams started using the Trap Bar for shrugs in order to build all-important neck strength for their players. Several high schools replaced the straight bar with a trap bar for dead-lift contests.

And, after not being able to dead-lift previously with a barbell, many serious trainees around the country and the world could now experience the awesome gains from dead-lifting with a Trap Bar without having to deal with the discomfort of a straight bar.

Al Gerard even patented the Trap Bar design and trademarked the "Trap Bar" name -- no one else may use these marks without permission from Al Gerard. For building hip and leg strength, there is simply nothing better than the Gerard Trap Bar. The Trap Bar is the safest, most comfortable way to dead-lift ever invented.