Kabuki Strength Trap Bar Review for 2022

The Kabuki Strength Trap Bar is a niche bar that is completely different from all its competitors. Although it is more expensive, this is the end-user never buying another trap bar again, kind of trap bar.

The unique design and build quality is what stands out from all the other trap bars in the market. It features a unique arrangement that allows you to rotate the bar and place it vertically. This allows you to load and unload plates off the bar regardless of the weight.

It offers two different grips and has an open design that keeps the overall balance. With the open design, you’re able to perform several different exercises including split squats, loaded carries, and lunges.

As the load is centered and not off axis like a conventional barbell deadlift, it’s perfect for athletes or individuals with nagging back issues or rehabbing injuries to use to get stronger and recover.

As a collegiate athlete who has trained in several small to world-class gyms, I’ve been able to test out The Kabuki Strength Trap bar and will be revealing my findings, pros and cons, and thoughts throughout this article.

Things to consider before buying a Trap Bar

A trap bar or a hex bar is a specialty bar used in weight training. It usually used for deadlifts or shrugs and usually has a pair of handles on the side. This offers you a choice of two different grips and heights to choose from to begin your lift.

As the bar is a hexagonal or square shape, the overall weight distribution changes from being in front of you to being in the center. 

Because of the unique design, it allows you to work dominant muscle groups while reducing the chances of being injured.

The dominant muscles groups that are worked includes:

For Deadlifts:

• Glutes – The Trap Bar Deadlift targets mostly the glutes (The gluteus maximus and gluteus medius). These muscles are the key groups to overall lower body strength, power, and athletic performances.
• Hamstrings – The Trap Bar Deadlifts works the hamstrings throughout the movement. It is used to stabilize your legs and when you move the weight up.
• Lower Back – Your lower back muscles will have a decreased load placed since your back is at a more upright torso position and greater knee flexion. This is perfect for individuals that may have lower back concerns and want to still perform deadlifts.
• Quadriceps – The trap bar deadlift focuses more on the quadriceps. As you have more knee flexion, you keep more of an upright torso positioning while minimizing the overall strain on your lower back and hamstrings in comparison to a conventional barbell deadlift.

For Shoulder Press:

• Shoulders – As you begin with a grip on the sides, the trap bar overhead press targets all the muscles around the shoulder. Using a neutral grip, it is much more safer than a standard barbell shoulder press, perfect for individuals experiencing joint pain in the shoulder as it alleviates some of that tension.
• Traps and Triceps – The traps and triceps are stabilizer muscles for the shoulder as you perform the exercise. They indirectly benefit and prevent your shoulders from getting injured.

In any case, here are a few things that you should consider before you purchase Kabuki Strength’s Trap Bar:

• Height and arm length
• Past Injuries
• Athletic Level – Do you have the correct form to use a hex trap bar?
• Space – Hex Bar tend to be longer and wider than normal barbells?
• Weather – As hotter weather can increase rust and colder weather makes the bar more brittle
• Do you have bumper plates?
• Do you have clips or holders that fit the Trap Bar?
• Do you have a Power Rack or a Rack Holder?

Why You Should Consider The Kabuki Strength Trap Bar

The trap bar allows you to have your hands wider than if you were to be holding two dumbbells. Due to its design, it always allows you to add a larger significant load to your lift. 

Although the bar was designed as a replacement for the dumbbell squat, it is an easy to learn and lower back friendly lift that is a perfect accessory exercise for all lifters and workout programs.

Here are some benefits when you purchase The Kabuki Strength Trap bar:

Variable Handle Width

The Kabuki Strength Trap Bar provides an industry first variable handle system that allows you to switch up the handles to work different muscles on specific exercises. 

Providing a 23”, 25”, and 27” intra-handle width using a swappable handle bracket, increasing versatility and difficulty on your workouts.

This is also great for individuals that are shorter or taller where they have longer levers. Making the Kabuki Strength Trap Bar perfect for all types of individuals.

Bar Jack

The built-in bar jack allows you to load and unload plates in an easy, simple, and effortless solution. No more spending extra energy pushing weight for your max and No more asking for a friend to lift the bar up.

The design features a 2x inch-thick leg with padded treads to provide stability and grip when the bar is in a vertical orientation. This reduces the chance of the bar tipping over when your adding or taking off the plates.

Swappable Grips

The Kabuki Trap bar comes wiht two sets of machined and knurled-textured grips, finished using bright zinc. An industry-first, these grips are easily interchangeable for your specific training needs. 

The grips available include a 1” Set (26mm), 1.5” Set (38mm), and a 2” Love Handle Set (51mm).

The Love Handles allows for both fixed usage and rolling grips that allow the grip to spin freely. This is great for adding versatility and difficulty to your workouts and exercises.

Balanced Design

Standard Trap Bars with low handles forces the lifter to self balance the trap bar using their wrists. While higher handles make it difficult to rotate forwards or backwards. 

This results in any minor movements or shifts, the bar is going to rotate and fall out of your hands. This can cause strains, injuries, or instabilities if you’re using heavy weights.

Kabuki’s Strength Trap Bar has created a solution that introduced a minor ½” vertical offset for the lower handles, placed higher than the standard centerline of the bar. The higher handles are also slightly higher reduces the tendencies of diving forward or backwards but rather returning to the center.

Versatile

Kabuki Strength’s Trap Bar created an open up one end bar while ensuring it retains its fully-balanced design. This provides more versatility and variation towards all trap bar exercises..

Here is a list of exercises that you can perform using a trap bar:

• Deadlifts
• Seated Deadlifts 
• Single Leg Deadlifts
• Jump deadlifts
• Split Squats
• Cambered Squats 
• Step Ups
• Normal/Walking Lunges
• Farmers Walks
• Overhead Press
• Shoulder Shrugs
• Heavy Isometric Holds
• Back Rows
• Floor Presses
• Push Presses
• Zercher Squats 
• Zercher carries 
• Zercher lunges 

Machines Sleeves

The Kabuki Strength Trap Bar is made with machined and zinc-plated sleeves with can handle 17” of loadable space. 

Most standard trap bars cut costs by using off the shelf DOM tubing that is usually smaller than a Standard Olympic sleeve, resulting in your plates not sitting tightly on the trap bar.

As the plates are looser on the trap bar, the more shifting, clanging, and movement of the plates making it more difficult to lift your weights.

Kabuki Strength’s Trap Bar is made with tight tolerance, allowing for a snug fit for Olympic standard plates and other standard barbell plates. These sleeves are detachable allowing for a compact design.

Made In America

The Trap Bar is manufactured, fabricated, and assembled in-house. This ensures the quality of each bar providing you the assurance that your trap bar will last for decades to come. From expert craftsmanship to in-depth scientific research, The Kabuki Bar is perfect for individuals looking to push their workouts to the next level.

The FAQs

Is A Trap Bar Better Than A Straight Barbell

Both Trap Bar and Straight Barbell have benefits depending on your goals and purposes, however here are a few key differences when you use a Trap Bar versus a Conventional Straight Barbell.

Weight Path

When performing a trap bar deadlift it is more of a vertical path as you are in the center of the bar. This means you can potentially lift more weight than you would with a normal barbel.

For the conventional deadlift, the weight is in front of you. This means the weight path is more technical as you need to counterbalance the weight to stop from you tipping forward or extending too far back.

Grip

There are different ways to grip a barbell when performing conventional barbell deadlifts;

1. Double Overhand Grip
2. Mixed Grip
3. Standard Trap Bar Grip

The double overhand grip is a great grip for beginners and is common when deadlift. This is the most balanced and is comfortable to maintain. However, when you’re lifting heavier loads, it may be a bigger challenge as you need a lot of grip strength to keep holding the bar.

The Mixed Grip is when one hand is facing towards you and one hand is facing the other way. Many advanced lifters use this as it helps you keep a more secure grip. The drawback is that you cause a slight rotation in the body that creates imbalances and possible injuries.

The standard Trap Bar Grip is when you grab both handles on your side of your trap bar.

Mobility

Trap Bar Deadlifts do not require much hip mobility in comparison to traditional barbell deadlifts. As the handles are slightly higher, you do not have to bend forward down too much.

Conventional Barbell deadlifts require a good amount of hip mobility and most people lack in this area. As they are sitting in their offices all day, their hips and glutes are often tight.

That’s why Trap Bar deadlifts are a better alternative if you have any mobility issues.

Who Should Use A Trap Bar

General Fitness

The trap bar is beginner friendly and a great tool to train your whole body. 

The benefits of using a trap bar may vary on your fitness goals, ability, mobility, and flexibility issues. However, it is easier to use than a conventional barbell and you can progress faster as the form is very easy to pick up and learn.

CrossFit or Competitive Fitness Athletes

Trap Bars are very versatile and can add variety to your training program. 

As most CrossFit and competitive fitness athletes are performing cleans, snatches, swings, and deadlifts, the trap bar deadlift can be a fantastic accessory exercise to strengthen those numbers and develop underused muscle groups.

Power and Strength Athletes

Trap Bars are a great way to supplement in increasing deadlifts and other big lift exercises. As they are working on different muscle groups, overall your whole body will become stronger the more you incorporate the hex bar.

For those that are going through some pains and issues, The trap bar is a great alternative as it needs less mobility to perform these exercises.

As you use more and more of the Trap Bar as an accessory for your major lifts, the easier you will find it to lift more heavier weights.

Our Final Thoughts on The Kabuki Strength Trap Bar

The Kabuki Strength Trap Bar is a niche bar that is completely different from all its competitors. Although it is more expensive, this is the end-user never buying another trap bar again, kind of trap bar.

The unique design and build quality is what stands out from all the other trap bars in the market. It features a unique arrangement that allows you to rotate the bar and place it vertically. This allows you to load and unload plates off the bar regardless of the weight.

It offers two different grips and has an open design that keeps the overall balance. With the open design, you’re able to perform several different exercises including split squats, loaded carries, and lunges.

If you’re looking for a complete trap bar that has all the features, accessibilities, and usability, then we recommend you checking out The Kabuki Strength Trap Bar.