Why Don't You Use A Safety Squat Bar?
- Justin Burns
- Sep 23, 2015
- 4 min read
I remember if you used to use the safety squat bar you used to be considered a wimp or get called puss because of the padding on the bar and it isn’t the norm for a lot of these lifters now a day. However I am going to take a stand and stick up for it and say that if you’re an athlete or any lifter for that matter and do not have one in your arsenal than you are missing out on a lot of benefits! I will even go out on a limb and say that this bar will help you deadlift more than virtually any other movement outside of the deadlift of course!
THE BAR
Let’s talk a little about the construction of the bar, It is 7 ft long like most bars and the weight will vary depending on the manufacturer.
The bar also has a camber and that will also change depending on the maker of the bar. There are also 2 free spinning loading sleeves as most bars.
There are 2 handles that form a U shape in the center of the bar that are usually covered by padding to protect the neck and shoulders.
THE BENEFITS
This is a laundry list of benefits to this style of bar but let’s go over the main movements. The three things that should make you open your wallet or convince your gym owner to grab a couple of these bars.
The Handles
A safety squat bars handles is great way to get the hands away from the position of regular back squats; Taking a lot of pressure off of the shoulder joint. This will save your bicep tendons as well as your shoulder cuff muscles.
They also provide a great position for athletes. Most sports the hands sit in the front of the body in order to accomplish whatever their sport demands, and training in that position can only help with turn over to the sport they compete in!
Not only are the handles good for taking pressure off of the shoulders and help athletes train in a better position; they can be used for front squats…how? Well that brings me to the camber of the bar!
The Camber
The Camber is the offset on either side of the bar, this bend in the bar makes it so that when you have the bar on your shoulder the weight sits in front or behind you (depending on the back or front squat positioning) When the camber puts the load in that position it will force the handles down.
This is why when performing back squat you don’t even need to have you hands on the handles. The handles themselves will be pushed into the chest and shoulders. Vice versa when performing front squats with the S.S.B the handles will be forces down on to the shoulders; however the athlete till needs to have the hand on the bar to secure it from falling off of the shoulders.
The Posterior Chain
As stated in the cambered section of this article this bar will force your forward and if you don’t take the proper precautions and learn the proper way to squat with this bar; I almost guarantee you fall forward or your squat simply looks extremely ugly.
So if this bar forces you forward what do we need to do to counter act that effect? Simple, sit back! If we are going to talk about some form let’s start from the head down.
Before you even take the bar out of the rack you have to force your head back into the pad and keep it that way the entire set! Moving downward to the upper back, the only word to say is tight; shoulder blades together.
Once we go through the set-up of any other squat and are ready to descend into our first squat we need to cover a few things. The lower back needs to be arched and tight. When we finally need to start the decent we need to push the hips back and keep the knees pushed out. Coming out of the hole it is important to have your head pushed back hard into the pad and the rest of the ascent needs follow the head!
The point of all this explanation is the fact that every singles one of the muscle in your back from your heels to your head needs to be in extreme contraction in order to keep the bar from forcing you into the ground!
WRAP UP
Anyone who has actually spent a session of two using this bar would agree that squatting with this bar is by far more difficult than using a straight bar and I will defend that statement till the end of time if I have to. If people want to use the pads as an excuse or reason to call it “for wimps only” than let them think that way while all those who utilize its benefits for posterior chain activation reap the benefits by obtaining a larger free squat as well as deadlift!
Comments