My Favorite Specialty Bar: Why the Safety Bar Will Make You Freaky Strong
Check out a great article that our Faction Powerlifting Coach Chris Moore just published in the CrossFit Journal titled:
–> Squat Heavy and Often <–
There’s even a picture of me doing cambered bar box squats just like I discussed in yesterday’s video!
Today’s video:
The safety bar is an absolute necessity. Well… maybe not a necessity, but you should have one anyway; there’re just too awesome not to have at your gym. Wanna know why? It’ll make you stronger! Here’s the breakdown.
You can use a safety bar for many of the same exercises that you would normally do with a standard Olympic bar but the stimulus is slightly different.
The safety bar puts the plate weight out in front of you a little bit, which pulls you forward. You have to couteract this pull by pushing your hips back as well as staying very upright. These are good things.
The pad on the bar makes it sit higher on your neck which makes your back “longer” (lever arm longer) which will also help you stay more upright (people with longer backs relative to their short legs always squat more upright vs those with a short back, long limbs).
The shape of the bar will make it try to roll forward (rounding your upper back) and you have to counteract this pull by maintaining very strong thoracic extension.
The bar also won’t fall off of your back if you aren’t holding onto it. This is both a good and a bad thing…
Good: If you’re doing single leg work (split squats) and you lose your balance, it’s nice to be able to let go and adjust with your hand on a rack rather than jump around on one leg with 200 lbs on your back (see video)
Bad: If you’re squatting outside of a cage and don’t have a spotter the safety bar is probably the most unsafe bar in the gym because you can’t get out… rather you’ll get out but it’ll be ugly.
Homework:
Discuss buying a safety bar with your staff or with your gym owner, and/or if you know someone that has one see if you can borrow it for a few days. Squats and rear foot elevated split squats are my most common exercises. Try both.
See you tomorrow,
Doug