While it’s most common to use a barbell horizontally (think: squats, deads, bench), you can also flip it on one end and use it with a more vertical or diagonal motion.
Ah, another reason the barbell is king: versatility for days.
When you hold one end of the barbell and push, pull, twist, or squat it like that, you’ve entered the minefield. In a pinch, you can push the other end of the bar into the corner of the room or your power rack, but that’s not super stable and it can slide around. It’s safest and most effective to slide your bar into a landmine sleeve instead.
Types of Landmines
Landmines are small, lightweight, inexpensive, and easy to use – so there’s no real reason to risk the end of your barbell sliding on the floor when you’re trying to press a heavy load. There are two main styles of landmines to use with your barbell.
Landmine Attachment
This landmine connects to your power rack. There are three different types: the 4000 Series, 5000 Series, and 1000 Series. The landmine itself is the same for all three series; it just attaches differently to the respective series of power racks.
This landmine connects to the outside of your rack’s uprights, so you have plenty of space outside the cage. It’s easy to take on or off using the included band peg. Just slide it into a hole in the rack at whatever height you want (typically low to the ground). The side mount design keeps the attachment out of the way of any other work inside the cage.
REP’s landmines work with barbells with both a 2” and 1” sleeve.
Free Standing Landmine
This landmine doesn’t attach to anything; it sits on your floor by itself. It’s a great choice for lifters who don’t have a power rack or don’t want to connect the landmine to their rack. If you want added stability, you can bolt it to the ground, although you don’t really need to. If you put it up against a wall and slip a plate on the attached peg (to weigh it down), it’s pretty darn stable.
The unloaded Free Standing Landmine isn’t too heavy (33lbs), so it’s easy to move around, if needed.
Fun fact: It’s called a “landmine,” because you slide your bar into a hole, and landmines are, well, holes in the ground.
How to Use a Landmine
A landmine allows you to use the barbell in different ways. The most common use of a landmine is for overhead presses, but you can hit your body head to toe in so many creative ways with this bad boy. Here are some exercises you can do with a landmine.
- Overhead presses/landmine presses (single arm or both arms; standing or on one knee)
- Thrusters (an overhead press with a squat at the bottom)
- Single-arm rows/Meadows rows
- T-bar rows (You can put a Triangle Row around the end of your bar, if you don’t like holding the barbell)
- Russian twists
- Landmine rotations/twists
- Lat raises
- Landmine flies
- Landmine squats (facing the bar or away from the bar, close stance or sumo, box squats)
- Landmine belt squats (attach your dip belt to the barbell)
- Landmine lunges
- Romanian deadlifts/single-leg Romanian deadlifts
- Landmine deadlifts
- Single-leg hip thrusts
- Floor presses (single arm or both arm)
- Landmine curls
- Clean and presses
- And more
