The Safety Squat Bar is a specialty barbell with cambered ends and handles that bring your hands in front of your body, rather than out to your sides like a straight barbell.
It looks hardcore. Like part of some kind of sci-fi Viking robot warrior. And in some ways, the SSB is extra challenging. It sits higher on your shoulders, forcing you to fight to stay upright instead of crumbling forward like a sad taco. Add to that ends that drop the weight below bar height, and you’ve got a totally different breed of squats. Brutal and humbling. Not necessarily harder or easier than traditional back squats, but indisputably different. You’ll probably have to drop weight.
The Safety Squat Bar itself weighs more than a normal straight barbell, too. REP's Safety Squat bar weighs 68lbs instead of the standard 45lbs.
But in other ways, this specialty bar is pretty forgiving. It massively reduces the stress on your upper body, in particular your elbows, shoulders, and wrists. There’s a reason — a ton of reasons, actually — why the SSB is a beloved (and sometimes lovingly despised) exercise among lifters, from Strongmen to powerlifters to gym rats who want to improve their squats (or keep hitting legs with fewer demands on the upper body).
Here’s why you need to add a Safety Squat Bar to your training — and all the different ways you can use it. Hint: It’s way more than just back squats that make you look like a cyborg.
WHY USE A SAFETY SQUAT BAR?
Due to its unique shape, the SSB (also called a Safety Squat Yoke Barbell) can help you gain strength, relieve upper body discomfort or pain, prevent injury, improve your squat form, preserve your upper body strength, and more. Here’s how:
- Strength: With the bar pitching you forward and higher on your shoulders, you are forced to really engage your core and upper back. Because of that, SSB squats have a vertical position that looks more like a front or high-bar squat. As such, SSB back squats tend to really fire up the quads, as well as minimize the pressure on the lower back. The more upright your torso, the less stress on your lower back. The bar demands your quads step in. This position can also allow more range of motion through the lower-body joints (and make it easier to hit depth). Different exercises with the SSB will hit different muscle groups (see next section).
- Relieve upper body pain: Holding handles in front of your body takes a ton of strain off your shoulders, elbows, and wrists; you don’t need to externally rotate your shoulders with this bar. It can also allow you to keep squatting with a pec injury. Even if you’re not injured, the SSB can help you squat with reduced shoulder and chest mobility, while you work on improving your range of motion.
- Injury/pain prevention: Feeling elbow tendinitis creeping in? Swap to the SSB while you rest it. Plus, the bar pad wraps around your neck, so the metal doesn’t dig into your spine/neck.
- Technique: The SSB can improve your ability to remain upright under a traditional barbell and help you train not to let your chest collapse. Because the SSB places the bar load on your center of gravity, it’s easier to maintain proper form during the squat. This muscle awareness and memory translates to a straight bar.
- Preserve upper body: This bar gives your upper body a break, preserving your shoulders and chest and allowing them to properly recover for your next upper body day. Save your shoulders for OHPs or heavy bench. Don’t waste them on squats.
Benefits of a Safety Squat Bar
The bottom line: A safety squat bar is a versatile and ergonomic tool that benefits lifters of all levels. Its unique design, with padded shoulders and angled handles, reduces strain on the wrists, shoulders, and elbows, making it ideal for lifters with mobility limitations or injuries.
The SSB shifts the center of gravity slightly forward, engaging the upper back, core, and stabilizing muscles more effectively than a traditional barbell, which can improve posture and overall strength.
This bar is especially excellent for squats, good mornings, and lunges, as it helps maintain a more upright torso and reduces the risk of lower back strain. Additionally, the SSB is a valuable tool for athletes seeking to strengthen their posterior chain, build functional strength, and add variety to their training programs.
Safety Bar Squats
To do a safety bar squat, rest the bar on your shoulders with the pads distributing the weight evenly, grip the handles in front of you, and descend into a squat by pushing your hips back and bending your knees. Maintain an upright torso and engage your core as you lower until your thighs are parallel to the ground or lower, then drive through your heels to return to standing.
OTHER EXERCISES ON A SAFETY SQUAT BAR?
Although back squats are the most obvious use of the SSB, that’s just the beginning of how you can use it. Especially with a SSB with removable handles. Here are some other exercises to try:
- Good mornings (also seated good mornings/single-leg good mornings/upper back good mornings): Rest the bar on your shoulders, hinge at your hips while keeping your back straight, and lower your torso until parallel to the ground before returning upright.
- Hatfield squats: Yes, you can let go of the handles and it will still balance on your traps.
- Front squats: The pad and handles make these more comfortable than front squats with a straight bar and even make front squats possible for people with wrist issues.
- Box squats: Sit back onto a box behind you with the bar on your shoulders, pause briefly, and then drive through your heels to stand back up.
- Bulgarian split squats: Rest the bar on your shoulders, place one foot behind you on a bench, and lower into a lunge until your front thigh is parallel to the ground, then push back up.
- Step-ups: Put the bar on your shoulders, step one foot onto a sturdy platform (like a bench or box), drive through your heel to stand fully upright, and then step back down.
- Single-leg Romanian deadlifts: With the bar on your shoulders, hinge at your hips while extending one leg straight behind you, and lower your torso until parallel to the ground before returning upright.
- Calf raises: Stand on a raised platform or flat surface and push through the balls of your feet to lift your heels as high as possible, then slowly lower back down.
- Zercher squats: Position the bar in the crooks of your elbows, brace your core, squat down by pushing your hips back and bending your knees, then drive through your heels to stand back up.
- Lunges/walking lunges: Using a bar for lunges doesn’t limit the weight to your grip strength. And if you let go of the SSB for a moment to catch your balance, the SSB will remain in place, whereas you must keep both hands on a straight bar at all times to keep it from rolling off.
- Hip thrusts: Rest your upper back on a bench, place the bar across your hips, and drive through your heels to lift your hips until your body forms a straight line from shoulders to knees, then lower back down.
- Overhead press: Bonus: If you have a low ceiling, the camber puts the weight lower than the center part that you grip, so you have more clearance for plates on the barbell. Remove the handles so you don’t worry about hitting your face or head on them and can maintain a proper bar path.
- JM Press: Lower the bar diagonally toward your upper chest or throat with elbows tucked, then press back up, focusing on triceps engagement. You can also remove the handles to keep them out of the way.
- Triceps extension: Lie on a bench, lower the bar behind your head by bending your elbows, and then extend your arms back up to target the triceps.
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Skull crushers: Lie on a bench, grip the bar's handles, lower it toward your forehead or just behind your head by bending your elbows, and then extend your arms back to the starting position to target the triceps.
Note: Triceps extensions lower the bar behind the head for a greater stretch on the triceps' long head, while skull crushers lower it to the forehead or just behind, focusing more on the lateral and medial heads. - Shrugs: Hold the bar securely on your shoulders and lift your shoulders straight up toward your ears, then lower back down.
- Side bends: Rest the bar on your shoulders and bend sideways at the waist, lowering one shoulder while keeping your core engaged, then return to the starting position.
- SSB military press: Stand upright holding the bar with its padded handles in front of your shoulders, then press it overhead in a controlled motion while keeping your core engaged and back straight.
The list of exercises goes on and is mostly limited by your creativity, making the Safety Squat Bar an incredibly useful, versatile, and fun new challenge to add to your home gym.
Pro tip: When doing a new exercise, make sure you have a spotter or bench press safety bars set up in your power rack. Here's a look at the different safeties to protect yo neck.
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