drtbear1967
Musclechemistry Board Certified Member
by Mike Sirani
Safety squat bar benefits:
1. It saves your shoulders. If you've spent a lot of time training the bench, squat, and overhead press, you know that the cumulative effect takes a toll on your shoulders. And while the back squat isn't an upper body exercise, locking your shoulder joints into a position to support the bar, and then creating tension to stabilize the load, causes large amounts of stress on the front and top of your shoulders. When you lack the upper body mobility to properly set up for a back squat, your rotator cuff, labrum, and biceps tendon pay a heavy price. The SS bar solves this problem. It allows you to lower your shoulders' exposure to stress, especially if you're training with high volume, and it virtually eliminates upper body mobility as a barrier of entry to higher intensity squatting.
2. It nails your quads. To target your quads, your lifts need to put you in a position with a more angled tibia, bringing your knee forward relative to your ankle. This along with a more upright torso, vertically stacking your shoulders over your hips. Traditionally, we've dealt with this problem using front squats. The problem there is that you can't use nearly as much weight as you can when the bar is on your back. The SS bar solves this problem by splitting the difference in horizontal displacement between the front and back squat bar position, giving you the best of both worlds: an upright torso and the ability to really load up the weight.
3. It's handy for taller lifters. Taller lifters tend to have trouble squatting with good mechanics. Whether it's from having to control a longer spine and limbs during the lift or not having ideal leverages, the squat will always be a lift that most taller folks struggle with. The higher bar position and anterior-loaded weight will help him stay more upright and better positioned in the hips, spine and upper back. And as a result, his squat will actually look like a squat and not an awful good-morning variation.
Safety squat bar benefits:
1. It saves your shoulders. If you've spent a lot of time training the bench, squat, and overhead press, you know that the cumulative effect takes a toll on your shoulders. And while the back squat isn't an upper body exercise, locking your shoulder joints into a position to support the bar, and then creating tension to stabilize the load, causes large amounts of stress on the front and top of your shoulders. When you lack the upper body mobility to properly set up for a back squat, your rotator cuff, labrum, and biceps tendon pay a heavy price. The SS bar solves this problem. It allows you to lower your shoulders' exposure to stress, especially if you're training with high volume, and it virtually eliminates upper body mobility as a barrier of entry to higher intensity squatting.
2. It nails your quads. To target your quads, your lifts need to put you in a position with a more angled tibia, bringing your knee forward relative to your ankle. This along with a more upright torso, vertically stacking your shoulders over your hips. Traditionally, we've dealt with this problem using front squats. The problem there is that you can't use nearly as much weight as you can when the bar is on your back. The SS bar solves this problem by splitting the difference in horizontal displacement between the front and back squat bar position, giving you the best of both worlds: an upright torso and the ability to really load up the weight.
3. It's handy for taller lifters. Taller lifters tend to have trouble squatting with good mechanics. Whether it's from having to control a longer spine and limbs during the lift or not having ideal leverages, the squat will always be a lift that most taller folks struggle with. The higher bar position and anterior-loaded weight will help him stay more upright and better positioned in the hips, spine and upper back. And as a result, his squat will actually look like a squat and not an awful good-morning variation.
