One of my favourite specialty bars to use is the safety squat bar. It is a good bar to use if someone has a shoulder injury or poor mobility in the shoulders, as you hold the handles in front of you, making it more comfortable than a regular straight bar.
I also find safety bar squats really strengthen the legs and lower back. The camber pulls you forward, so you really have to fit to stay upright throughout the squat. It really forces you to brace hard and stay tight throughout the lift.
Another thing is that you really have to drive hard out of the bottom of the squat. It improves your leg drive and you can really feel your hamstring, glutes, and lower back.
Whilst it is a different movement and technique to performing squats with a regular straight bar, I really feel that there is great carry over from the strength you gain in the muscles used in the safety bar squat and the tension that you learn to create by using this bar.
For each of my cycles of squats I use different specialty bars early on in my training phases and work my way back to regular bar squats at the end. It has been working well as it is helping develop strength in different muscle groups and at different parts in the range of motion. When I do return to regular squats, I feel like I am in much more control of the bar path then I would be otherwise.
In the video above I am using our Watson Safety Squat Bar which is in my opinion the most solid on the market. I get 175kg for 5 reps, which for me is a good lift.
You can have a look at this study for more information in regards to safety bar squats compared to back squats https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30363042 and you can have a look at Greg Nuckols break down of it https://www.strongerbyscience.com/safety-bar-squats/
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