Experimenting with Safety Squat Bar

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Any tips for SSB squats? A gym I train at occasionally has just added a SSB and as I’ve never used one I thought the novelty would be a useful change of pace so I’ve started trying to use it as one of my variations, but so far I absolutely hate it. I’ve only had a couple of practice sessions with it, but I cannot get use to the discomfort of how the forward facing handles sit on my back/traps and that is limiting the weight Im using far under what it should be for it to be a productive variation

Any tips here? Is this possibly cheap/bad padding? Is this just how SSBs be? Or more likely something I’m dumb I’m doing in the set up, like having the bar the wrong way around (whatever that might mean)? FWIW, I have it set up so those handles point down and when its on my back those handles are trying really hard to get back into that position.

2

I’m wondering if you have the bar backwards in the rack, which is much more uncomfortable and more difficult. When in the rack without you underneath it, the handles should be pointing forward at ~ 20-30 degrees from vertical. Do you have a video?

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3

That seems likely. I’ll see I can what I can do next time.

4

So it absolutely was an issue of the bar being backwards in the rack. Thanks for the sanity check

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5

Sometimes I think all this experience is for naught, but then something like this happens :rofl:

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6

It turns out the bar is also 30lbs heavier than I though it was :joy:

7

Yea, as you well know, few things in this industry are standardized lol. The one at my gym is 16lbs heavier than a standard power bar.