What has everyones experience been with the safety squat bar, 10 weeks ago I had shoulder surgery/ labrum reconstruction and have had to use this bar exclusively.
Any advice on tips or how to use it best?
Did you experience a lot of carryover to your competition squat or deadlift.
Any cool ways you programmed it?
Just curious to how everyone uses this bar, I definitely noticed the groove is quite different and if you tip forward at all its a bad deal. Would be curious to see what everyones PR’s are with this bar and their relation to their other lifts
Count yourself blessed to have access to one. Would tell you lift ratios if I had access to one you lucky bastard
While you are still rehabilitating your shoulder e.g. restoring range of motion the SSB will be super handy and you could use it exclusively until you’re ready for lowbar.
Specific as fuck therefore plenty of carryover. Used by plenty of powerlifters e.g. Dan Green, Pete Rubish etc.
Program it like any other main lift / builder e.g. as tho it was high bar. Awesome if your low bar squat beats up your shoulder/elbows/wrists noticeably especially with high volumes.
Alex “The God” Simon (insta godlystrong) squatted SSB almost exclusively leading up to Pro Raw Big Dogs later this month. Couple of sessions low bar and he looks set to hit an Australian Record squat in comp. Maybs 430-440kg
For me, carries over to my squat massively. Anything I can squat on the SSB will feel way easier on a straight bar. I’ve found how it taxes my back is helpful for my DL too.
I once did all my squatting with a SSB for a few weeks du to some shoulder issues, when I switched back to the straight bar I found that my bottom position was messed up, it took a couple weeks to fix it. That’s the only possible negative that I can think of, it builds your upper back and teaches you to stay upright and gives your shoulders and arms a break which are all good things. I squatted 480 in a meet and squatted 400x3 on the SSB, neither of those was an all out max so you could say that I can handle 5-10% less on the SSB.
The SSB and technique are a factor. I use a NewYorkBarbells SSB, which has a different camber angle than most on the market. In turn, I find that the SSB squat doesn’t carry over much to my squat, but DOES significantly improve my deadlift. The weight is thrown very far forward and greatly taxes the upperback. I also pull the handles down rather than push up, which continues to affect that.
One of the other hidden benefits of the SSB is the carryover to the bench, in that, since your shoulders aren’t as torqued due to the neutral hand grip, they don’t get as fried from squats, which means you can hammer than more with benching. My press always improves more when I stick with the SSB and buffalo bar, and tends to degrade a little when squatting with a straight bar.
