I’m building out my garage gym and am thinking of adding a neutral or multi grip bar, mainly so I can bench to my chest regularly (some shoulder issues make benching to my chest with a regular bar not the best idea). I see that there are some multi-grip bars that have straight handles and then some that are angled. I’m probably not going to use this bar for anything but benching. Thoughts on whether the angled handles or the straight handles are easier on the shoulders?
Rogue has one with both angled and straight handles; it’s called the MG-3. I haven’t tried it, but I was thinking of getting it. Have you called gyms in your area to see if they have a bar that you can test out before buying?
There is a gym I can go to that has a neutral grip bar, but I’ve been avoiding the gym due to this whole pandemic thing. The guys at EliteFTS suggested mimicking the angle with dumbbells and that would be a pretty good indicator. So I think that’s what I’m going to try.
This Archon bar is great, well made, and nice looking. (But out of stock right now)
I also have a couple from bwtg:
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The Football Bar at elitefts is nice. I bought it primarily for OHP, so the fact that it’s as thick as a normal bar in the middle is a face saver. I also use it for curls. I fixed my shoulders, so don’t need to use for bench or incline.
I feel like the width of the handles fitting your structure is more important for bench and incline. I had another bar I remember clearly not working well for bench. I would definitely try before you buy if you’re using it for bench. Handles being a little too wide or narrow won’t feel great on your wrists.
More care should be taken with your grip and the angled bar. You know immediately if it’s not right on the neutral grip, not as obvious with the angled bar. The bar rotating a just a little bit with a lot of weight on it and you’ll be trading shoulder issues for wrist issues. Only took one scare for me to wrap my wrists on anything remotely heavy with either grip.
Have you tried a slingshot or the elitefts shoulder saver pad? Cheaper than a bar.
Thanks, these are all really good thoughts. I was looking at the Elitefts bars so I’m glad to hear the quality is what you’d expect from that company.
I have the shoulder saver pad and like it. I have a slingshot from my powerlifting days but have not tried it to see how it feels on the shoulders. I have this somewhat irrational idea that I’ll be missing out by not touching my chest (with the shoulder saver pad) or not working my chest as much as I could if I use the slingshot. But I suppose that’s probably rather silly.
Dean from Black Widow makes some very good equipment. My angled multi-grip bar is really nice, and he added knurling for a very small charge. I second Black Widow. (His Viking Press barbell attachment and landmine are awesome as well.)
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I have two landmine attachments (the viking press and the t-bar row) and both a high quality work. I’m going to check out the angled press bar.
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Also look into this:
I had shoulder issues for a long time and wearing this for about 30 minutes daily fixed it quickly. If you have any doubts about the size, go smaller; you want it tight and there’s free returns so you can exchange it.
Edit: They seem to be in short supply on Amazon (only 2 sizes available), but other sites should have it.
I’ll check this out. This always looked kinda like a gimicky product to me. Did you find the changes to your posture stuck after you took it off?
I actually don’t have posture issues, so I bought it solely for my shoulder (old injury). Some days at work involve long periods of sitting and using a computer, and I’ve noticed that even after these days, my shoulder doesn’t hurt nearly as much as it used to before I started using it.
It does look gimicky; several people on these forums whose opinions I really respect highly recommended it, so I figured I would give it a shot.
Titan has them in stock