Best Safety Squat Bar (Updated 2024)

Assuming you’re training properly, you’ll eventually begin to lift heavier and heavier weights. As your muscles grow larger, they will grow stronger and not only will you be able to lift more, but you’ll have to lift more in order to maintain and continue said progress.

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As the legs are some of the largest muscles on the human body, they require heavy loads in order to stimulate strength and size growth. This means heavy weights piled onto bars so you can squat under them. Various issues become apparent when you begin to really pile on the plates.

Many people that do heavy squats begin to report surprising issues like shoulders issues and mobility problems the heavier they go. Despite being primarily a leg exercise, squats require pretty much the entire body in order to hold and stabilise the weight and keep everything solid. The heavier you go, the harder it is for your body to stay safe. Weaker muscles like the deltoids and joints/ligaments and weaker body parts like the wrists begin to take strain which can lead to discomfort, pain and even serious injury.

Best Safety Squat Bar Reviewed

To combat this, you can use a safety squat bar. The safety squat bar is a bar that features foam-padded shoulder pads to better support the weight along your back/shoulders. The ends of the bar itself curves and then dips down so the weight plates are carried lower than usual. This allows the bar to fit to your body better and support itself, rather than damaging your wrists and shoulders trying to keep everything in place.

Ader Safety Squat Olympic Bar

Ader offer you two options when purchasing this bar; a bar that can hold up to 1000lbs of weight or a bar that can hold up to 1500lbs.

For those of you that are really putting up the big numbers and lifting insane amounts of weight, go with the 1500lbs and you’ll never have to worry about your bars being able to handle the weight. For reference, the shipping weights is 85lbs whilst the bar itself weighs 45lbs. Just like a standard barbell.

This bar works/will fit almost all squat racks, power racks, bench press machines, etc. Basically, it will fit anything that can accommodate your standard olympic bars.

The padded shoulders use foam rollers and are covered with top quality vinyl to give you the best possible comfort. Even when squatting heavy loads, your back, shoulders and hands will be as comfortable as possible, which is often not the case when using olympic barbells for squats.

Titan Fitness Safety Squat Olympic Bar

Just like a standard olympic bar bell, this safety squat bar weighs 45lbs and accommodates 2” weight plates so you can use your own equipment with it. So there’s no having to go out and purchase different weights, racks or other pieces of equipment just to use this bar.

The bar dips down and holds the weight at a 4inch drop. This isn’t just an aesthetic touch, it provides a lower, more-stabilised centre of gravity and better balance. A common fear for newbie squatters is that they might lose balance and topple over when increasing the weights. With the safety squat bar, this won’t be the case.

The shoulder and arm pads allow for a more comfortable lifting experience; your body does not have any direct contact with the bar as the pads cover your back and shoulders and you grip the 6” hand grips rather than the bar itself.

These fixed-position grips are also handy as you don’t have to waste time working out how wide or narrow your grip is.

Unified Fitness Group Xtreme Monkey Olympic Safety Squat Bar

There are many different types of squats that are used to fulfil a variety of different needs and uses. One such squat is the front squat. The front squat is an excellent exercise that every lifter should make use of in their workouts. The only problem is that even when done right, it can put unnecessary strain on the wrists. Everyone’s body is slightly different and some people just can’t deal with the discomfort.

This problem no longer exists when squatting with a safety squat bar. You can simply use the bar the other way round so that bar and the pads are secured on the front of your body. Now front-squat to your hearts content.

This safety squat bar from Unified Fitness Group can even be used for other exercises/squat variants such as walking lunges, Zercher squats, good mornings and many more.

Like all safety squat bars, the Xtreme Monkey bar takes the pressure off of your shoulders which is great if you already have pre-existing shoulder injuries or a lack of mobility in either your shoulders or chest.

Ader Safety Squat Bar 82” for Compact Space

This safety squat bar differs slightly from the other bars on our list. It has a slightly smaller profile which makes it perfect with those without as much space for exercise equipment. Despite it’s smaller bulk, it’s 82” long and can hold weights of up 600lbs, which is close to 6 45lbs plates on each side!

If you have core stability issues and/or a weak back, this squat bar will be perfect for you. Unlike the standard olympic bar bell that is balanced along your shoulders, the safety squat bar forces you to train with an upright torso which locks your hips and other joints in place so your muscles are doing the work rather than ligaments and joints. It also helps save your knees from any undue stress. After all, it’s your muscles you want to work, grow and strengthen so it should be your muscles doing as much of the heavy lifting as physically possible. The safety squat bar makes that possible.

Overview

If you’re squatting heavy, you would be very wise to invest in a safety squat bar for your home gym. Safety squat bars bear the weight better and allow you a better grip on the bar so your legs and core are doing the brunt of the work, rather than the weaker joints and ligaments.