About 10 years in the past, I impinged my proper shoulder fairly badly, which prevented me from doing common low-bar barbell squats. I didn’t wish to cease squatting fully whereas I healed up, so I purchased this funny-looking contraption with a padded yoke and forward-pointing handles: the security squat bar, or SSB.
The SSB labored as supposed. It allowed me to maintain squatting with out straining my shoulder. The features prepare in my legs continued whereas my shoulder recovered.
As soon as my shoulder healed up, I tossed the SSB into the nook of my storage health club and went again to my trusty straight bar.
But as my forties ticked on, my shoulders, whereas not in acute ache, began feeling much less spry than they used to regardless of all of the mobility work I put in. Squats with a straight barbell grew to become more and more extra painful, a lot in order that I dreaded the train as an alternative of trying ahead to it like I as soon as did. So final yr I made a decision to ditch my common barbell altogether and simply use the SSB for my squats. I haven’t seemed again. Life’s too quick to contort your self below a barbell.
Since then, the SSB has turn out to be certainly one of my favourite items of health club gear. Not solely is it a fantastic workaround for cranky joints when doing the squat, but it surely’s additionally a flexible, muscle-building device that lets you do a bunch of lower-body workout routines safely and comfortably.
Right here’s why each middle-aged dude ought to contemplate including an SSB to their strength-training line-up and 7 workout routines you are able to do with it.
What Is a Security Squat Bar?
The security squat bar is a specialty barbell with a padded heart yoke and two forward-extending handles. As an alternative of holding it as you do a straight bar, by cranking your arms again such as you’re being arrested, you maintain the SSB with two handles in entrance of your chest. This spares your shoulders, elbows, and wrists from the standard stress of again squatting. Due to the yoke, you possibly can even squat with out holding the entrance handles — with out utilizing your fingers in any respect.
The SSB can be cambered — its weight sleeves dip under the extent of the bar that rests in your traps. This shifts the load barely ahead, which adjustments the mechanics of the raise. In comparison with a standard again squat, the SSB encourages a extra upright torso and will increase activation in your higher again and core. This extra upright place additionally lets you hit your quads extra throughout a squat.
Why Older Lifters Love the SSB
Shoulder aid. This one’s apparent. As we age, shoulder mobility tends to go downhill, and accidents pile up. The SSB removes the most important barrier to squatting for a lot of older lifters: the ache of getting your arms into place. With the handles in entrance, you possibly can prepare your decrease physique with out aggravating your higher physique.
Joint-friendly mechanics. The ahead camber of the bar and upright posture cut back shear stress on the decrease again and distribute the load extra evenly throughout the hips and knees. Many lifters with again or knee points discover they will squat deeper and extra comfortably with the SSB. I’ve had some knee points for the previous few years, and I’ve seen that after I squat with an SSB, I’ve no knee ache.
7 Workout routines You Can Do With a Security Squat Bar
Along with being simpler on the joints, the SSB can be versatile. You’ll be able to squat with it, in fact. However there’s extra you are able to do with it than that.
Listed here are 7 tried-and-true workout routines you are able to do with a security squat bar:
1. SSB Squat
Arrange such as you would for a daily squat, however preserve your grip on the handles in entrance of your chest. Give attention to staying tall and letting the bar relaxation securely in your shoulders. You’ll really feel extra upright and extra engaged by means of your midsection.
You are able to do all of the squat variations you do with a straight bar with an SSB, like pin squats, field squats, and banded squats.
2. Hatfield Squat
That is my favourite squat variation with the SSB. It’s the one squat motion I do today. Carry out a squat with the SSB whereas holding onto the rack or pegs positioned in entrance of you for stability. This lets you go heavier, preserve good type, and cut back steadiness calls for.
3. Entrance Squat
Common entrance squats are nice for constructing massive, beefy quads, however that entrance rack place might be awfully uncomfortable. SSB entrance squats are a good way to get quad-dominant coaching with out the standard discomfort in your wrists.
To do the entrance squat with an SSB, you’ll wish to rack the bar backwards in order that the handles are dealing with in the direction of you. Elevate the handles and place them in your shoulders so the yoke pad is below your chin, resting on the highest of your shoulders. As soon as the bar is on this place, the SSB will naturally keep in place. You are able to do the raise with out utilizing your fingers. Then squat like a daily entrance squat.
4. Bulgarian Break up Squat
The train I like to hate. Bulgarian cut up squats are a fantastic isolation motion to your quads. Often, you do them whereas holding dumbbells in every hand. However doing them that method comes with two limiting components: 1) weight, and a couple of) grip energy. Dumbbells solely get so heavy, and even you probably have very heavy ones, grip energy can limit how a lot weight you possibly can add to the motion. It’s arduous to carry 120-pound dumbbells in every hand whilst you’re doing a Bulgarian cut up squat. With an SSB, you possibly can add much more weight as you get stronger, and it fully removes the grip issue from the equation.
Simply load up your SSB, get beneath it, and stroll it out in your shoulders. Place your rear leg on a bench after which carry out the standard Bulgarian cut up squat. If you would like added stability, you possibly can maintain on to some pegs positioned in your rack. That’s how I do them.
5. Lunges
With the SSB in your again, lunges turn out to be far simpler to manage than whenever you’re making an attempt to maintain your grip on dumbbells or crank your shoulders below a straight bar. The padding and camber preserve the load secure, and the handles allow you to make micro-adjustments to your steadiness. Ahead, reverse, or strolling lunges all work — every variation hammers the quads and glutes whereas being surprisingly joint-friendly.
6. Good Mornings
It is a nice hinge motion to hit your hammies and glutes (or gyatt as your middle-schooler would possibly say). I’ve been doing this motion so much recently. The SSB makes good mornings extra snug and safer for the reason that bar stays in place and also you’re not apprehensive about your grip.
It’s straightforward to do: with a slight knee bend, hinge on the hips whereas maintaining your again flat. As soon as you’re feeling that massive stretch in your hammies, elevate your self again up.
8. Calf Raises
The SSB makes calf raises straightforward and cozy. Place the SSB in your shoulders and lift your self up on the balls of your ft. For further vary of movement, stand on a bumper plate and let your heels drop under it within the low place.
Closing Ideas
If squats have been supplying you with extra grimaces than features recently, don’t quit on them simply but. Get your self a security squat bar and preserve doing all of your heavy leg work.
However don’t simply cease on the squat. The security squat bar isn’t only a area of interest device for injured lifters. It’s a joint-friendly, strength-building device that permits you to carry out a wide range of lower-body workout routines. For the middle-aged man who desires to remain sturdy, it’s undoubtedly a worthwhile funding.