Specialty Bars – How To Buy Your First One In 2024

Last updated on April 5th, 2024 at 09:23 am

Types Of Specialty Bars

Safety Squat Bar

The Safety Squat Bar, or SSB, is one of the most iconic and often used specialty bars. The basic design includes a pad that goes on the back of your neck, handles that extend out over your shoulders into your hands, and the sleeves have a drop and camber that allows the weight to stay put.

The designs of SSBs can differ, they can include adjustments, even different purposes. But the above is the basic concept.

The Best Safety Squat Bars For Your Home Gym – 2024

Trap Bar

A trap bar, or a hex bar, can come in a few different shapes, sizes, and builds. But the typical build is something that resembles a square, with neutral handles. These bars are most commonly used for deadlift variations, but can also be used for pressing, weighted carries, and sometimes some pretty creative solutions.

Multi Grip Bar

A swiss bar, football bar, neutral grip bar, or multi-grip bar is almost exclusively used for pressing movements. Bench press and overhead press options. These bars typically have the sleeves, joined together by a rectangle, which encases the multiple grips.

Cambered Bar

There are a few main types of cambered bars. A Cambered Squat Bar is often a LARGE camber, where as a cambered bench bar (sometimes called a SEAL Row bar) has a small camber. You can also add in Buffalo, Bow, and Duffalo style bars here. Anything where the bar sits in the hands or on the back, and then bends/curves to a lower position where the weight sits, is a type of cambered bar.

Fat Bar

Fat bar, axle bar, and other THICK bars are often used by strongmen and grip competitors to challenge their grip in deadlifts, presses, and other such fun.

EZ Curl Bars

Everyone knows the ez curl bar. Used to alleviate wrist strain when performing curls. Different twists and turns, thicknesses, knurls, and more separate them all.

Powerlifting Spec Bars

This is a Squat, Bench, or Deadlift Bar. Bars that can be used in powerlifting meets to support the athletes in the exact lift.

Other Odds and Ends

There is an endless supply of bars. Log Bars are a ton of fun, Rickshaws, Bandbell Bars, Bars that squeeze together, bars that break down and can do a lot of stuff, and much more. We won’t touch on EVERY bar type, but we’ll include a few of these as we go.

How To Choose Your Next Specialty Bar

We are going to break down actual specialty bars here today, by the three ways I listed in the video.

• Making a lift easier
• Making a lift more difficult
• Buying a fun new toy

What Specialty Bar Should I Buy?

Do You Compete?

First let’s get one piece of the puzzle out of the way. If you compete in a strength sport, you should probably buy the bars that you will use in that sport first. Compete in Strongman? Grab a log, an axle, some stones, all the fun craziness. Compete in Powerlifting? Check what your fed uses, and grab the right deadlift bar, squat bar, or power bar as applicable.

If you compete in the Garage Gym Competition, you can use whatever bar you want of course. But make sure you know the rules of your fed and sport, and what bars they use.

Making A Lift Easier

Specialty bars give us a unique opportunity to work around limitations. This might be because of a lack of mobility, an old injury, or a new injury. I’m going to list out a few common limitations and the bars I would recommend for those situations.

My Shoulders Hurt

If you are lacking mobility in your shoulders, maybe have an old shoulder injury, or just in general like to avoid any strain on your shoulders, this one is for you.

For squats, I’d take a look at a Safety Squat Bar. The handles out front are going to allow you to avoid that typical STRETCH behind your head with a squat. MOST Safety Squat Bars are going to effectively work “differently” than a typical straight bar, so keep in mind that these ARE a little different. For the most body friendly option possible, my experience so far is that the Prime Fitness Super Squat Bar is the winner. Make sure to check out the full Garage Gym Basics – Safety Squat Bar article for more details on the bars I like, and don’t!

Achey Shoulders in Bench

For a Multi Grip Bar, specifically for your shoulders, I’d avoid the Cambered option. I don’t know why the world went head over heels in 2022 over cambered multi grip bars, but boy howdy was that a ride. My experience with the Kabuki Kadillac Bar was that the camber just aggravated issues. My favorite multi-grip bar to date is the Intek Strength Neutral Grip Bar. This bar addresses a lot of the shortcomings with a multi-grip bar (knurling, offset handles, etc.) and really does exactly what we want. You can use it for bench or overhead press. For a cheaper option, you could test your luck with an Amazon Special, but I’d probably grab the EliteFTS model.

I want to throw one more curve ball in here for ya, and that is the Bandbell Earthquake Bar. This bar is a LOT of fun, and provides some serious challenges. For an idea, I can incline bench press about 125lbs for reps on this bar, where I can flat bench in the mid to upper 300s. This bar is TOUGH, and it will help build your ability to get tight and control the weight.

My Back Hurts

A SUPER common issue for lifters, is low back pain. Obviously I want to say that you need to get this addressed through some form of intervention. Sit less, move more, soft tissue work, stretch your hips, strengthen your hamstrings, whatever. But I’m going to assume that you have looked into that, done that, and are still looking for a specialty bar for when that back flairs up, or to avoid that entirely.

We aren’t likely to see any benefit in bar choices for bench for the back, so lets focus our efforts on squats and deadlifts.

Deadlift Options

The obvious choice for a deadlift, is a trap bar. Specifically one with higher handles. This will allow you the ability to start at a more upright and strong position, as well as the neutral grip and the more neutral loading of the weight, which will all combine for a back friendly pull. If I’m taking one trap bar RIGHT NOW, I’m grabbing the Prime Fitness Trap Bar.

Expensive, but it has adjustable handles, interchangeable handles, and a huge load limit. If you lift less than 300lbs, that bar might be overkill, by a lot. So I’d probably look at something like this CAP Trap Bar. I don’t personally use CAP, I wouldn’t use CAP, but for $60 and free shipping and a weight limit of 500lbs, and the Amazon guarantee, you are likely solid for a couple hundred pounds here. Again, I’m pulling in the 600lb+ range. This bar would NOT work for me. But it is a super budget friendly option with a terrific reviews on Amazon.

For squats, we want to pick a bar that lets us stay upright, almost like a front squat, but also puts the majority of the weight RIGHT DOWN THE MIDDLE of our body. The more centered the load, the better. Same concept as a trap bar, but in a squat.

Not A Lot of Options

The cheapest route we can go, is to use a cambered squat bar. I have an Edge Fitness Cambered Squat Bar which we use a LOT. But they do not make it anymore. EliteFTS makes theirs, but it is over $450 after shipping and taxes. So we have two options to explore. We can grab a pair of Proloc Camber Bar Attachments.

These will turn your current barbell into a cambered bar… almost. Because your olympic bar sleeves rotate, these will rotate too. Also be careful with the pressure knob, as it can leave marks on your bar. But, for under $200 you’ve got a solution. Or we can look at the Arm Assassin Strength Shop Rackable Cambered Bar. For a few more bucks you can snag the Black Widow option too.

The next best options is to go back to our SSB recommendations, either the Prime Fitness Super Squat Bar or the Marrs Bar. Both are designed for a comfortable, upright, squat.

My Knees Hurt

Your knees hurting is often a complaint from poor ankle range of motion. This can be tough. Make sure you figure that one out first, and then look at some specialty bars. My wife has a bad knee from a childhood injury. We’ve tried EVERY squat bar we can think of, and nothing really does the trick. Squats hurt her knee, almost every single time. So we simply don’t do them often. We can train her legs, glutes, hips, through different exercises.

For a knee friendlier option for squats, we likely are back to the SSB recommendations. They can help us have less knee over toe travel, which can be difficult for injured knees especially with limited ankle range of motion. Deadlifts TYPICALLY don’t hurt the knees, neither does bench, so we’ll stick with the SSB.

My Elbows Hurt

We spend a lot of time with straight bars GRINDING our hands and twisting into the bar. This can put some strain on the wrists and elbows over time. For most lifts you can choose a bar that doesn’t require your hands do that (SSB, Multi Grip, Trap Bar), and then the big winner is to go from a straight bar to an EZ Curl Bar for curls.

This bar was made for the exact purposes of alleviating elbow pain. No brainer! Most companies offer a curl bar. I’ve owned a few cheap ones, and a few more expensive. The more expensive of course had better knurl, finish, and looked better over time. I’d probably snag the REP Fitness Curl Bar. You can go rack able if you want, after owning a rackable, I don’t think it is necessary.

Making A Lift More Difficult

Specialty bars, depending on their design, can FORCE you into poor positions, exacerbate weaknesses in a lift, or specifically target certain weak areas. I’m going to list out a few common limitations and the bars I would recommend for those situations. This is where specialty bars don’t just keep you lifting, but make you BETTER!

I Fall Forward In The Squat / Struggle Finishing The Squat

The squat is a full body exercise, and we can 100% miss our lift because we forget to incorporate a tight upper body in a squat. The Safety Squat Bar is the KING here, but only certain ones. The Marrs Bar, Prime Fitness Super Squat Bar, and multiple others were designed to make the lift EASIER in terms of reducing upper body work.

On the other hand, something like the EliteFTS SS Yoke is much closer to a bar that sits HIGH on the back, and forces you forward. By making this part of the lift more difficult, you are FORCED to strengthen your upper back in their very specific action of a squat. Get better at SSB squats? You’ll improve your back squat.

There are other options from REP, Bells of Steel, and Rogue. But the EliteFTS SS Yoke has been the go to SSB for years. At least, ever since the Edge Fitness SSB was no longer in production.

I Miss My Bench At Lockout

Lockout strength is typically looked at as triceps strength. Meaning, your pecs and shoulders have already done their job, now your triceps have to finish it. This is where a multi-grip bar can be awesome. The more neutral or angled grip bars put a lot of tension on the triceps. You can work in things like board presses, skullcrushers, JM Presses, reverse banded bench, and more.

But just the physical act of bringing your hands into a more neutral position takes some stress off the pecs and shoulders, and puts it on the triceps. I’d go with our previously mentioned Intek Strength Neutral Grip Bar, or if you have no pec/shoulder issues, I’d look at something like the REP Fitness Cambered Swiss Bar. The camber will mean more range of motion, which can stretch those triceps a little more.

I Miss My Bench Off The Chest

Hopefully you have locked down some good bench technique, with a solid arch, brace, you name it. From there, missing off the chest is typically a weakness in the… CHEST! Our best bet is often to do two things. Add in an extended pause on the chest (no specialty bar required), and then add in increased range of motion. By extending the bar further past our typical stopping point, when we return to our normal stopping point, it will feel easy!

This is where something like the Primal Armor Appalachian Bar is awesome. It is still a straight bar, so we keep that tension and feel in the same place as a normal bench. But we extend that range of motion at the bottom which puts more of a stretch on the pecs and BOOM, big ol chesticles and a bigger bench. Now, if you have shoulder or pec insertion issues, skip that. Stick with the pauses. But the combo of pause and extended ROM is a killer.

I Miss My Deadlift Due To Grip

Nothing worse than missing a deadlift cause of your grip. First I would recommend using chalk, my favorite is Spider Chalk. Then I would make sure I am not using straps for the majority of my warm-up sets, accessory work, etc. Then, we can talk about Fat Bars.

Specifically made to challenge your grip, these bars are THICK. I don’t use mine very often, because I don’t have grip issues, but when I have used it, the forearm burn is INTENSE. For sake of comparison, I can get about a 405lb deadlift DOH, with my deadlift bar. I did 275 on my fat bar, and mine has knurling! If I’m buying a fat bar today, I’m probably going with Black Widow. American made, GREAT price, very high quality.

Tons Of Other Options

There are a bunch of other possible problems with solutions here. Cambered bars are great for hammering the hips in a squat and translate to deadlift lockout too. Trap Bar deads can bias the quads and help improve your squat as well as deadlift off the floor. The bandbell bars can help train stability. You can get a similar effect by benching with a cambered squat bar.

Specialty bars are awesome. And when used properly, can absolutely fix your weaknesses.

Buying A Fun New Toy

Wrap Up

Every type of specialty bar honestly deserves its own article. They have a number of uses, different considerations based on the design and your goals, and we have budget to premium options available. That is why I started here, with an overview of specialty bars, their general function, and how to choose which one.

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