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GOHEAVY.COM Training Forum

safety squat bar

Posted By: Rick Dailey (67-150-213-54.sttl.mdsg-pacwest.com)
Date: Friday, January 12, 2007, @ 8:25 p.m.

This past September I ruptured my left distal biceps tendon while doing max single rack pulls. The tendon completely detached and the bicep retracted almost 3 inches up the arm. I had surgery to repair the injury around the first of October and had to wear an articulated brace on my left arm that was designed to restrict range of motion and prevent supination of my left hand.

I didn't want to quit lifting and particularly didn't want to quit squatting but there was no way I could keep a bar on my back. I had wanted to try safety squats for long time and this was the impetus for me to buy an ssb. I kinda groaned when I kicked down 425 bucks, and my wife thought I was crazy to be so adament about training within days of surgery, but I went ahead and made what turned out to be a great investment.

The first thing I noticed was that I couldn't handle the same kinda of weight that I was used to with the straight bar. I like to use a 5 X 5 routine and with the ssb I had to reduce the top set by around 80 pounds. With a straight bar I could work up to 5 reps with 425, but with the ssb I was struggling to get my last set with 350 and then could only pull a single with 390.

Because I couldn't deadlift I incorporated ssb good mornings. I did my squat and deadlift workouts exclusively with an ssb since mid October, and used kettlebells with my uninjured arm. Today I used a straight bar for squats for the first time since September. I was totally amazed at the carryover I received from the ssb workouts. The straight bar felt like it had helium balloons attached to it, and my core strength has improved so dramatically from using the ssb that I worked multiple sets of 5 into the high 300's without a belt. I know there are many on this forum who toss around much bigger weights than I but my point is not how much I can lift, it's how much my lifts benefitted from using an ssb.

I was also amazed at how far back I can sit into the squat using an ssb. The camber of the bar keeps the weight over the ankles and the knees behind the ankles even when I'm squatting well below parallel

Oh, and by the way, the chronic pain which I have had in my right shoulder for years subsided and disappeared after 10 weeks of not squatting with a straight bar.

I'm a totally sold convert on the ssb.