About 10 years ago, I impinged my right shoulder pretty badly, which prevented me from doing regular low-bar barbell squats. I didn’t want to stop squatting completely while I healed up, so I bought this funny-looking contraption with a padded yoke and forward-pointing handles: the safety squat bar, or SSB.
The SSB worked as intended. It allowed me to keep squatting without straining my shoulder. The gains train in my legs continued while my shoulder recovered.
Once my shoulder healed up, I tossed the SSB into the corner of my garage gym and went back to my trusty straight bar.
Yet as my forties ticked on, my shoulders, while not in acute pain, started feeling less spry than they used to despite all the mobility work I put in. Squats with a straight barbell became increasingly more painful, so much so that I dreaded the exercise instead of looking forward to it like I once did. So last year I decided to ditch my regular barbell altogether and just use the SSB for my squats. I haven’t looked back. Life’s too short to contort yourself under a barbell.
Since then, the SSB has become one of my favorite pieces of gym equipment. Not only is it a great workaround for cranky joints when doing the squat, but it’s also a versatile, muscle-building tool that allows you to do a bunch of lower-body exercises safely and comfortably.
Here’s why every middle-aged dude should consider adding an SSB to their strength-training line-up and seven exercises you can do with it.
What Is a Safety Squat Bar?
The safety squat bar is a specialty barbell with a padded center yoke and two forward-extending handles. Instead of holding it as you do a straight bar, by cranking your arms back like you’re being arrested, you hold the SSB with two handles in front of your chest. This spares your shoulders, elbows, and wrists from the usual stress of back squatting. Because of the yoke, you can even squat without holding the front handles — without using your hands at all.
The SSB is also cambered — its weight sleeves dip below the level of the bar that rests on your traps. This shifts the load slightly forward, which changes the mechanics of the lift. Compared to a traditional back squat, the SSB encourages a more upright torso and increases activation in your upper back and core. This more upright position also allows you to hit your quads more during a squat.
Why Older Lifters Love the SSB
Shoulder relief. This one’s obvious. As we age, shoulder mobility tends to go downhill, and injuries pile up. The SSB removes the biggest barrier to squatting for many older lifters: the pain of getting your arms into position. With the handles in front, you can train your lower body without aggravating your upper body.
Joint-friendly mechanics. The forward camber of the bar and upright posture reduce shear stress on the lower back and distribute the load more evenly across the hips and knees. Many lifters with back or knee issues find they can squat deeper and more comfortably with the SSB. I’ve had some knee issues for the past few years, and I’ve noticed that when I squat with an SSB, I have no knee pain.
7 Exercises You Can Do With a Safety Squat Bar
In addition to being easier on the joints, the SSB is also versatile. You can squat with it, of course. But there’s more you can do with it than that.
Here are 7 tried-and-true exercises you can do with a safety squat bar:
1. SSB Squat
Set up like you would for a regular squat, but keep your grip on the handles in front of your chest. Focus on staying tall and letting the bar rest securely on your shoulders. You’ll feel more upright and more engaged through your midsection.
You can do all the squat variations you do with a straight bar with an SSB, like pin squats, box squats, and banded squats.
2. Hatfield Squat
This is my favorite squat variation with the SSB. It’s the only squat movement I do these days. Perform a squat with the SSB while holding onto the rack or pegs placed in front of you for stability. This allows you to go heavier, maintain perfect form, and reduce balance demands.
3. Front Squat
Regular front squats are great for building big, beefy quads, but that front rack position can be awfully uncomfortable. SSB front squats are a great way to get quad-dominant training without the usual discomfort in your wrists.
To do the front squat with an SSB, you’ll want to rack the bar backwards so that the handles are facing towards you. Lift the handles and place them on your shoulders so the yoke pad is under your chin, resting on the top of your shoulders. Once the bar is in this position, the SSB will naturally stay in place. You can do the lift without using your hands. Then squat like a regular front squat.
4. Bulgarian Split Squat
The exercise I love to hate. Bulgarian split squats are a great isolation movement for your quads. Usually, you do them while holding dumbbells in each hand. But doing them that way comes with two limiting factors: 1) weight, and 2) grip strength. Dumbbells only get so heavy, and even if you have very heavy ones, grip strength can restrict how much weight you can add to the movement. It’s hard to hold 120-pound dumbbells in each hand while you’re doing a Bulgarian split squat. With an SSB, you can add a lot more weight as you get stronger, and it completely removes the grip factor from the equation.
Just load up your SSB, get underneath it, and walk it out on your shoulders. Place your rear leg on a bench and then perform the usual Bulgarian split squat. If you want added stability, you can hold on to some pegs placed in your rack. That’s how I do them.
5. Lunges
With the SSB on your back, lunges become far easier to control than when you’re trying to keep your grip on dumbbells or crank your shoulders under a straight bar. The padding and camber keep the load stable, and the handles let you make micro-adjustments to your balance. Forward, reverse, or walking lunges all work — each variation hammers the quads and glutes while being surprisingly joint-friendly.
6. Good Mornings
This is a great hinge movement to hit your hammies and glutes (or gyatt as your middle-schooler might say). I’ve been doing this movement a lot lately. The SSB makes good mornings more comfortable and safer since the bar stays in place and you’re not worried about your grip.
It’s easy to do: with a slight knee bend, hinge at the hips while keeping your back flat. Once you feel that big stretch in your hammies, raise yourself back up.
8. Calf Raises
The SSB makes calf raises easy and comfortable. Place the SSB on your shoulders and raise yourself up on the balls of your feet. For extra range of motion, stand on a bumper plate and let your heels drop below it in the low position.
Final Thoughts
If squats have been giving you more grimaces than gains lately, don’t give up on them just yet. Get yourself a safety squat bar and keep doing your heavy leg work.
But don’t just stop at the squat. The safety squat bar isn’t just a niche tool for injured lifters. It’s a joint-friendly, strength-building tool that lets you perform a variety of lower-body exercises. For the middle-aged man who wants to stay strong, it’s definitely a worthwhile investment.
