Understanding Specialty Barbells
UNDERSTANDING SPECIALTY BARBELLS
Today, strength training enthusiasts generally fall into two camps: those who accept the use of specialty barbells and those who believe they are unnecessary. Those who have received specialty barbells know that they can accelerate their gains in muscle mass, given the specific training effects associated with each special bar.
Special barbells can effectively stimulate specific muscle groups. For example, SSB will significantly stretch the front of your lower body. In contrast, a curved squat bar puts emphasis on the back of the lower body.
Using a specialty barbell doesn’t mean you have to give up using a standard barbell; you’ll become stronger, faster, and more efficient at lifting the standard barbell.
Here is just how we make use of 6 of the most common specialty bars.
EZ Curl Bar
The EZ Curl Bar is a barbell with a curved shape that allows for a more comfortable and natural grip when performing arm exercises. As the weights are loaded closer to the hands, you use less stabiliser muscles compared to a straight bar. This allows you to focus more on the isolation contraction and potentially lift a heavier weight. That is to say it reduces stress on the wrists and forearms, making the movement more comfortable. Additionally, the angled grip of the EZ Curl Bar can help engage the biceps more effectively, resulting in a better muscle development.
What is the EZ Curl Bar used for
The main advantages of the EZ curl bar over a straight bar are practicality and injury prevention. It can be used for a variety of exercises, not just regular bicep curls. Some common exercises that can be performed with the EZ Curl Bar include tricep extensions, skull crushers, supine tricep extensions, and preacher curls. These exercises strengthen the muscles in the arms; biceps, triceps, and forearms. Additionally, the EZ Curl Bar can be used for other exercises that target different muscle groups, such as chest presses, shoulder presses, and bent-over rows. These exercises help to increase overall upper body strength and improve muscle tone.
Multi Grip Swiss Press Bar
The main feature of the Swiss bar is the multiple grips, which can be a neutral grip or a slightly angled grip instead of the standard overhand grip.
6 Benefits of Swiss Bar
Reduced Shoulder Stress
Lifting heavier weights often tests the limits of one of our weakest joints – the shoulders. Most pressing movements require our elbows to be pushed outward, which requires more activation of our anterior and middle deltoids. Unfortunately, this can also lead to some shoulder pain. With a neutral grip, your elbows are forced closer to your body, requiring less deltoid activation, allowing you to train around shoulder pain.
Whether you are training with shoulder pain or not, the Swiss barbell is still a powerful alternative exercise to your routine. The change in grip during Swiss barbell exercises will challenge and strengthen your muscles in new ways that will benefit your standard lifts.
Reduced Wrist Stress
When lifting heavier weights with a pronated grip, your hands are extended back, which can put a lot of stress on your wrists. With a neutral grip on the Swiss bar, your wrists are locked in place and cannot be extended back, making the exercise more comfortable for your wrists.
Helps Overcome Imbalances
The Swiss bar can help force your triceps to work harder and eliminate involvement of your pectorals.
Improves Range of Motion
The slight curve of the bar allows for a greater range of motion at the bottom of your reps.
Get More Triceps Work
Increasing triceps activation goes hand in hand with reducing shoulder pain. As the elbows are brought closer to the body, triceps activation during the pressing movement increases, which builds triceps strength.
Versatile
The multi-grip bar can be used for a variety of exercises, including bench presses, lateral raises, and back rows.
Olympic Supra Curl Bar
The Supra Curl barbell is a must-have for anyone who’s serious about lifting weights. Featuring rotating handles that ensure a comfortable, secure grip, this barbell will help you build strength and reach your goals. Its ergonomic design also gives you better control and form while lifting, allowing you to improve faster and safer.
In a word, the supra curl bar is specifically designed to reduce stress on tendons and joints while targeting upper arm mass, strength and definition.
Hex Bar
The hex bar is also known by many as the “Trap Bar”. The hexagonal design allows you to easily get in and out of the bar. The main benefit of using a hex bar instead of a traditional barbell for deadlifts is that it allows the lifter to maintain a more upright body position during the lift. When using a hex bar, the lifter stands inside the machine with the weight distributed to the sides, rather than holding the bar in front of the body. So it’s perfect for heavy shrugs and deadlifts.
This upright body position allows for better engagement of the leg muscles, particularly the quadriceps, while reducing stress on the lower back compared to traditional deadlifts using a straight barbell. Hex bars also allow for a more neutral grip position for the hands, which can be more comfortable and allow some people to lift heavier weights.
Additionally, the hex bar design shortens the moment arm between the lifter’s center of mass and the load, which reduces shear forces on the spine. This can make the hex bar deadlift a useful variation for those who suffer from back pain or limited mobility that would make the traditional deadlift challenging. The added mechanical advantage also allows lifters to generally lift heavier loads using a hex bar compared to a straight barbell.
Overall, the hex bar deadlift is considered a more quad-focused and potentially safer variation of the traditional deadlift, making it a valuable exercise option in a strength training program.
In a word, this Olympic Hex Bar is the perfect bar for beginners in the powerlifting world!
Strongman Log Bar
The Log Bar challenges your entire body, requiring tremendous effort to lift it off the ground, into your abdomen and chest, and into the air. Its neutral grip design ensures your shoulders are in a more unaffected position than traditional barbell weightlifting, allowing you to push your limits safely and effectively.
In a word, engineered to maximize power development while minimizing shoulder stress, this strongman log bar is the ultimate tool for serious strength training.
Safety Squat Bar
A safety squat bar is a special barbell with curved ends and handles that allow your hands to be in front of your body instead of at your sides like a straight barbell. In addition, The SSB padding fits comfortably around your trapezius and shoulders, allowing you to keep your hands on the handles in front of you, whereas the grips you use on a regular barbell put pressure on your shoulders. This way it greatly reduces the stress on the upper body, especially the elbows, shoulders and wrists. Plus, it sits above your shoulders, forcing you to work hard to stay upright. Combined with lowering the weight below the height of the bar at both ends, you get a completely different kind of squat.
In short, SSB is a popular exercise among weightlifters, from strongmen to powerlifters to fitness enthusiasts who want to improve their squats.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT SPECIALTY BARBELLS
Regardless of the lifter, most of us have weak points and delaying muscular tissue groups that require to be addressed. Once these issues are identified, your next action is selecting the right tools to fix these problems. How quickly you advance and just how rapid your concerns are fixed will depend on your ability to select the right devices at the correct time..
As I discussed above, to build a house all you actually need is a saw, hammer, nails, lumber, as well as a couple of sawhorses. Is this the finest and also most efficient method to develop a house, offered the contemporary devices and technology we currently have access to? Obviously not..
Just as the professional understands that time is money, and far better tools cause much better earnings, a lifter must understand that their training time is beneficial as well as specialized barbells bring about accelerated gains in strength.
Don’t restrict your training alternatives; standard bars as well as shows bring about basic professional athletes. To come to be excellent, you should do more than the fundamentals.
Specialty barbells are barbells that additionally overemphasize a training stimulus connected with a typical power bar. The bow bar will certainly extend the range of motion, triggering the muscle mass of the pecs as well as shoulders to stretch even more than typical. The SSB will position the barbell in a high bar setting by default. This barbell is typically made in 2 styles; the rackable cambered bar and the large cambered bar. I favor the giant cambered bar because I believe it gives the complete advantages associated with cambered bar training, no matter the dimension of the lifter.
