This one will be primarily about the need for speciality bars. I am going to keep it simple and break them into specialty bars that focus on squat, bench, and deadlift. There are now so many options for each of these. It is high time we have a conversation about which ones are best and what are the things we need to think about before purchasing. 

This conversation needs to be kicked off with what is the basis of your program? Are you an Olympic weightlifting focus? Are you a powerlifting focus? Are you a bodybuilding focus? Not trying to type cast anyone, but it is an important question because it creates a functional need for variation through different types of bars, but at the same time, it removes necessity for certain bars. 

For instance, if you are a weightlifting coach, a case could be made for not purchasing a multi grip bench bar. If you are a powerlifting coach, a case could be made for not buying a weight lifting bar. Appraising why you would need any bar is important. Does the tool allow you to do something with your training you cannot get from a traditional bar or a piece of equipment you already have? Necessity is the mother of all inventions. 

I have a test in my weight room – if it collects dust it was a bad purchase. I know some of us are purchasing with blank checks. Getting anything is an option. The rest of us have to give a detailed explanation as to why we need something. No one will check in on this, but you should. It demonstrates you had a rational logic to purchase something. That money you spent should bring return on value. If not, that was a missed opportunity to support your staff with more education, pay them more, get other pieces of equipment that were needed, or replace damaged or old equipment.

I remember the first time I used a multi-grip bench bar (sometimes referred to as a football bar). My first thought was ‘does this mean we are too focussed on the bench?’ My second thought was ‘why can’t we just use a neutral grip with dumbbells?’ I may still believe that, but I do see the value of a multi-grip bar in your setting. It provides a different grip for athletes that utilize bench press as a large part of their programming. It also provides a valuable alternative to members with shoulder injuries that struggle with a pronated hand position on a traditional bar within groups. For the money, Kabuki Kadilaac bar is the best (100% my opinion). 

I think we can all agree that trapbars are an essential part of most S&C programs. There was a time there was one silver one stashed in the corner and used for exclusively shrugs. There was also a period of time where deadlifts were considered taboo and most S&C shied away anything off the floor. Now we appreciate that there is a definite value in having a good trapbar. The biggest things to consider is storage and closed/open style. Storage is a real problem for trapbars. They are big and take a lot of space. Before purchasing a trapbar, ask where you are going to put them. At this point, closed trap bars are useless. They are extremely limited in functionality to only bilateral movements. Open trap bars are really the only way to go. An interesting design is the Prime Trapbar which allows for increasing and decreasing the height. Some have multiple handles. The option to adjust the height is a game changer. 

Safety squat bars are next. I am going to go out on a limb, I think hands supported (sometimes referred to as Hatsfield Squats) are just glorified leg presses. If you were to ask me if you should do hands supported or leg press or pendulum squat, I’d say do the machine version. If you are going to constrain the movement for load, might as well use the best tool for the job. But with that being said, safety bars are a nice tool. Having the ability to load athletes with wrist or elbow injuries or having a more anterior load with the position of the weight relative to the placement of the bar is really invaluable. Obviously there is a discussion around how much external load we are going to use, but that being said the Prime Squat Bar is really well designed. It is stable, the handles don’t go too low (it won’t hit your legs in the bottom of the squat), and the position of the load biases the anterior portion of the leg (quads). It’s a specialty bar, so it should serve a specific purpose. 

There are other bars such as perturbation based bars (earthquake, tsunami, bamboo), cambered bars, fat grip bars, EZ bars, different grip based bars. They are all great, but nice to haves not need to haves. If you have a ton of money, go for it. Remember you do have to store these somewhere.