Different types of speciality bars and their uses
Deadlift bar
This bar is typically used in powerlifting competitions for deadlifts in order to gain an advantage and add typically 3-8% more weight to your deadlift. Unlike a regular Olympic barbell, which is typically 7 feet long, this bar is 7.5 feet long. This bar also is 2mm thinner than a regular Olympic bar meaning that it is 27mm in diameter. These two factors combined with the unique materials used to make the bar, allow the bar to bend slightly more than a regular Olympic bar without deforming and return to its usual shape after the lift is complete, this is desirable because this means as you begin the lift and the bar initially bends you can achieve a more upright torso and your pelvis can be pushed further forwards before the weight is even lifted off the ground, this reduces the range of motion as the bar begins lifting of the ground later, which is particularly beneficial for those who perform the sumo deadlift because off the ground is where the lift is typically the hardest, whilst in the conventional deadlift the lockout is typically the hardest because the lifter needs to extend their spine to straighten out their back because the conventional deadlift is typically performed with a curved spine for better leverages. To find out about leverages in powerlifting I cover all you need to know in my article “How to optimise leverages for powerlifting”.
The fact that this bar is thinner than a regular Olympic bar also means that it is easier to grip, which is very helpful in competitions where straps are not allowed, this means that lifters can hold the bar in their fingers without it falling out, this is recommended as holding the bar in your fingers rather than in the palm of your hands is stronger and allows for a slightly lower range of motion and better leverages for the lift, because you can begin the lift with a more upright torso, with your pelvis more forward.
A typical deadlift bar also doesn’t have any knurling in the centre, which allows individuals who deadlift conventionally to grind out reps by dragging the bar along their shins without hurting themselves, however, those who deadlift sumo still run into this problem as their stance width is wider than those who deadlift conventionally, but luckily there are deadlift bars which only have knurling in the middle and the outer sides are smooth so the lifters shins will not be damaged by the bar.
Training with a deadlift bar can be useful for specificity if you are going to use a deadlift bar in competition, however, some evidence may conflict with this. Martinez-cava et al conducted a 10-week long study in 2022 on 50 recreationally active to highly resistance-trained men, he put these people into one of four groups, a full range of motion smith machine bench press group, a ⅔ from lockout range of motion smith machine bench press group, a ⅓ from lockout range of motion smith machine bench press group, and a control group, which expectedly lost strength. Results found that the full range of motion group gained significantly more strength in the ⅓, ⅔ and full range of motion smith machine bench press. This study promotes the idea of training with a greater range of motion for strength gains, now for the deadlift you can take this to the extreme and begin performing deficit deadlifts, but I wouldn’t recommend this as this may become more of hypertrophy than strength based movement and the principle of specificity will be almost completely abandoned, instead if in competition you use a deadlift bar I would recommend performing up to 50% of your deadlifts with a stiff bar, which will give you the additional range of motion to possibly gain some extra strength with no downsides if the added range of motion is no more beneficial, in this scenario it is still very important to use a deadlift bar in training so you can get the feel for the technique and develop the specific motor unit recruitment for the lift.
Trap bar/ open trap bar
The trap bar is a type of bar which has a hexagonal shape which you can stand in, which is why it is sometimes referred to as the hex bar, this bar has two sets of handles, the high handles and low handles, this bar at times can be open at one side which is appropriately called an open trap bar. Both the trap bar and the open trap bar have the same benefits and setbacks so through the rest of this section I will be referring to them both as just the trap bar.
The trap bar is designed for the trap bar deadlift, and users can typically add 5-10% more weight in the trap bar deadlift over a conventional deadlift. The trap bar deadlift allows the user to position themselves right in the centre of the load, rather than the load being in front of the user which is found in a regular deadlift, this creates better leverages for the lifter as the user’s pelvis will be slightly closer to the plain of motion which the barbell is acting on, when using the high handles the lifter also doesn’t need to bend down as far to begin the lift, this creates better leverages and allows for a more upright torso, this is useful for those who want to make a gradual comeback from training due to sustaining a back injury, its also useful for those with range of motion issues, such as those who are morbidly obese or have deep hip sockets, and for developing leg drive through the quadriceps which will carry over to the conventional deadlift and squat, especially if you use the trap bar upside down and pull on the low handles which makes the lift more similar to the squat and conventional deadlift.
Not only is the trap bar deadlift useful when coming back from a back injury but it is also useful in preventing one, and not only because you begin the lift with a more upright torso. It is not uncommon for lifters to hyperextend their backs during the deadlift, which has been shown to lead to back injuries, such as facet injuries and spondylolysis, but with the trap bar hyperextending the spine at the end of the lift fills very unnatural and it is therefore rarely performed. This may be beneficial to people who only lift recreationally or for athletes, especially being that it is easier to teach and harder to mess up than a conventional deadlift whilst still hosting similar benefits, it is even believed that the trap bar deadlift helps improve power, better than the conventional deadlift, which means that it really is a no-brainer to perform the trap bar deadlift over the conventional deadlift for athletic performance purposes, except for those who explicitly use the deadlift or a similar movement in their sport, such as powerlifters and weight lifters.
The trap bar deadlift when performed in the typical sense can fill more like a squat than a deadlift but EMG data shows that the muscle activation it causes is far more similar to a conventional deadlift, however, quadricep activation is slightly greater and the posterior chain activation is slightly less in the trap bar deadlift over the conventional deadlift. You can modify the trap bar deadlift however to make it more of a posterior chain exercise by hinging at the hips more and bending the knees less, similar to a stiff-legged deadlift.
One downside of the trap bar deadlift is that it doesn’t allow for as much hip extension as the conventional deadlift, this may mean that terminal hip extension is made more difficult, which may hinder an athlete's ability to produce power and may create a weakness for those who transition back to the conventional deadlift after using the trap bar deadlift for some time, however, there are other exercises which require even more hip extension than the conventional deadlift, such as the hip thrust and reverse hyperextension, so if the trap bar deadlift is combined with an exercise which requires a large amount of hip extension than you are unlikely to run into any problems.
When buying a trap bar you must consider the width between the handles, because if the handles are too wide it can make you fill uncomfortable, unstable and you may need to bend over excessively to reach the bar. So get a trap bar with an appropriate width between the handles for whoever uses it the most.
Safety squat bar
This bar has a camber at each end and padding in the centre with protruding handles for you to grip and keep the bar on your back during the back squat, which it is designed to do.
Unfortunately, the safety squat bar is rather boring, it is simply used as a replacement of a regular barbell during the squat for those who can’t reach the barbell due to mobility issues, particularly in the shoulder, which causes the user to have trouble reaching the bar or have pain when reaching the bar. However, the safety squat bar can give you an excuse for your poor mobility, whilst, fixing any injuries or gaining more range of motion through certain exercises will be better for injury prevention, athletic performance and your general well-being.
Depending on the make of the bar you can expect to be able to squat 10-15% less during this lift as compared to a back squat for a one rep max, I believe the primary reason for this is due to the fact that it forces the user to have a more upright torso, which puts more demand on the quads and less on the stronger posterior chain muscles, which could hypothetically handle a greater load.
Earthquake bar and the bamboo bar
These bars are not designed to slide weights onto, instead, they are designed to be used to hang plates or kettlebells from using a resistance band, this means the weights swing when lifted and create serious instability. The bamboo bar can not hold that many weights and bands on it, although you do not need that many weights and bands to perform the exercise, the earthquake bar on the other hand can hold more weights and bands and they're easier to set up.
The earthquake and bamboo bar is used to create neural adaptions in the primary and stabiliser muscles for a particular lift to increase stabilisation, so when the lift is performed with a regular bar there is a decreased risk of injury, an increased neural drive and an improved form during the lift which helps you to become more efficient and lift more weight. The earthquake and bamboo bar is typically used to help improve on lifts in which people have the goal of getting as strong as possible on, such as the squat, bench press and overhead squat.
Swiss bar and football bar
The barbell bench press commonly causes stretching of the tendons and ligaments in the shoulders causing pain. The Swiss bar and football bar are designed to have handles which allow you to grip the bar with a neutral grip or slightly pronated grip, this means that there is minimal external rotation and abduction at the shoulder, basically, your elbows are positioned closer to your body so pain is less likely to occur, in addition to this you will be less likely to experience pain in your elbows and wrists. The sole difference between the Swiss bar and the football bar is that the football bar doesn’t have any handles in the middle.
There are some downsides however to the Swiss and football bar. There are typically only 3 or 4 different positions to put your hands on the bar, due to the limited amount of handles, as compared to an infinite amount of positions to place your hands on a regular Olympic bar, this may mean that you likely will not get an ideal grip width on the bar and you, therefore, can not get an ideal mind-muscle connection and muscle activation. Because the Swiss and football bar forces you to bench with your elbows in it is likely a more tricep-dominant exercise and puts less demand on the pectorals, which is typically the primary target muscle of the bench press, this is why you can not bench as much with a Swiss bar as you can an Olympic bar. The final downside is that it may force people into abandoning the idea of recovering from a particular injury and then working to prevent it from happening again, such as by using specific stabilising exercises and activating those weak smaller muscles, such as by performing upside down kettlebell presses, which would allow the individual to return to regular training which is likely better for strength and muscle gains.
Cambered bar
A typical cambered bar is more similar to a regular Olympic bar than most bars on this list, the only difference is that it either curves or juts out in the middle, this means that during the bench press the bar needs to travel further before it touches your chest, in fact for most people they won’t be able to reach the bar to their chest at first, this works because the part of the bar which you hold is in the same position as a regular bar but the part of the bar which touches your chest is made to be further away. This means that you get the additional range of motion, similar to a dumbbell bench press, without its associated decrease in stability, which is common as you fatigue across a set, also you won’t run into the problem of being unable to get the dumbbells to the side of your chest because they are so large. A large range of motion particularly through the stretched position of an exercise has much evidence to suggest that it is more conducive to muscle growth than a smaller range of motion, however, some EMG data has lead people to believe that the deep stretch of the cambered bar bench press only places more demand on the anterior deltoids and less on the triceps and pectoralis major, which are typically the target muscles in the bench press, especially being that the stretch may be so great that any additional tension is simply placed on passive structures, such as tendons and joints.
Some evidence suggests that the added range of motion from the cambered bar bench press may even increase strength in the normal barbell bench press due to its increased range of motion, however, because the activation of different muscles appears to change quite drastically in the stretched portion of the cambered bar bench press it likely doesn’t carry over well to a regular barbell bench press.
Muscle spindles are proprioceptors which are located throughout the muscle fibre, they sense an increase in muscle length and signal for the muscle to contract to stop it from overstretching, the Golgi tendon, on the other hand, is another proprioceptor which is located where the muscle and tendon meet, it senses when a muscle is experiencing a large amount of tension and signals for it to relax as to prevent injury, this helps the muscle to stretch further. The deep stretch achieved by the cambered bar bench press likely leads to a decreased activation of the muscle spindles and an increased activation of the Golgi tendon in the pectorals which means that the pecs have a better ability to stretch, this is a big benefit for sporting performances and injury prevention, however, because the muscle has a greater ability to stretch it likely has a reduced ability to develop tension which is of vital importance for maximal muscle growth, to work around this problem it may be beneficial to at times go for a period of at least a couple of months where the pecs are not being as greatly stretched during an exercise.
Some cambered bars are made to be used more like a safety squat bar, these are sometimes referred to as cambered squat bars, they are a similar shape to the safety squat bar but without the padding and handles in the centre, this is even better than the safety squat bar for those with extreme mobility issues, because users can simply hold onto the part of the bar which is parallel to you. It is also not uncommon for people to use the cambered bar for the bench press by holding onto the part of the bar which is commonly placed on your shoulders during the squat, this adds instability and hosts similar benefits to an earthquake bar without the meticulous need to set up the lift with resistance bands. Other cambered bars look like a hybrid of a cambered bar and Swiss bar, these are appropriately named cambered Swiss bars, and it is simply used to host all of the benefits from both the cambered bar and swiss bar, so if you would like the added ROM of a cambered bar whilst being able to work around an injury like the Swiss bar does than the cambered Swiss bar is likely for you, although if you do have an existing injury then the added ROM from the cambered bar may irritate that injury despite of the unique arrangements of the handles, also the Swiss bar targets the triceps more than a regular bar does whilst the cambered bar has been shown to target the anterior deltoids in the deep stretch position more than a regular bar does, this may mean that at the top portion of the lift the triceps are primarily targeted whilst the anterior delts are primarily targeted at the bottom of the lift, which means that the pectorals can not be stimulated to grow as much as desired, calling into question the practicality of this type of bar.
EZ-bar
The EZ bar is used as a replacement for a regular stiff bar for single joint movements. This bar curves into a long W shape, which allows you to grip the bar with a slightly neutral grip which prevents pain in your elbows and wrists due to the excessive supination or pronation which is typical on a straight bar.
Axle bar
An axle bar takes the same shape as a regular stiff bar, however, it is typically smooth, doesn’t have spinning collars, is stiffer than a regular barbell and has a diameter of 50mm, which is almost double the diameter of a typical Olympic bar and the same diameter as the collars of a typical Olympic bar. The fact the bar is typically smooth and has no knurling means that the bar is made even more challenging on your grip strength as it is easier to slip out of your hands. Spinning collars means that if the plates begin to roll on the bar during a lift it will not affect you in any way because the middle part of the bar will not spin, but because the axle bar doesn’t have this feature if the plates start spinning, which is common during heavy lifts than it can be really challenging on your grip strength to stop the bar from rotating. The Axle bar unlike a lot of Olympic bars is not designed to bend in the slightest, this makes deadlifts harder because the bar can’t bend whilst the plates are still on the ground which would decrease the range of motion of the lift. The large diameter of the bar is the most obvious and impactful feature, this makes it hard to wrap your hands around the bar, challenging your grip strength even further. If it isn’t clear the axle bar is primarily used to target grip strength, which can be useful for powerlifting competitions where straps are not allowed and for sports which require grip strength such as jiujitsu and gymnastics, also the axle bar is commonly used in strongman events, making it very useful to train with for preparation.
Disclaimer: use the information provided in this article at your own risk, as I will not be liable for any harm that may be caused by it.
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