It’s probably immediately verifiable that I have hated squats for most of my adult life. As you get older, deep squats with heavy weight get harder. But it was one day after a painful session that I finally decided to do something about it. No more missed days, whatever the cost. So I looked into and purchased an SB-1 Rogue Safety Squat Bar. And I’ve got to say, it’s completely changed my training dynamic. So let’s talk about it!
Rogue Safety Squat Bar: The Specs
Alright, to start out, safety squat bars in general are a heavier piece of equipment than your standard Olympic barbell. The weight of these guys starts at 70lbs, give-or-take depending on things like rust, how beaten up they are, etc. They have a one and a half inch steel shaft, and one inch handle bars. The sleeves fit your standard Olympic plates. Unlike some of Rogue’s other specialty equipment, they only come in solid black, so you can’t customize very much, not that that really matters in my opinion.
The SB-1 Safety Squat Bar also comes with foam pads that make the squatting much more comfortable on your back. It’s all welded together in one piece, and has been tested at 1000lbs, according to their website. But I doubt I’ll ever get up to a weight high enough to really test this piece, since I’ve seen Brian Shaw (4x WSM winner) use it frequently on his YouTube channel with weights well over 600 pounds.
Rogue Safety Squat Bar: The Good
We’ll start with the positives here, since honestly there’s a lot more to cover than the negatives.
The Comfort
I’m going to be honest, this is the biggest factor that I have for purchasing this product. I’ve always hated squatting. The movement is hard, technical, and painful. Add to that any kind of pre-existing injuries, such as my partially torn labrum, and that pain increases by an order of magnitude. In fact, any time in my training cycles that I get to heavy (for me) weight on my squats, coming out of the hole at the bottom made it feel like my arms and elbows were going to pop out of the socket.
This isn’t so with the Rogue safety squat bar. The handles on each side of your head make gripping much more comfortable. In fact, it’s so well balanced that you can squat hands-free. In the past I’ve actually missed quite a few squat sessions thanks to that nagging shoulder pain, but no more thanks to this piece of equipment.
The Gains
Excuse my use of gym bro vernacular here, but it fits. I lift with a friend and even he agreed after a single use, this bar is great for making both strength and size gains. And it’s not just an anecdotal “trust me bro” situation. The bar is cambered at the ends, which drops the collar that holds the weight lower down than a normal Olympic barbell.
If you combine this with the weight being higher up on the shoulders, it’s a two-fold benefit. First off, you’re going to be fighting it pitching you forward the enter time you’re lifting this beast. On top of that, the position of the handles and the pad being up as high as it is allows for a more comfortable and deeper range of motion. Sure, if you’re focused on powerlifting you’re not going to go lower than you have to. But for both strongmen and bodybuilders this is a huge benefit. For the bodybuilders, obviously fuller range of motions are better. And for strongmen, you always want to be powerful and flexible from most any position, thanks to the range of different implements you’ll be lifting with.
So if you’re considering buying this, I’ll state it simply. No other squat variation is going to hit your entire posterior chain, back, lats, legs, and traps quite like this does. Outside of maybe the king of all equipment, the sandbag, the carryover potential for this lift with this piece of equipment dwarfs most others I own.
Lift Variety
On top of being a mega-effective squat booster, the Rogue safety squat bar is an insanely versatile piece of equipment. Obviously, I squat with it. But even something like this doesn’t make squat my favorite lift. So I do plenty of other things with it as well! For example, here’s a short list of a few of the lifts that can be done with this piece of gear.
- Squats
- Split Squats
- Good Mornings
- Lunges
- Walking Lunges (yes, it’s very easy to walk around with)
- Calf Raises
- Front Squats*
- Step-ups
*And just a quick clarification, but I really think back squatting this thing has completely replaced front squats for me. I don’t do any sort of Olympic lifting, so more than one squat variation that hits upper back seems unnecessary. But just to be clear here, the list I posted above is basically anemic compared to what I could sit here and list off. At only 70lbs unloaded, this is a piece of gear that you could even press overhead or do triceps extensions with.
Rogue Safety Squat Bar: The Bad
Now, before you go forward here, let me just clarify that everything written in this article is my opinion only. Take nothing as 100% fact, as we’re all built slightly differently.
The Cost
Like all pieces of specialized equipment, take into consideration the price. When you purchase from Rogue, you’re going to be paying top dollar for whatever you buy. In fact, the collars I purchased to go with this were nearly forty dollars. Combine that with the price tag on this thing’s 415 dollar price point, it’s going to set you back for sure.
But remember, with the price that comes with Rogue equipment comes quality. Almost every piece of equipment in your gym is going to experience wear-and-tear over time. But everything I’ve purchased from Rogue has held up to years and years of abuse, including my Rogue Fitness Circus Dumbbell.
Your Starting Lifts Will Be Lower
The Rogue safety squat bar is a very specialized and unique piece of equipment. Because of that, lifting it is very technical. And like with all technical lifts, when you first start doing it you’re going to have to drop the weight down until you can lift this thing perfectly.
Unracking this thing and squatting with it feels like someone has tied a rope around the back of your neck and is trying to pull you down to the floor. Overall, I think this pulling action is a benefit. It increase the strength of your posterior chain, traps, back, etc. But, if you’re not careful, all that weight being on your neck is a dangerous prospect. I learned that very quickly when I tried to hit my normal working sets of around 330ish and nearly had my head slammed into my bench by the weight pulling me forward. Pack in the ego, and plan to start from the ground up when you grab yourself one of these.
Long Wait Time
Now, I wouldn’t worry too much about this one. It’s just a bit of my inner Karen coming out and wanting to rage about something. But from the time I purchased to the time I actually got this product was close to two months. You can probably chalk that up to everyone having the idea of building their own home gyms during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it was a frustrating experience to sit on my hands and wait. Once again though, there were some pretty extreme circumstances at the time and you may get your Rogue safety squat bar much faster than I did.
Rogue Safety Squat Bar: Conclusion
Now, let’s answer a simple question. Is the Rogue safety squat bar for you? Well, it depends.
I’d say this is a piece of specialist equipment that belongs in almost every gym in America. It’s great for strength, size, athletic performance. You name it, I believe that doing heavy weight for a solid amount of reps on this at least once a week will improve that aspect of your athletic performance.
The only thing I’d say to possibly dissuade someone from buying it is…do you need it? Are you competing? Do you plan on starting a strength sport, or something like wrestling or football where strength is an advantage? Then I’d say yes. Sure, the price is a bit steep, but if you want to build up your legs in a meaningful way then this is certainly worth the price.
But if you’re just a weekend warrior who likes to lift on his days off from his office job? I wouldn’t blink if you gave this a pass. It’s a beneficial piece of equipment, sure, but not everyone even does back squats. So if you’re more of a leg press kind of guy, I totally get that too.
Overall, this is a very solidly built piece of equipment that will last you a lifetime and increase your gains in almost any category of athleticism. Strength, size, power, etc. So if that’s what you’re looking for, pick this up ASAP.
