I started using specialty barbells early on in my own training, as I was a student of the Westside Barbell Conjugate System. This is a style of training which revolves around utilizing various barbells for both the dynamic effort and max effort training days.
From a sports performance perspective, as well as from a general fitness perspective, specialty barbells are unique tools which can yield ‘better’ outcomes. This can be in the form of working around an injury or focusing on a particular weak point in a lift. Additionally, changing barbells can lead to new stimuli for muscle growth, enhance tendon health, and much more.
There are dozens of specialty barbells, but there are two which we prioritize in our training for both athletes and our adult general population…
The Trap (Hex) Bar
The Trap Bar is a must for any public or private gym. The Trap Bar not only teaches beginners the fundamentals of a solid hip hinge (i.e. deadlift), but it also allows for higher loading, and greater development of power.
The high handle provides a smaller range of motion, complete with a more upright spine position, which can teach new lifters how to transfer force from the ground up through their kinetic chain. For more advanced lifters, we may even add band tension. Personally, my training involves Dynamic Effort work against band tension. Just yesterday, I did 7 sets of 3 against weight plus band tension.
Beyond trap bar deadlifts, this bar allows for variations on:
- Farmer’s Carry
- Shrugs
- Overhead Press
The Football Bar
As someone who coaches swimmers and other athletes with chronic shoulder ailments, the Football Bar has given many of our athletes the opportunity to return to the bench press or floor press–and doing so in a more shoulder friendly manner.
The Football Bar rotates the hands to better facilitate pec and triceps development, depending on hand position. We use the hell out of this and more of our athletes will press with this than will press with a traditional barbell.
We may also use this bar for:
- Inverted Rows
- Lee Priest Triceps Extensions
- Pendlay Rows
Fat Bars
You don’t necessarily need a super specialized barbell to bring this one to life. Rather than having a Fat Bar, like an axle, we typically use Fat Gripz or Fat Gripz Extreme. These can be added to any typically sized barbell and have the benefit of generating more muscular engagement of almost any targeted muscle group.
The Fat Grip has the added benefit of training the grip outside of the confines of the typical barbell diameter.
We rarely do direct arm work, but when we do, it is often paired with Fat Gripz. DB Hammer Curls with Fat Gripz are a personal favorite for direct arm work. Using our Fat Pull Up Bar for weighted hangs, pull ups, and chin ups, are other great options.
If you’re going to buy a pair, I recommend starting with the regular sized Fat Gripz. The Extreme ones are a bit too big to comfortably handle rows, unless you have lots of exposure to this implement.
Another great use for the Fat Gripz is actually to progress an exercise when adding load may not be ideal. Consider going from 10 lbs. on a DB Lateral Raise to 15 lbs.: in this case, we’re talking about a 50% jump in load. That would be like going from a set of 200 lbs. on a squat to 300 lbs.. But, by adding the Fat Gripz and sticking to 10 lb., you can add more difficultly to the exercise without having to make such a large jump in bar weight.
There are Plenty More…
There are dozens of more specialty barbells, I’ve just found these to be the most applicable to the widest swath of the population. The Trap Bar makes for the ultimate lower body builder from both a safety and power development perspective. The Football bar is similarly a safer option to a conventional barbell for most upper body presses. Fat bars are safer, create more muscular tension, and have the added benefit of localized muscular hypertrophy (muscle building).
Most of our clients are using some combination of these exercises in each and every one of their training programs. They key, of course, is knowing when to use what and what to use when…
If you want to learn more about our training, you can feel free to reach out to us on our contact page. We even offer fully remote training and even short-term consulting options for those of you who may just want to get a better grasp on the variety of specialty barbells at your commercial gym.