Safety Squat Bar Squat
A step-by-step form guide from the Ægir Iron exercise library: how to do the lift, what to watch for, and the muscles it trains.
- Equipment
- Safety Squat Bar
HOW TO PERFORM
- Set the yoke pad across the traps and take the handles in front of you.
- Take the weight, step back into a stance about shoulder width with the toes turned slightly out.
- Take a big breath into the belly and brace as if bracing for a punch.
- Break at the hips and knees together and sit down between the feet until the hip crease passes below the top of the knee.
- Drive through mid-foot to stand, fighting to keep the chest up the whole way.
FORM TIPS
- The weight is cambered forward, so it pulls the torso down and asks far more of the upper back than a straight bar does. Expect to use less weight than you back squat.
- It suits anyone whose shoulders or elbows will not tolerate holding a straight bar, since the handles need almost no shoulder range.
- Set the safety pins at the depth you squat to. Bailing out of a squat is survivable, but only if the rack is set for it.
TARGET MUSCLES
Primary
- Quads
- Glutes
Secondary
- Adductors
- Abs
- Lower Back
- Hamstrings
In the app
This guide covers these exercises in the Ægir Iron library:
- Safety Squat Bar Squat
- Paused Safety Bar Squat
- Tempo Safety Bar Squat
Log it in Ægir Iron to track your PRs and estimated 1RM, and to see the sets each muscle gets every week. Free for individual lifters.