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Safety Bar Squat anatomy plate showing the working muscles

Legs · Squat pattern

Safety Bar Squat

The safety bar squat is a barbell squat pattern movement for the legs. Here is the setup, the execution, the mistakes worth avoiding, and how to program it.

Equipment

Barbell

Trains

Legs

Level

Intermediate

STAY UPRIGHTDRIVE THE HANDLES

Muscles worked

Quads first, glutes and adductors second, with the whole trunk working to keep you upright under load.

Set up

  1. 1

    Set the barbell so the load sits where you can brace against it, then take a stance about shoulder width with toes turned out slightly.

  2. 2

    Big breath into the belly, brace like you are about to take a punch, and hold it for the whole rep.

  3. 3

    Screw the feet into the floor so the arches stay up and the knees track over the middle toes.

How to do it

  1. 1

    Break at the hips and knees together and lower under control, about two seconds down.

  2. 2

    Hit depth you can own with a neutral spine. DRIVE THE HANDLES

  3. 3

    Drive the floor away and keep the chest and hips rising at the same rate.

  4. 4

    Stand all the way tall and reset the brace before the next rep.

Common mistakes

  • Hips shooting up first

    Fix: Chest and hips rise together. Drop the weight until they do.

  • Knees caving in

    Fix: Push the knees out into the arches of the feet on the way up.

  • Half reps that get called depth

    Fix: Film it from the side once. Depth is the hip crease, not a feeling.

How to program it

Sets

3 to 5

Reps

5 to 8

Rest

2 to 3 min

Heavy pattern. Put it first in the session while you are fresh.

No gym version

Goblet squat with any single heavy object, or a slow tempo bodyweight squat with a three second lowering phase.

Questions

More legs work

Knowing the lift is the easy part.

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