This is an article we originally published in 2003, when all our posts were written in HTML to be published on the site. Since fat bars are making a comeback, it is a good time to bring this one back. The version below is taken from the email we sent out at the time—it was easier to track down than the archived web version. I’m not 100% sure, but I believe it also ran in PLUSA in our Force Training column.
I still remember the trips down to South Carolina to visit Donnie. This was in the early 2000s, when his gym was in a shady-as-hell part of town. I remember him showing me the early versions of the Fat Bells, Steel Rollers, Fat Pads, a boar’s head mounted on the wall with a broken bodybuilding trophy in its mouth, and the curtain separating the gym from where he lived—complete with a mattress, sink, and small shower.
Most people don’t know that Donnie used to own a commercial gym and sold it after Louie told him that if he wanted to be the best, he had to quit the gym and gain weight. The first time I visited him, he was living out in the suburbs. A few years later, he’d gained over 150 pounds and was living in a gym in the hood.
That was 100% commitment. A few years after that, he became the first lifter to total 3,000 pounds in the sport of powerlifting. Now, many years removed from the platform, his contributions stand out even more: the Fat Pad, Fat Bells, Fat Bars, body tempering, and those classic Instagram posts.
Fat Bars are NOT new!
From: "Elite Fitness Systems"
To: "List Member" [redacted]
Sent: Thursday, January 16, 2003 2:08 PM
Subject: EFS News
Author, Donnie Thompson
When writing my first article, it was easy to choose a topic with which I am most familiar. In June 2000, my training partners and I decided to stop using the standard 45-pound bench bar for all our upper-body needs. Except for benching at a meet and trying out our bench shirts before a meet, our bench bar collects dust in the corner of our gym. Let me explain. Over two years ago, I asked my friend, who is the head of the tool and dye department at a local Technical school, if he could create a bar more suited to my needs. I needed a bar that would increase my grip. I needed a bar that would be easy on my elbows and shoulders but deliver a more demanding workload on my upper body than the standard bar. In other words, a bar that would take away the shortcomings of the 45-pound bar and deliver outstanding results. Since that time, my training partners and I have increased our meet bench by over 200 pounds each. What is the great upper body apparatus that continues to work for us? It is a seven-foot-long, two-inch solid cold-rolled steel fat bar.
Fat bar training has been around for decades. I am not the first to discover it. However, I don’t know of anyone who has switched over to it 100% after 20 or more years of training with the standard bar. Even my friends at WSB were a little leery of incorporating the fat bar into their upper body workouts. I gave WSB one to share my enthusiasm. It was met with some apprehension. Dave Tate and John Stafford have started using it in the last six months for triceps work and told me how much they've liked the change.
First of all, if you are a big man, the standard bench bar doesn’t even fit in your hands well. You are so accustomed to using it that you never gave it a second thought. Switching bars would mean a change of habit. Most of us have used the 45lb bench bar week after week, year after year. Ever try to explain the Westside theories to the humanoids at any fitness club or even a powerlifting meet? You know that look you get back from them? Suddenly, you are talking like Charlie Brown’s teacher. If you already implement Westside techniques, the fat bar switch shouldn't be that bad. Most of you currently use various bars on the ME lower body day. Louie has article after article on using different bars to squat with that redistribute the workload to affect other areas of your erector muscles besides the lower. Why wouldn't you change your upper-body bars as well? Now you can!
The fat bar enables the lifter to put more steel in their hands. This recruits more muscles in the forearms, upper arms, and shoulders. By constantly squeezing the fat bar, your grip becomes phenomenal over time. We never train our grip because of this, because the bar takes more surface area of your hands, and any exercise you perform recruits more of the muscles required for that movement. For example, J.M. presses. When we used a regular bench bar, the J.M. press tore up our elbows (except for the more petite guys). The fat bar allowed me to perform the lift with less pain and more recruitment of my triceps. Better results followed. Any triceps movement, such as extensions, where you use a thumbless grip, improved overnight.
We finally committed weightlifting blasphemy! We started using the fat bar on DE day instead of the 45lb bar. My partners and I find that others are not yet ready for that. Still, we continue to see higher numbers at the meets. When we bench at meets, the Texas Power bar feels like taffy in our hands. I can destroy anything when I use that little bar. I liken it to a baseball player swinging two bats or weighted bats before going up to the plate. When he gets rid of that extra bat or weight and goes to a single bat, it has the feeling of being faster. Switching bars for training is nothing new. A cambered squat bar and the SS bar don't hurt my squat, but rather work together as different stimuli to make me squat better. That is what the fat bar does for my bench.
Training the upper body with the fat bar has some drawbacks. One side effect is bigger forearms. You will need to adjust your bench shirt to fit snugly around your forearm. Secondly, your grip strength will carry over to the other lifts, so you might have to finish some of the deadlifts you attempt instead of blaming a "grip problem." Once people at your gym start using it, it might be hard to wait for it to become available so you can use it. Getting stronger means bigger goals. You will have to attempt heavier weights at a meet. Getting better is a change. Getting stronger is a good change. I know you can do it.
Here are some of the exercises we do using the fat bar:
Speed work on DE day with bands or chains. J.M. presses for triceps. Several types of extensions to the neck, chin, and forehead. Standing curls for grip and biceps. Rack presses, chain rack presses, chain extensions, overhead rack presses, all board presses and banded board presses, floor presses (banded and chained), incline presses, all barbell ME work, and many others. We also have a fat bar that is 2 3/8 thick. Our biggest fat bar is 3" thick. We only use this bar a couple of times a month, so I wouldn't recommend it unless you have a lot of money to spend. The exercises you can do with the fat bar are endless.
Many athletes, aside from powerlifters, would greatly benefit from incorporating the fat bar into their training regimen. All levels of football players should be required by their strength coaches to use this bar. They shouldn't even be allowed to touch a 45lb bar. The strength athletes (strongman) would experience tremendous results. Even bodybuilders, although they are not athletes, would build more muscle in their upper bodies. Baseball, basketball, hockey players, boxers, shot put throwers, golfers, and even tennis players would improve upper body fitness using the fat bar. If you touch a weight at all for the use of competition in any sporting event, you would benefit from the use of the fat bar.
The two-inch fat bar weighs approximately 75 pounds. The sleeves are solid and do not roll. The ring-to-ring measurement is 32 inches, while the inside rings measure 17 inches and 14 inches. Unless you take a cutting torch to it, it is indestructible. If you are interested in purchasing one, contact me at (803) [redacted]
In closing, please remember that the fat bar does not care if you are drug-free or a raw lifter. It dispenses results to everyone who uses it. The benefits you and your gym can have from using the fat bar are endless. Even if you don't want to give up using the puny bench bar, an occasional visit with the fat bar will yield success. Again, I am not the first to come up with the fat bar idea, and I never claim to be. I want to shed light on a new old thing that we could all benefit from. If you have any questions concerning the fat bar you can contact me at (803) [redacted]. If you currently use the fat bar and are aware of other potential uses, please call me. Please do not hesitate to contact Dave Tate to verify the information I provided, as well as my qualifications.
1/20/03
- Donnie Thompson
