There are many safety squat style bars on the market, but few (or none, we'd argue) as popular or beloved as the SS Yoke Bar. Whether it's being used as a replacement for a straight bar to save the shoulders of lifters and athletes, or being used a special squat variation within a training program, the SS Yoke Bar is an invaluable tool. As Dave has recently been undergoing the Fixing Dave Tate series with Dr. John Rusin, he has been using the SS Yoke Bar exclusively, and in this video, he touches on several reasons why, including what sets it apart from other safety squat bars.
At 50 years old, Dave has been able to be very efficient in his training and keep his squat bar speed much higher than he ever expected at this age, all while using the SS Yoke Bar. One of the things that the SS Yoke Bar excels at is the quality of the pad. While a lot of other safety squat bars have a short, hard, single pads that causes a lot of compression on the spine under heavy loading, the SS Yoke Bar has a long double pad. When you watch someone squat, from a rear angle, you can actually see the double pad concave a bit, displacing the force across the entire upper back. It even molds a little to the lifter during the movement.
This is the only bar Dave is able to use to squat week after week without doing serious damage to his back. After shoulder restrictions robbed Dave of his ability to hold onto a standard squat bar, he began using traditional safety squat bars and found that over the course of several weeks it would simply destroy his back — in a bad way. Once he figured out why this was happening, he was able to come up with a better alternative in the SS Yoke Bar, which has a more favorable camber angle and greatly improved pad and handle apparatus.
WATCH: Table Talk with Dan Green — The SS Yoke Bar for Squats and Good Mornings
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