The Dead-Squat Bar Is A Keeper Thread...

[Deep-Voiced-One]

As a lot of the forum members who were around for a while know, I've notoriously went back and forth as to whether I should keep, or sell this "Overbuilt Beast" off due to the space it takes up...but after a lot of thinking, it's here to stay.

I'd go as far as to say that I'm gonna be replacing conventional deadlifts with it due to my specific purposes of lifting which restored the direction of keeping it, not to mention it's uniqueness, rackable and enough sleeve space to overload it (not to mention its supposed discontinued status).

After wiping the dust off in its idle state for a bit, it was like un-boxing it for the first in all its impressive glory. Here's a few additional recent pics of it...

http://imgur.com/a/KIEwR1w

And the older ones...

http://imgur.com/a/2qcJV

Note, that the bare steel sleeves are a bit surface rusted by now and as a bonus question what would yous recommend wiping the sleeves down with to clean and shine 'em up?

[Duplicitous]

Photo link is invalid, but I use citric acid power:water in a 1:3 ratio. You just need a container deep enough to submerse each sleeve.

https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...post1583405021

[Deep-Voiced-One]

Photo link is invalid, but I use citric acid power:water in a 1:3 ratio. You just need a container deep enough to submerse each sleeve.

https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...post1583405021

Thanks for the suggestion, the before and after pics speak for itself!

Just fixed the link and re-posted, apparently the previous link word got censored on the forum for being a bad word lol.

[BenMcLeodNZ]

What's up with the handles? Trap or Rickshaw bars are awesome things.

[Deep-Voiced-One]

What's up with the handles? Trap or Rickshaw bars are awesome things.

They're grooved at 15 degree angles so you can grip them with either a slightly inner, or outer grip depending on the lift, or preference.

[1651Naismith]

Are they still making / selling these? I got interested in picking one up after Atty posted his review a couple of years ago, but seems they’ve stopped selling them.

Love the red, btw.

[BenMcLeodNZ]

They're grooved at 15 degree angles so you can grip them with either a slightly inner, or outer grip depending on the lift, or preference.

OK cool, well designed. Do you do Farmers Walk with it bro?

[Deep-Voiced-One]

Are they still making / selling these? I got interested in picking one up after Atty posted his review a couple of years ago, but seems they’ve stopped selling them.

Love the red, btw.

I'm not sure, for a while they said on their site "Out of stock" and about a year ago a forum member on T-Nation's website posted a thread asking if they were still available and Biotest's people never responded.

I would try e-mailing, or calling their customer service number (if they have one) to find out, because I know they still sell supplements on the site.

They really out done themselves on the powdercoat job on these, smooth and sleek in person just as you see in the pictures.

They really had something good going with this bar and I hope they do re-stock them for everyone to be able to get to own one for themselves.

[Deep-Voiced-One]

OK cool, well designed. Do you do Farmers Walk with it bro?

Absolutely, they're excellent for Farmers Walks for conditioning and flared up my traps doing them...Definitely a movement you wanna do in your backyard with this bar, otherwise you'd potentially do a lot of damage to your house with it lol.

I also wanna start adding in shrugs in the rack with it as a finisher after deadlifts.

The bar holds up to 960 lbs of iron plates (weight of the bar included I believe) and with 100 lb iron plates on it I think it was up to 1120 lbs altogether!

[BenMcLeodNZ]

Absolutely, they're excellent for Farmers Walks for conditioning and flared up my traps doing them...Definitely a movement you wanna do in your backyard with this bar, otherwise you'd potentially do a lot of damage to your house with it lol.

I also wanna start adding in shrugs in the rack with it as a finisher after deadlifts.

The bar holds up to 960 lbs of iron plates (weight of the bar included I believe) and with 100 lb iron plates on it I think it was up to 1120 lbs altogether!

That's awesome man, it shows you really can't over-engineer gym equipment. A very thin coating of 3 in 1 oil on those sleeves once a month will do it good, by the way.

[jamalfudge]

I'd love to have one of these, I recently looked on T-Nation's store and did not see them. Assume they are legit discontinued. Hopefully I can find one used...

[Deep-Voiced-One]

That's awesome man, it shows you really can't over-engineer gym equipment. A very thin coating of 3 in 1 oil on those sleeves once a month will do it good, by the way.

Thanks for the tip, I think I might have some 3 in 1 oil lying around somewhere in the basement.

[Deep-Voiced-One]

I'd love to have one of these, I recently looked on T-Nation's store and did not see them. Assume they are legit discontinued. Hopefully I can find one used...

If they indeed are discontinued (which it definitely sounds like) that'd be a shame since it could easily compete with some of the other higher end trapbars on the market these days.

Even though the Dead-Squat bar is a big tank of a bar (not a space saver by any means lol), I prefer it to the half style with stand offerings I've been seeing these days...there's just something about the half/walk-in style that makes me believe the weight doesn't seem evenly distributed (maybe it's just me), but I would take being trapped in the whole rackable style personally since it essentially has the same feature and extra support of it being held up on the j-cups and safeties when in the rack and I got a mini DL jack should I need to add more plates of the same diameter from the floor for DLs.

[Deep-Voiced-One]

With some will power and determination I put the Dead-Squat bar in the tight space of my garage in the rack and loaded it up for some higher volume trapbar deadlifts and after rediscovering using it a few years later, I might never go back to conventional deadlifts again...

Now the only inconvenience will be rearranging it back on Workout A, but other than that I'm glad to introduce it back into my lifting...here's a few pics of it loaded in the rack, it also fits snug on the mini DL jack for easy loading on the ground...

http://imgur.com/a/XoABnSh

[dragon360]

It is a nice damn bar. I'll even take it in the red.

[Deep-Voiced-One]

I used some steel wool pads and brushed the surface rust off the bare steel sleeves, it's a bit hard to tell because of the lighting, but they look much better and smoother than they did and I'll probably apply a bit of 3 in 1 oil to them soon.

Here's a pic of each sleeve...

http://imgur.com/a/BAJ03sT

Also, today was a bit of a lagging start so I decided to test the Dead-Squat bar for trapbar squats, bench press and trapbar rows and they could work in a pinch, but unlike deadlifts which can easily be a main stay done with a trapbar like this (in my opinion), using it for squats will yield some results in leg development, just not as much as when the back is holding and supporting the bar.

For bench press, the grooves angles wide yet at your side does allow the elbows to be tucked in nicely, but is a bit awkward pressing a giant frame above you and keeping it balanced just right during the movement, could be thrown in to relieve the wrists a bit, or change up the angle to hit the tris harder while still getting some chest activation...not the worst lift and kinda fun testing your strength on it and the wrist position is pretty comfortable, but not my favorite and can be mostly replicated better with a Football bar.

Using the bar for trapbar rows is decent and unique enough at those angles, but if you're used to a regular barbell then you'll be more used to the bar touching around the ribcage area at full contraction, with this bar there is no contact during full contraction (due to its shape and room inside it) which isn't bad because you get a deep stretch, but also renders you to only have the option of a wider neutral grip (I usually row with a wider grip anyway, so it's not bad), it does have potential occassionally getting thrown in there, but takes a bit of getting used to if switching from a regular bar and what you're traditionally used to.

[rlundregan]

I used some steel wool pads and brushed the surface rust off the bare steel sleeves, it's a bit hard to tell because of the lighting, but they look much better and smoother than they did and I'll probably apply a bit of 3 in 1 oil to them soon.

Here's a pic of each sleeve...

http://imgur.com/a/BAJ03sT

Also, today was a bit of a lagging start so I decided to test the Dead-Squat bar for trapbar squats, bench press and trapbar rows and they could work in a pinch, but unlike deadlifts which can easily be a main stay done with a trapbar like this (in my opinion), using it for squats will yield some results in leg development, just not as much as when the back is holding and supporting the bar.

For bench press, the grooves angles wide yet at your side does allow the elbows to be tucked in nicely, but is a bit awkward pressing a giant frame above you and keeping it balanced just right during the movement, could be thrown in to relieve the wrists a bit, or change up the angle to hit the tris harder while still getting some chest activation...not the worst lift and kinda fun testing your strength on it and the wrist position is pretty comfortable, but not my favorite and can be mostly replicated better with a Football bar.

Using the bar for trapbar rows is decent and unique enough at those angles, but if you're used to a regular barbell then you'll be more used to the bar touching around the ribcage area at full contraction, with this bar there is no contact during full contraction (due to its shape and room inside it) which isn't bad because you get a deep stretch, but also renders you to only have the option of a wider neutral grip (I usually row with a wider grip anyway, so it's not bad), it does have potential occassionally getting thrown in there, but takes a bit of getting used to if switching from a regular bar and what you're traditionally used to.

DVO, glad to see that you came to your senses about keeping this thing!

Try RDL's with it, I like them almost as much as Trap Bar Farm Carries and Deadlifts.

[Deep-Voiced-One]

DVO, glad to see that you came to your senses about keeping this thing!

Try RDL's with it, I like them almost as much as Trap Bar Farm Carries and Deadlifts.

RDL's sound like a great movement for it, I can even overload it on the safeties set low when they get real heavy.

I might throw these in on a second, or third day just to have something different than back and front squats and DLs.