Cambered Bar Explained: Squat, Bench and Swiss Bar Types

A cambered bar is any barbell with a bend in it, but that one phrase covers at least three quite different pieces of kit. The cambered squat bar has a deep drop at each end so the plates hang below the bar and swing. The cambered bench bar (and its gentler cousin, the Buffalo bar) bows through the middle to give you more range. And the cambered Swiss or football bar uses angled handles to put your wrists and shoulders in a friendlier position. They do different jobs, so it pays to know which one you actually want before you spend £80 to £300 on one.

The three types at a glance

Bar type	What the bend does	Best for	Typical weight
Cambered squat bar (deep drop)	Plates sit well below the bar and swing like a pendulum	Squats and good mornings with more core demand; lifters with cranky shoulders	Roughly 25kg to 30kg+
Buffalo / bowed bar (mild camber)	Gentle bow along the shaft, plates roughly level	Comfortable back squats, slightly deeper bench	Around 20kg to 25kg
Cambered bench bar	Pronounced dip in the middle where it touches your chest	Extra bench press range, pec stretch	Around 20kg to 25kg
Cambered Swiss / football bar	Angled neutral grips, often with a slight shaft bend	Shoulder-friendly pressing, rows, curls	Around 15kg to 25kg

Weights vary a lot between makers, which is why we keep saying "roughly". Our guide to how much a barbell weighs covers how to weigh your own bar at home.

Cambered squat bar

This is the one most lifters mean when they say "cambered bar" in a powerlifting gym. The centre section sits on your back like a normal bar, but each side drops away by a good few inches before the sleeve. The handles come forward and down, so your hands end up lower and further in front than they would on a straight bar.

Two things follow from that shape. First, your shoulders don't need to rotate back nearly as far to hold the bar, which is a big deal if you've got a stiff shoulder or an old injury that makes low-bar squats miserable. Second, because the load hangs below its contact point, it wants to swing. Any wobble, any loss of brace, and the plates start oscillating and pulling you off balance. That instability is the training effect: you have to stay rigid through your trunk and upper back to keep it quiet.

It's a different stimulus from a safety squat bar, which also helps bad shoulders but works by pushing the load forward with yoked handles rather than letting it hang. If shoulder comfort is your only goal, the SSB is usually the simpler choice; if you want the bracing challenge as well, the cambered squat bar does something nothing else in a home gym does.

Who it suits

• Intermediate lifters who already back squat well and want a variation that hammers bracing.
• Anyone whose shoulders or elbows complain when holding a straight bar in a low-bar position.
• People who want good mornings that feel more stable on the back.

It doesn't suit someone still learning to squat. Fix the pattern on a straight bar (our back squat guide walks through it) before adding a load that fights back.

The Buffalo bar: a mild camber

A Buffalo bar sits between a straight barbell and a full cambered bar. The shaft has a shallow bow, a couple of inches at most, and the sleeves stay close to level with your hands. Plates don't swing in any meaningful way.

The point of the bow is comfort and a slightly better fit on your back during squats, which can reduce how hard you need to crank your shoulders back. On the bench it lets the middle of the bar come a little closer to your chest before the sleeves would normally stop it. For most home lifters with one rack and room for maybe two bars, it's the more practical cambered option because you can use it for nearly everything a straight bar does.

The LOEFT Buffalo Cambered Barbell is an 8ft bar listed at 55lb (about 25kg) and was in stock at £99.99 when we checked. That's cheap for a specialty bar. We haven't used it ourselves, so read recent buyer reviews on sleeve spin and finish before ordering, and note the 8ft length (more on that below).

Check LOEFT Buffalo Bar price on Amazon£99.99

Cambered bench bar

A dedicated cambered bench bar has a much deeper bend in the middle than a Buffalo bar. When you lower it, your chest sits inside the curve, so the bar keeps travelling for several centimetres after a straight bar would have touched down. You get a bigger stretch on the pecs and front delts at the bottom.

There's real research on this. A 2020 study of 10 strength-trained men found the cambered bar increased bench press range of motion from an average of 44.9cm to 52.7cm at 50% of 1RM, along with higher power output and bar speed, though the longer time under load may also bring more fatigue (Krzysztofik et al., Frontiers in Physiology). A separate study from the same group compared muscle activity in 12 trained men and found the cambered bar produced more front delt activity at 90% 1RM, while the straight bar actually gave higher pec and long-head triceps activity at heavier loads (Krzysztofik et al., Frontiers in Physiology). So the extra stretch doesn't automatically mean "more chest". It's a variation, not an upgrade.

Cambered Swiss and football bars

A Swiss bar (also called a football or multi-grip bar) swaps the long straight shaft for a frame with several pairs of handles. Some are straight and parallel; the cambered versions angle the handles and sometimes bow the frame. The neutral grip, palms facing each other, takes a lot of strain off the shoulders during presses, and the camber can give a bit more room at the bottom of a bench.

We cover these in depth in our Swiss bar guide, so here's the short version: if your main problem is shoulder pain on the bench or overhead press, this is the bar to look at, not a cambered squat bar. The GYM MASTER Olympic Cambered Multi Grip Football Bar was in stock at £79.99 when we checked, which is at the budget end for this type.

Check GYM MASTER Swiss Bar price on Amazon£79.99

Safety: respect the pendulum

The deep cambered squat bar is the one that needs care. Because the plates hang below the bar, they keep moving after you stop. Walk out slowly, take fewer steps than you would with a straight bar, and pause until the plates settle before you start the first rep.

• Start at 50% to 60% of your normal back squat. The swing scales with the load, and it feels heavier than the number on the plates suggests.
• Use collars every time. Swinging plates will walk themselves off unclamped sleeves.
• Set safeties lower. The dropped sleeves sit lower than the bar on your back, so check they clear the spotter arms at the bottom of your squat before you load up.
• Re-rack carefully. Walk straight back into the uprights and let the plates settle before lowering onto the hooks, or the bar can bounce off.

Exercises to use them for

Cambered squat bar: back squats, box squats, good mornings, and walking lunges for the brave. Paused squats work well because they force you to hold position while the load settles.

Buffalo bar: pretty much anything a straight bar does, though the bow makes it a poor choice for deadlifts and Olympic lifts. Squats and bench are its strengths.

Cambered bench bar: flat and incline bench press, floor press if you want a partial, and light, controlled stretch work.

Swiss bar: bench and incline presses, overhead press, rows, close-grip presses for triceps and hammer-grip curls.

Buying tips

Check your rack width. Measure the inside distance between your rack uprights and compare it with the bar's grip section. A bar that's too narrow for a wide rack won't sit on the J-hooks. Our squat rack buying guide lists widths for the racks we recommend.

Check the length. Many cambered and Buffalo bars are 7ft, like a standard Olympic bar, but some (including the LOEFT) are 8ft. An 8ft bar needs about 30cm more clearance in total, which matters in a garage or spare room.

Look at sleeve length. Short sleeves on cheap specialty bars limit how many plates you can load. If you lift heavy or use thick bumper plates, check the loadable sleeve length on the listing, not just the overall bar length.

Ignore the weight rating hype. Ratings on budget bars are rarely independently tested. Buy for the shape you need and lift within sensible loads, especially with a bar that swings.

Know what you need. Shoulder pain on squats points to a safety squat bar or cambered squat bar; shoulder pain on bench points to a Swiss bar; wanting more pec stretch points to a cambered bench bar. For one versatile extra bar, a Buffalo-style bar covers the most ground. Browse the rest of our home gym guides for racks, benches and plates to go with it.

Recommended reads

• How much does a barbell weigh?
• Safety squat bar guide
• Swiss bar guide
• Best barbell UK
• Best squat rack UK