What is a Safety Strap?
Safety Straps are often found on Power Racks or Full racks AKA “6 post racks”. These racks have two pairs of uprights that you lift between, often having a Nylon Strap or a metal spotter arm connecting the uprights. The great thing about full racks with Straps is that the straps are much more user friendly. They create less noise, bounce and damage to barbels when dropped on them compared to a hard spotter arm.
We have been selling Spud INC Safety Straps for over 10 years as Spud INC is the industry standard for any nylon lifting product. These Straps are made out of Nylon and are very strong, rated to over a thousand pounds per strap. We created a Full Rack Safety Strap Bracket that is very popular as it attaches with a hitch pin allowing it to be easily adjusted or removed and also much more stable. These are available as just brackets so you can replace the brackets that came with your rack with this more secure and easily adjustable system.
Benefits of Cloth Straps
- Protects knurling on barbell better than standard spotter arms
- As the strap has a little give to it barbells will not bend as easiliy when dropped off balance on the arm under heavy load
- It is much quieter than a hard spotter arm, this is espesially important with large facilites that have 20+ athetles lifting at a single time
- Less Bounce/Jerk when you hit off the arm compared to a hard safety arm
- Ability to use different parts of the slop to achieve heights between hole spacing.
Half Racks
Half Racks especially double half racks are very popular in the sports performance facility setting as they can train more athletes per square foot compared to individual half racks or full racks. One of the down sides to half racks was traditionally they only had hard spotter arm safety and did not have a cloth strap option which is more user friendly. Now with our new Half Rack Safety Straps you can have all the benefits of a strap without taking up the extra footprint and cost of a full rack.
Hard Safety Spotter Arms
Half Rack Spotter Arms are traditionally 24-43″ long steel bars with plastic on top to protect the barbell. While the plastic does a good job at protecting the barbell it does not do as good of a job as the Nylon Straps do as they are much softer and have a slight give to them that softens the blow on the barbell as well as anyone in the areas ears as they are much quieter.
Vertical Storage
Spotter Arms are one of the largest and heaviest attachments out there as they are designed to keep atheltes safe and stop thousands of LBS of falling weight. We attempted to make these arms as low profile as possible but by still being strong enough to withstand the heaviest of barbell lifts. At only 8″ tall these spotter arms only take up 4 holes on a crossmember for storage and can be stored vertically as shown above.
As the Half Rack Safety Strap Brackets are only 8″ tall they can be attached low on an upright for hang cleans, rack pulls or various other movements. Pictured above they are setup just below knee height for hang cleans and can even go one hole lower than this if needed. Doing hang cleans or rack pulls off straps is s a much more user friendly experience compared to hard safeties.
Barbell ISO Hooks
In an attempt to make the Half Rack Safety Straps as versatile as possible we added our new Barbell ISO Hook that have a channel to setup and perform Overcoming Isometric Barbell Movements. This channel makes it much more comfortable for the athlete as the bar starts just an inch below the position they want it in and they just push up and engage the hook and do not have to worry about the barbell rolling or brining it out when they are done. If you have a full rack and do not need these straps but still want to have an ISO Hook, checkout our ISO Cups.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Safety Straps offer a superior alternative to traditional hard spotter arms, providing numerous benefits for lifters and facilities alike. These straps not only protect barbells from damage by reducing noise, bounce, and barbell wear, but they also enhance safety by offering a more user-friendly lifting experience. Particularly in high-traffic environments like sports performance facilities, the quieter, more forgiving nature of Safety Straps makes them an invaluable addition.
Traditionally these straps were only available in full racks but now with our new Half Rack Safety Straps you can have the benefits of a Safety Strap without the extra cost and space of a full rack required. Along with innovations like the Barbell ISO Hook—ensures that athletes can train harder and safer, with equipment designed with functionality, space and safety in mind.