I love the safety squat bar. I can do more weight and squat lower with one. Our gym has the old school kind that weighs 90 or 95 lbs and it's always lying on the floor somewhere. It's too difficult for me alone to get it into position so I generally end up with the regular bar.
My first gym must have had the original bar that Fred Hatfield personally used. That thing was old, rusty, the pad was held together with electrical tape, and it weighed a ton. It was a workout just removing it from the stand and setting it up in the rack.
I used it for a while after hurting my shoulder, but preferred regular barbell squats. I would also see guys use the safety bar for good-mornings and hyper-extensions among other things.
