Rogue Squat bar vs Froning bar

This is a comparison of the Rogue Squat bar and the Froning bar including pros, cons, and alternatives. Follow the links for more details

Overview and review Rogue Ohio Bar Froning Edition

This overview of the Froning bar was originally published in my comprehensive guide on which Rogue barbell to buy. If you are currently considering to buy a Rogue barbell it is worth a read to get input on the latest models. I update the guide on a yearly basis depending on Rogue's new releases.

Price 375$

Overview of Rogue Ohio bar Froning edition

The Rogue Ohio bar Froning edition pays tribute to all-time Crossfit legend Rich Froning. Rich Froning managed to claim the title of "Fittest man on earth" four times. This makes him the most successful CrossFit athlete to date. The Froning bar carries his logo. The logo is silver while the rest of bar has been kept black. Rogue uses its Cerakote finish combined with the base of the Ohio bar to create another design dedicated to a Rogue athlete.

The Froning bar comes at 20kg and a diameter of 28.5mm. The sleeves are connected via bushing to the shaft. It can withstand 190K PSI Tensile strength with a good whip. The knurling is standard. This multi-purpose bar has a loadable sleeve length of 16.40.

The Froning bar is a great option if you like the colour back and want to connect to one of your favourite CrossFit athletes. Other options you might want to consider are the Fraser bar and Matt Chan bar which is also multi-purpose bars with Rogue athlete branding. This is a great bar for any fitness enthusiast who wants to combine or contrast black with other colours in their home gym.

Pros of the Froning bar

The Froning bar is a single colour bar in black which makes it less popping than the other athlete designs from Rogue. If you like simple designs which do not make bold statements this is a good bar to get. The Ohio bar builds the base and delivers a solid base for multi-purpose barbell training. Connecting to the legend Rich Froning might also give your athletes a psychological boost while training. The low key design also makes it a more feasible option for gym outfits.

Cons of the Froning bar

As with the other Ohio bars with cerakote finish make sure that it is mainly used with bumper plates instead of steel plates. Otherwise, wait until these bars become available with chrome sleeves. It should only be a matter of time until Rogue makes this available. A black shaft can be more prone to show scratches of the underlying material. If you go heavy duty and don't care for the design you might want to go for the Ohio bar, Castro bar or Operator bar instead.

Conclusion

The Rogue Froning bar will set your mind to the greatest of all times in the realm of CrossFit. If you are building a new CrossFit box with class get a set of the Rogue name branded barbells. Your customers will notice that extra bit of attention to detail.

Learn more about the specs of the Rogue Froning barbell and purchase on the Rogue website

Overview and review of the squat bar

The Rogue squat bar is a 32mm long sleeved version of Rogue bars to maximize what you can squat. Here are the pros and cons.

The Rogue squat bar is a special design that focuses on squatting at $445. The main differences to regular bars are

Bigger circumference 32mm
Longer shaft
Fully knurled
Longer sleeves

This makes it a bar that is aimed at big, heavy squatters. It could also be interesting for some deadlift experiments as the elephant bar from the Arnold has not gone into mass production yet. The specifications of the bar are:

Made in the USA
Weight: 25 KG
Diameter: 32mm
Stainless Steel Shaft - 200,000 PSI
Aggressive Knurl Pattern along full length of shaft + powerlifting and center knurl marks
Bar Length: 94.488
Distance Between Sleeves: 56"
Loadable Sleeve Length: 16.795"
Chrome Sleeves
Bronze Bushings

Pros of the squat bar

The pros of the squat bar compared to other bars are in the name. The design features are inbuilt to maximize big squats.

Longer sleeves
Longer shaft
Full knurling
32mm

Longer sleeves will enable you to put more weight on the bar with rubber or steel plates. If you see Ray Williams squatting you can get an idea of why he might run out of space on the sleeves.

32mm stainless steel will keep the whip at bay. While you want whip in an Olympic barbell to make use of momentum to get the bar overhead, it is not a desirable feature in a squat bar. You want to minimize 1000 pounds taking a life on their own on your back.

The full knurling will provide more grip to your back. There are other bars out there with center knurls which does almost the same thing for you.

The longer shaft will make it less like for you to bump into the rack when oh are walking out very heavy weights. Depending on your setup this can be annoying. I injured myself twice because of twisting my upper body when walking out of a setup and touching off the j cups.

Cons of the squat bar

The cons of the squat bar are

No IPF / IWF approval
Space requirements
Limited use
Price

If you are considering the squat bar because you want to break records, keep in mind that it is not approved for the IPF or IWF. You will still earn respect for posting the first 500kg raw squat, which this bar is basically built for, but it won’t count in these federations.

If you are setting up your home gym in a very crammed place, keep in mind that this bar will protrude even further to the sides. If you have already cut it very thing with the distance of your bar to the wall or another rack, the squat bar might just push it over the edge.

The squat bar is mainly limited to squats. As it has bushing and knurling all across the bar it might not be the best option for Olympic lifts, the bench press, and deadlifts.

For the price you are looking at you can get more versatile barbells for your home gym with a cooler design. If you are setting up your home gym the squat bar might not be the go-to option.

Alternatives to the squat bar

Alternatives to the squat bar are

The Rogue Chan bar is a good alternative for mere mortals who don’t squat 400kg. It is cheaper than the squat bar, has a poppier design and can also be used for Oly lifts. If I was to spend $400 on a starter barbell for my home gym it would be this one.

The duffalo bar is an interesting bar for people who squat 800 pounds plus on a regular basis. This bar has been invented at Kabuki strength which is headed by Chris Duffin. The design is aimed at relieving stress on the shoulder while bench pressing and squatting. This is a very interesting second bar to buy instead of the squat bar, even though it costs $200 more.

Summary for the squat bar

The squat bar is a great bar for someone who actually needs it. This would be people who squat more than 300kg on a regular basis. There are not that many of them around. I personally think for a second barbell in your home gym you are better off going with safety or duffalo bar.vs Squat bar