Even small changes in your workouts can have big positive effects. Discover how multi grip swiss bars are different and what the benefits are.
Swiss bars, also known as multi grip, football, or neutral grip bars stand out in that they have multiple handles that are either neutral (horizontal to each other), angled, or both.
This changes your workouts in a few ways.
1. Multi grip swiss bars can help with technique
While this first benefit applies to certain other movements too, the multi grip swiss bar bench press is one of the most popular uses of this specialty barbell.
In the regular barbell bench press, keeping your upper arms at about 45-degree angles or less to your upper body is an important technique attention point.
You do this to put your shoulders into a safer position and to work your chest, tricep, and front deltoid muscles in a balanced way.
When using the neutral or angled handles from multi grip swiss bars, you will notice that your upper arms tend to go to a 45-degree or smaller angle.
If you have a model with neutral grips and want to mostly work your chest, you may even need to focus on bringing your arms more outward to get the 45-degree angle.
Another exercise where the swiss bar offers a similar benefit is the shoulder press. Again, you don’t want your upper arms to point outward too much since this increases shoulder injury risk.
Multi grip swiss bars can again help with this goal.
In short, multi grip swiss bars can help you improve your technique in exercises like the bench press and shoulder press. In turn, this can lead to lower injury risk and more muscle gains in certain places.
2. Multi grip swiss bars are not the most expensive
While they can still be worth it for certain people and situations, it is fair to say that certain pieces of fitness equipment come at a high price.
The best multi grip swiss bars do still require an extra investment but at the same time, you can say they are not the most expensive compared to many other equipment options.
At the time of writing, some models go as low as around 100 dollars, most are around 200 dollars, and a few more premium options require around 300 dollars.
This can make swiss bars an affordable option for both home and commercial gyms.
3. Swiss bars put less pressure on your wrists
Lifting weights can strengthen your body but it can also hurt in certain areas.
For example, the powerful bench press exercise can put a lot of pressure on your wrists when you use a barbell.
The different angles of the multi grip swiss bar handles can both help you keep your wrists straighter and put them at more comfortable angles for certain exercises.
Besides in bench presses, these swiss bar handles can help your wrists in skull crushers, bicep curls, standing tricep extensions, shoulder presses, front raises, etc.
This aspect of multi grip swiss bars does not only make your workouts more pleasant but could also help you avoid wrist injuries.
4. Multi grip swiss bars are versatile
To what extent a piece of fitness equipment makes your life matters too but it tends to be nice if you can use it to work multiple muscles and fitness components.
You can definitely say this applies to multi grip swiss bars since you have so many different exercises.
Some of the most popular ones are bench presses and shoulder presses but you can also use swiss bars to do tricep extensions, bicep curls, bent-over rows, inverted rows, etc.
5. Multi grip swiss bars can keep things interesting
Many people forget to consider how much they (will) enjoy their workouts when putting together and following an exercise routine.
This does not only make your life better from a fun standpoint. It can also make it easier to stick to your workout routine which can sometimes be a challenge.
These things are relevant for multi grip swiss bars because many people will find it fun to switch up their workout routines with specialty barbells like this.
Additionally, the neutral and/or angled grips from swiss bars may reduce pain and injury risk.
These benefits help you avoid forced breaks and/or make existing exercise sessions more fun.
6. Multi grip swiss bars simply help you build muscle
The next benefit of multi grip swiss bars is far from unique but it is worth briefly mentioning.
This type of specialty barbell simply makes it easy to do movements that pressure your muscles with nice amounts of weight.
In turn, this can help you grow and strengthen a variety of muscles which offers many benefits too.
I looked at 15 models and calculated that the average multi grip swiss bar weight was around 36.8 pounds (16.69 kg).
If you plan to do bicep and tricep exercises you could also choose models of around 25 to 30 pounds (11.3 kg to 13.6 kg) to not start too challenging.
The maximum weight capacities of multi grip swiss bar brands range from 300 pounds to 1900 pounds (136 kg to 861 kg).
In simpler words, these weights and capacities of multi grip football bars mean that you can work your muscles at a variety of challenge levels. These should be good enough to see great results.
7. Swiss bars come in many shapes and sizes
From a high-level view, all swiss bars have handles that are positioned at unusual angles.
At the same time, there are still many ways to implement this concept.
You can choose between swiss bars with neutral, angled, or both types of handles, models that implement grip knurling (grooves in handles) or not, and options with a camber (dent in the bar for a bigger range of motion in the bench press) or not.
Some of these customization options will align better with your training goals and personal preferences.
In turn, you can say that having all these different options available is a benefit of swiss bars.
8. Multi grip swiss bars fit different people
When hearing/reading the description of a multi grip bar, some people wonder whether these neutral and angled handles will be at the right distances for their personal body proportions.
The fitness brands behind swiss bars designed their products in a way that resolves this concern. Most people will find that at least one of the handle pairs on a swiss bar is good enough for them.
Another positive point of these multiple handle distances is that they allow you to change up your training if you want to.
You may still be concerned about whether the distance between swiss bar handles is good for you.
In that case, you can check this detail for the brand you are considering and measure out this distance in real life.
9. Swiss bars can work your muscles in different ratios
Due to the way your muscles attach to your bones, doing exercises slightly differently can influence its results.
More specifically, the different angles of the swiss bar handles can change in what ratio you work the muscles in an exercise.
For example, by holding your upper arms closer to your upper body during swiss bar bench presses, you focus more on your tricep and front deltoid muscles and less on your chest muscles.
In swiss bar shoulder presses, pointing your upper arms more forward works the front part of your deltoids (main shoulder muscle) slightly more and your side (middle part of the) deltoids slightly less.
Multi grip swiss bar bicep curls work the brachialis muscles (deeper upper arm muscle) and brachioradialis (forearm muscle) more and the biceps brachii (commonly just called biceps) less.
One important thing to note about this aspect of swiss bars is that different is not always better.
Whether you find these details benefits or downsides depends on what you are trying to achieve.
