You can change a lot about an exercise by simply adjusting hand placement. Moving your grip closer together or farther apart can change the muscles emphasized, add training variation, or even help you work around achy shoulders, elbows, or pecs. For strength coaches, grip width is an extremely important variable to control with athletes — and the easiest way to do this is with the new elitefts 5 Rings Bar. The innovative design of this bar helps you achieve more precise bar positioning, enables simpler coaching cues, and makes band and chain placement a breeze.

In this video, Executive Equipment Specialist Nate Harvey goes through several of the many benefits of the elitefts 5 Rings Bar, particularly as they pertain to strength coaches. With a room full of 50 athletes, reminding each and every single one of them to get their hands in the right position for every single set is not something you want to have to worry about, and this bar can help you focus on other aspects of the coaching process.

The five sets of rings on this bar include:

  • Standard Olympic Lifting Rings
  • Standard Powerlifting Rings
  • Close Grip Rings 1
  • Close Grip Rings 2
  • Close Grip Rings 3

Because small changes in grip can greatly affect the movement, you want to always have the ability to control where athletes grip the bar. With the 5 Rings Bar, instead of telling the athletes to go "half a thumb's length from the smooth" you can simply tell them to place their index finger on Close Grip Ring 2.

This is not only easier to coach but is also more consistent from session to session, giving you greater control over the athletes' training. In addition to the five sets of rings on the bar, there is also one additional ring directly in the middle of the bar, making it easier to line up on the center of the bar for squatting movements. Harvey also points out that having this bar enables you, when writing a training program, to put a specific set of rings for each exercise your athletes will perform. This means that you will know exactly where the athletes will grip the bar for every exercise, which means you can manipulate grip to achieve easier, more consistent movement variation from session to session.

In the third video, Director of Sales Matt Goodwin gives a closer look at the design of the elitefts 5 Rings Bar and talks about its use as a power or multi-purpose bar. Specifically, he points out that athletes don't know what it means when you tell them to take a close grip, wide grip, Olympic grip, or powerlifting grip. When using the elitefts 5 Rings Bar, this is no longer a problem.

The elitefts 5 Rings Bar was designed with the following specifications:

  • 20 kilograms or 45 pounds in weight
  • 16.5 inches of loadable weight space
  • 28.5 millimeters in diamater
  • Aggressive knurling for a better grip on the bar

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