- Great alternative to straight bar deadlifts
- Reduce load on lower back
- Deadlift, bent rows, RDL, shrugs and loads more
- Bullet proof build
- Lifetime warranty
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The Watson Collection
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Shrug Bar
From £205.00
Add 30 kg to your deadlift in 1 month with the Watson Shrug Bar!
The Watson Shrug Bar (also known as a Trap Bar or Hex Bar) is an absolute MUST for anyone wanting to build huge quad, hamstring and low back strength and get the whole body growing.
When deadlifting with the Watson Shrug Bar, the load is placed in line with the body rather than in front of it.
This means you stay a lot more upright and put more of the load onto the legs and less on the back.
The shoulder width, parallel grip on our Shrug Bar keeps the strain off the delts and allows you to concentrate fully on driving the weight up.
- Standard duty version: 25 mm handles – 15 kg weight – 330 mm long loading pins – 350 kg capacity
- Heavy duty version: 30 mm knurled handles – 30 kg weight – 400 mm long loading pins – 600 kg capacity
- Power Rack version: Extended weight pins for use in Power Rack – 25 mm knurled handles – 20 kg weight – 300 kg capacity
Beware of the cheap imitations available and all the extremely poor quality versions coming in from the far east.
We have been building these Shrug Bars for over 10 years (selling well over 2,000) and we guarantee it to be the heaviest duty and most rugged bar available, anywhere!
We give ours a lifetime guarantee – if you manage to break it, we will send you a new one – we have never had to do this yet!
The Watson Shrug Bar is great for deadlifts, shrugs, bent-over rows, stiff-legged deadlift, shoulder presses, etc.
This olympic version of the bar is designed to take 50 mm olympic plates.
The 25 mm diameter gripping handles are 25” apart (centre to centre).
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12 reviews for Shrug Bar
Only logged in customers who have purchased this product may leave a review.
Any questions? Get in touch!
- PRODUCT DETAILS
Add 30 kg to your deadlift in 1 month with the Watson Shrug Bar!
The Watson Shrug Bar (also known as a Trap Bar or Hex Bar) is an absolute MUST for anyone wanting to build huge quad, hamstring and low back strength and get the whole body growing.
When deadlifting with the Watson Shrug Bar, the load is placed in line with the body rather than in front of it.
This means you stay a lot more upright and put more of the load onto the legs and less on the back.
The shoulder width, parallel grip on our Shrug Bar keeps the strain off the delts and allows you to concentrate fully on driving the weight up.
- Standard duty version: 25 mm handles – 15 kg weight – 330 mm long loading pins – 350 kg capacity
- Heavy duty version: 30 mm knurled handles – 30 kg weight – 400 mm long loading pins – 600 kg capacity
- Power Rack version: Extended weight pins for use in Power Rack – 25 mm knurled handles – 20 kg weight – 300 kg capacity
Beware of the cheap imitations available and all the extremely poor quality versions coming in from the far east.
We have been building these Shrug Bars for over 10 years (selling well over 2,000) and we guarantee it to be the heaviest duty and most rugged bar available, anywhere!
We give ours a lifetime guarantee – if you manage to break it, we will send you a new one – we have never had to do this yet!
The Watson Shrug Bar is great for deadlifts, shrugs, bent-over rows, stiff-legged deadlift, shoulder presses, etc.
This olympic version of the bar is designed to take 50 mm olympic plates.
The 25 mm diameter gripping handles are 25” apart (centre to centre).
- DIMENSIONS
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- CUSTOMER REVIEWS
12 reviews for Shrug Bar
I was taking a look around at shrug bars and I wanted to make sure I had enough room inside the hexagon and that the handles weren’t too tight together but I didn’t want them massively wide either. Looking at pictures online I thought that the York shrug bar might be the right size. I rang around a few places enquiring what was the gap between the two sets of handles on it but no one was able to tell me and not even York could say either, nobody would open up a box and measure it cause then it would have to be repacked so I took a chance and bought it. I did have a home made shrug bar I got made from hollow steel and I put the handles 25 and three quarter inches apart which worked fine but I wanted something more heavy duty. Anyway the York international hex bar arrived. It is a quality bar but the handles are very wide apart. The bottom set are a tad over 30 inches apart and the top two are 31.5 inches apart. Your hands are quite wide apart and there is stress on the delts when deadlifting. Any exercise where your hands are very wide be it wide grip bench press or wide grip deadlift is severe on the delts and can cause injury.
Anyway along with having the whey protein curse which is a reaction some people get from taking whey protein powder which gives loss of libido, swollen glands in the neck, muscle weakness and prone to injury and once you get it its near impossible to fully recover, its true, anyway with that and the overly wide grip on the York bar I got a shoulder injury, pain in the shoulders acromion and now also when bench pressing too. I’ll have to take sometime off, not good.
I have recently bought the Watson heavy duty shrug bar, I wish I did in the very beginning. Looking at the pictures online I thought that the sleeves might be separate and slotted inside the hexagon and thought it might not be that strong but the shrug bar is one single piece and the handles are welded on at 25 inches apart centre to centre. It is extremely strong and no amount of weight is going to bend it. If you bang one of the sleeves on the floor it makes a lovely ringing sound kind of like a Tibet singing bowl, it makes the bar sound really solid!! It’s a great bar to deadlift with and you will put on size using it. I’d recommend it over other shrug bars especially the York bar which is in my opinion is too wide. Hope this helps those who are in two minds about which shrug bar to get…I was taking a look around at shrug bars and I wanted to make sure I had enough room inside the hexagon and that the handles weren’t too tight together but I didn’t want them massively wide either. Looking at pictures online I thought that the York shrug bar might be the right size. I rang around a few places enquiring what was the gap between the two sets of handles on it but no one was able to tell me and not even York could say either, nobody would open up a box and measure it cause then it would have to be repacked so I took a chance and bought it. I did have a home made shrug bar I got made from hollow steel and I put the handles 25 and three quarter inches apart which worked fine but I wanted something more heavy duty. Anyway the York international hex bar arrived. It is a quality bar but the handles are very wide apart. The bottom set are a tad over 30 inches apart and the top two are 31.5 inches apart. Your hands are quite wide apart and there is stress on the delts when deadlifting. Any exercise where your hands are very wide be it wide grip bench press or wide grip deadlift is severe on the delts and can cause injury.
Anyway along with having the whey protein curse which is a reaction some people get from taking whey protein powder which gives loss of libido, swollen glands in the neck, muscle weakness and prone to injury and once you get it its near impossible to fully recover, its true, anyway with that and the overly wide grip on the York bar I got a shoulder injury, pain in the shoulders acromion and now also when bench pressing too. I’ll have to take sometime off, not good.
I have recently bought the Watson heavy duty shrug bar, I wish I did in the very beginning. Looking at the pictures online I thought that the sleeves might be separate and slotted inside the hexagon and thought it might not be that strong but the shrug bar is one single piece and the handles are welded on at 25 inches apart centre to centre. It is extremely strong and no amount of weight is going to bend it. If you bang one of the sleeves on the floor it makes a lovely ringing sound kind of like a Tibet singing bowl, it makes the bar sound really solid!! It’s a great bar to deadlift with and you will put on size using it. I’d recommend it over other shrug bars especially the York bar which is in my opinion is too wide. Hope this helps those who are in two minds about which shrug bar to get…I got the standard duty, standard length olympic plate bar . All the welds are clean and smooth no spatter , the powder coating is great for grip with liquid chalk so much that knurling is not necessary for me at all. I’ve had it loaded to 195 kg and its solid will take way more than that , theres plenty of room inside the bar. I’ve used it for deadlifts, rows, rdl’s, shrugs, calf raises, over head press, farmers walks. For me personally there a lot this bar does better than the straight bar or at least offers a great change in variation. All in all i deffo recommend the trap bar, especially from Watson, you wont be disappointed. It really has been one of the best things i have used for my training.There is nothing to break on the bar, its just a solidly built bar, i expect i will have this bar 20+ years from now.
Everything from the order to the delivery was great , It came well packaged and came within expected timei purchased the shrug bar from watsons for 1″standard plates, as it’s very hard to find one here in the states excellent! this is without a doubt a seriously heavy duty steel, high quality bar that will last forever.a multi tasker as i’ve put it to use doing deadlifts,squats, shrugs, overhead presses and farmers walks so far. with all things considered the product, craftsmanship, price, shipping and service i am very pleased with my purchase.thank’s again.
Then again if you want to read a review that tells you this bar will cure cancer, secure world peace and tell you that you don’t have a face only your mother loves, then please move on.
This bar does exactly what it says it will, no more no less. Essentially what you see is what you will get.
If you need to read reviews on Watson before purchasing the equipment, then perhaps you should join “shapes” and tone your way to a printer.This is an excellent piece of kit which has been expertly crafted with lots of care and attention to detail. Watson deliver an excellent level of customer service and I look forward to purchasing more kit from Watson in the future.
Extremely happy with the build quality and customer service. I bought the standard duty version, which feels solid and weighs what it says it does, unlike cheap imitations of this and other bars. Very pleased.
I recently purchased the lighter version of the shrug bar. As with everything built by Watson it is superbly engineered and and looks great. Having spent some time familiarising myself with the bar, I have found many ways of utilising the unique design of the bar.
Primarily I purchased the bar to add some variety to my deadliest training. This bar does not disappoint, it takes a lot of the strain off the lower back. Best of all I am able to lift considerably heavier weights with the hex bar than I could with a straight bar.I believe this is the single best piece of training equipment that I possess, very highly recommended.
Great bar, great service, very happy.Stunningly well built training tool. My compliments to the craftsman who made mine! I done my homework before buying and can confidently say there are none on the market with this combination of quality and superb design. I’ve been using mine for over 6 months now for deadlifts and shrugs and can only describe it as essential to my training. I only wish I had bought it sooner!
I received the package just as promised. This bar is extraordinary!
I could imediately noticed, that it is very well built; its construction is sturdy, grip nurling are excellent – which I belived is very impotant.
This heavy duty shrug bar is even better than I expected and would highly recommend! My advise in case of doubt ( standard or heavy duty version ) that one should buy heavy duty shrug bar even if he or she currently can’t move big weight. He/she will grow with this bar as it is built to stay with you for a long time.I’ve bought the Heavy duty version, and I am very satisfied with my purchase. I’ve waited for a while to review it in order to experience training with it for a sufficient amount of time, thus enabling me to write up a proper review. Here it goes:
1: Knurling: Great. It can be a bit painful at greater weights, and will shred your hands a bit, but you’ll learn to live with it. The grip you get is well worth the ‘pain’.
2: Durability: I’m not (yet) enormously strong, so I’ve only been able to test it with 100kg (20rep), but it seems that you’ll be able to load the bar without any problems.
3: Usefulness as training equipment: very useful. I experience back pain from time to time (who doesn’t?), but not when I train with this hex bar. This allows me to increase the load significantly, and also to increase the load more regularly.Conclusion: if you have the money to spend, and you feel like buying this hex bar, I advise you to do it. You’ll fall in love. Also, give this beauty a name, she deserves it.
searched long for a viable shrug bar and found it on watsongym – my trainingpartners and me are really happy with it even if we need to sandpaper the grips a bit. Awesome work by watsongym thanks and greetings from germany.
Only logged in customers who have purchased this product may leave a review.
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Martin –
I was taking a look around at shrug bars and I wanted to make sure I had enough room inside the hexagon and that the handles weren’t too tight together but I didn’t want them massively wide either. Looking at pictures online I thought that the York shrug bar might be the right size. I rang around a few places enquiring what was the gap between the two sets of handles on it but no one was able to tell me and not even York could say either, nobody would open up a box and measure it cause then it would have to be repacked so I took a chance and bought it. I did have a home made shrug bar I got made from hollow steel and I put the handles 25 and three quarter inches apart which worked fine but I wanted something more heavy duty. Anyway the York international hex bar arrived. It is a quality bar but the handles are very wide apart. The bottom set are a tad over 30 inches apart and the top two are 31.5 inches apart. Your hands are quite wide apart and there is stress on the delts when deadlifting. Any exercise where your hands are very wide be it wide grip bench press or wide grip deadlift is severe on the delts and can cause injury.
Anyway along with having the whey protein curse which is a reaction some people get from taking whey protein powder which gives loss of libido, swollen glands in the neck, muscle weakness and prone to injury and once you get it its near impossible to fully recover, its true, anyway with that and the overly wide grip on the York bar I got a shoulder injury, pain in the shoulders acromion and now also when bench pressing too. I’ll have to take sometime off, not good.
I have recently bought the Watson heavy duty shrug bar, I wish I did in the very beginning. Looking at the pictures online I thought that the sleeves might be separate and slotted inside the hexagon and thought it might not be that strong but the shrug bar is one single piece and the handles are welded on at 25 inches apart centre to centre. It is extremely strong and no amount of weight is going to bend it. If you bang one of the sleeves on the floor it makes a lovely ringing sound kind of like a Tibet singing bowl, it makes the bar sound really solid!! It’s a great bar to deadlift with and you will put on size using it. I’d recommend it over other shrug bars especially the York bar which is in my opinion is too wide. Hope this helps those who are in two minds about which shrug bar to get…
Martin –
I was taking a look around at shrug bars and I wanted to make sure I had enough room inside the hexagon and that the handles weren’t too tight together but I didn’t want them massively wide either. Looking at pictures online I thought that the York shrug bar might be the right size. I rang around a few places enquiring what was the gap between the two sets of handles on it but no one was able to tell me and not even York could say either, nobody would open up a box and measure it cause then it would have to be repacked so I took a chance and bought it. I did have a home made shrug bar I got made from hollow steel and I put the handles 25 and three quarter inches apart which worked fine but I wanted something more heavy duty. Anyway the York international hex bar arrived. It is a quality bar but the handles are very wide apart. The bottom set are a tad over 30 inches apart and the top two are 31.5 inches apart. Your hands are quite wide apart and there is stress on the delts when deadlifting. Any exercise where your hands are very wide be it wide grip bench press or wide grip deadlift is severe on the delts and can cause injury.
Anyway along with having the whey protein curse which is a reaction some people get from taking whey protein powder which gives loss of libido, swollen glands in the neck, muscle weakness and prone to injury and once you get it its near impossible to fully recover, its true, anyway with that and the overly wide grip on the York bar I got a shoulder injury, pain in the shoulders acromion and now also when bench pressing too. I’ll have to take sometime off, not good.
I have recently bought the Watson heavy duty shrug bar, I wish I did in the very beginning. Looking at the pictures online I thought that the sleeves might be separate and slotted inside the hexagon and thought it might not be that strong but the shrug bar is one single piece and the handles are welded on at 25 inches apart centre to centre. It is extremely strong and no amount of weight is going to bend it. If you bang one of the sleeves on the floor it makes a lovely ringing sound kind of like a Tibet singing bowl, it makes the bar sound really solid!! It’s a great bar to deadlift with and you will put on size using it. I’d recommend it over other shrug bars especially the York bar which is in my opinion is too wide. Hope this helps those who are in two minds about which shrug bar to get…
Chris –
I got the standard duty, standard length olympic plate bar . All the welds are clean and smooth no spatter , the powder coating is great for grip with liquid chalk so much that knurling is not necessary for me at all. I’ve had it loaded to 195 kg and its solid will take way more than that , theres plenty of room inside the bar. I’ve used it for deadlifts, rows, rdl’s, shrugs, calf raises, over head press, farmers walks. For me personally there a lot this bar does better than the straight bar or at least offers a great change in variation. All in all i deffo recommend the trap bar, especially from Watson, you wont be disappointed. It really has been one of the best things i have used for my training.There is nothing to break on the bar, its just a solidly built bar, i expect i will have this bar 20+ years from now.
Everything from the order to the delivery was great , It came well packaged and came within expected time
sheldon –
i purchased the shrug bar from watsons for 1″standard plates, as it’s very hard to find one here in the states excellent! this is without a doubt a seriously heavy duty steel, high quality bar that will last forever.a multi tasker as i’ve put it to use doing deadlifts,squats, shrugs, overhead presses and farmers walks so far. with all things considered the product, craftsmanship, price, shipping and service i am very pleased with my purchase.thank’s again.
Martin –
Then again if you want to read a review that tells you this bar will cure cancer, secure world peace and tell you that you don’t have a face only your mother loves, then please move on.
This bar does exactly what it says it will, no more no less. Essentially what you see is what you will get.
If you need to read reviews on Watson before purchasing the equipment, then perhaps you should join “shapes” and tone your way to a printer.
Greg –
This is an excellent piece of kit which has been expertly crafted with lots of care and attention to detail. Watson deliver an excellent level of customer service and I look forward to purchasing more kit from Watson in the future.
Jules –
Extremely happy with the build quality and customer service. I bought the standard duty version, which feels solid and weighs what it says it does, unlike cheap imitations of this and other bars. Very pleased.
Richard –
I recently purchased the lighter version of the shrug bar. As with everything built by Watson it is superbly engineered and and looks great. Having spent some time familiarising myself with the bar, I have found many ways of utilising the unique design of the bar.
Primarily I purchased the bar to add some variety to my deadliest training. This bar does not disappoint, it takes a lot of the strain off the lower back. Best of all I am able to lift considerably heavier weights with the hex bar than I could with a straight bar.I believe this is the single best piece of training equipment that I possess, very highly recommended.
Great bar, great service, very happy.
Kenny –
Stunningly well built training tool. My compliments to the craftsman who made mine! I done my homework before buying and can confidently say there are none on the market with this combination of quality and superb design. I’ve been using mine for over 6 months now for deadlifts and shrugs and can only describe it as essential to my training. I only wish I had bought it sooner!
Marko –
I received the package just as promised. This bar is extraordinary!
I could imediately noticed, that it is very well built; its construction is sturdy, grip nurling are excellent – which I belived is very impotant.
This heavy duty shrug bar is even better than I expected and would highly recommend! My advise in case of doubt ( standard or heavy duty version ) that one should buy heavy duty shrug bar even if he or she currently can’t move big weight. He/she will grow with this bar as it is built to stay with you for a long time.
Oxfist –
I’ve bought the Heavy duty version, and I am very satisfied with my purchase. I’ve waited for a while to review it in order to experience training with it for a sufficient amount of time, thus enabling me to write up a proper review. Here it goes:
1: Knurling: Great. It can be a bit painful at greater weights, and will shred your hands a bit, but you’ll learn to live with it. The grip you get is well worth the ‘pain’.
2: Durability: I’m not (yet) enormously strong, so I’ve only been able to test it with 100kg (20rep), but it seems that you’ll be able to load the bar without any problems.
3: Usefulness as training equipment: very useful. I experience back pain from time to time (who doesn’t?), but not when I train with this hex bar. This allows me to increase the load significantly, and also to increase the load more regularly.
Conclusion: if you have the money to spend, and you feel like buying this hex bar, I advise you to do it. You’ll fall in love. Also, give this beauty a name, she deserves it.
Maximilian –
searched long for a viable shrug bar and found it on watsongym – my trainingpartners and me are really happy with it even if we need to sandpaper the grips a bit. Awesome work by watsongym thanks and greetings from germany.