Texas Squat Bar

The Texas Squat Bar is a dedicated squat barbell from Texas Power Bars, handbuilt in Irving, Texas by Buddy Capps/Capps Welding since 1980. Unlike a general-purpose power bar, it’s purpose-built to eliminate whip and rolling under a heavy back squat: a thicker 31.75mm shaft (versus roughly 28-29mm on a standard power bar), a 6” center knurl (extended company-wide in 2017) that locks the bar across the traps, and 5.5” more sleeve-to-sleeve width plus 2.5” more loadable sleeve length than the standard Texas Power Bar — extra room that reviewers credit with reducing shoulder and elbow strain for lifters with limited external rotation.

Independent coverage is consistently positive with no substantive complaints surfaced anywhere in gathered research. Garage Gym Lab and Two Rep Cave both describe it as extremely stiff and stable even under 700+ lb loads, and it’s cited as the official bar of major powerlifting federations (APL, APC, IPO). Two independent YouTube reviews echo the same verdict — one reviewer hit within two pounds of his competition squat PR on the bar — and Reddit sentiment across ten threads is uniformly enthusiastic (PRs set on the bar, a gift bought for elite powerlifter Ray Williams), if mostly anecdotal rather than critical.

The tradeoffs are the ones inherent to any specialty bar: it costs more than a general power bar ($368-$440 depending on finish), weighs more (55 lb vs. a standard 44-45 lb), and reviewers note a learning curve switching from a standard barbell. It’s an easy recommendation for a lifter who squats heavy and often, and a harder sell as someone’s only or first bar.