What Is The Best Barbell Pad? Ranking The Top 6 For 2024
If you are doing back squats or hip thrusts with a barbell, having the best barbell pad is important for the quality of your workout and comfort.
A weight bar pad isn’t just about protecting yourself from possible injury; it can also help elevate your compound exercise workouts to the next level.
This article will examine several of the best barbell pads, their benefits, and top options on the market.
How To Choose The Best Barbell Pads
We will consider a few things when looking at the best barbell pad for hip thrusts or squats, whatever fits our needs. First, we look at the material of the barbell pad Amazon offers. What is it made of?
Next, we will consider the pad’s size, including the foam’s thickness and length, which can vary but are important to understand based on your needs. Some of the best barbell pads come with straps to help secure the barbell cover to the bar to avoid slipping.
We are also going to consider the price. Most barbell hip thrust pads can be purchased for under 30 bucks, with a few options going over a bit. We don’t want to overpay for a barbell foam pad, but we want to get the best barbell hip thrust pad available for our specific fitness situation and exercise routine.
Here is the summary list of our best barbell pads, and the full reviews are below.
Top 8 Barbell Pads For Squats And Hip Thrusts On The Market
This squat barbell pad enhances athletic performance with its high-grip surface, offering control and comfort for heavy squats and hip thrusts. Its durable, rubberized foam design protects your back and shoulders, maintaining shape under heavy weights.
Equipped with Velcro straps, these squat pads stay secure on the barbell, ensuring no slipping or sliding. Ideal for workouts with uneven weight distribution, they’re perfect for compound exercises like deadlifts and squats, allowing for comfortable and stable training.
A great addition to your squat rack, and an easy choice for our pick for the best barbell pad for hip thrusts and squats.
ProFitness Pros
ProFitness Cons
So, very little, but enough that you might want to consider if you need the straps.
The Iron Bull pad’s ergonomic design allows pain-free exercise, emphasizing good form and technique while minimizing shocks from the floor during squats and hip thrusts.
These Advanced Squat Pads absorb energy from high-density foam rubber, reducing discomfort against bars or floors. The matte finish enhances stability by preventing slippage off the shoulders, though it’s not entirely slip-proof without straps.
The Iron Bull barbell pad also comes in various colors, catering to those who value gym aesthetics.
Iron Bull Pros
Iron Bull Cons
The upgraded Power Guidance barbell hip thrust pad maintains its high quality and reliability. Its anti-slip design ensures comfort and stability during use.
Featuring two Velcro straps, this pad stays on the bar, making it suitable for powerlifting or casual training focused on strength gains without worrying about slipping. The pad is crafted from high-quality materials, with a reinforced fabric cover and sponge interior for joint support and skin comfort.
At over 17 inches long, the Power Guidance pad is ideal for those needing extra length for hip thrusts, squat lunges, and other exercises, making it a top choice for a best squat pad list.
Power Guidance Pros
Power Guidance Cons
The Dark Iron Fitness barbell pad features an extra 1.5″ cushion, making it one of the thickest and most comfortable options for challenging exercises.
At 15″ in length, it’s not the longest pad but still effective. The pad is crafted from top-grade, dense 1 1/2″ foam, providing excellent support and comfort for WODs or powerlifting. This high-density foam ensures long-lasting shape retention.
Note that these pads are designed for 2″ Olympic-sized bars. They can be used on 1″ bars but may not stay as securely in place and are more susceptible to slipping.
Dark Iron Pros
Dark Iron Cons
I don’t want to call this an oversized bar pad, but it is the longest barbell pad on the list, making it a great option for those who need to cover a wider body span, whether for squats or hip thrusts.
We see a similar ergonomic design on these barbell cushions as with other barbell pads, with thick foam on the edges of the Amazon barbell pad and a dip in the middle.
This foam pad also has securing straps to help secure it to the bar.
This barbell hip thrust pad can be used on both standard and Olympic-sized bars.
REEHUT Pros
REEHUT Cons
With its lightweight and portable design, you can take this with in order so that your workout doesn't have additional weight on top of all those exercises.
The DMoose brand, known for its high-quality fitness products, naturally appears on this list of the best barbell pads for hip thrusts and squats.
This option is another long barbell squat pad, almost 17 inches in length, ideal for hip thrusts. It features a 1.2″ inch non-slip EVA foam, available in various colors.
DMoose also offers this item in combo packs, allowing you to purchase two or three barbell hip thrust pads at once for a slight discount.
DMoose Pros
DMoose Cons
Help Choosing The Right Squat Or Hip Thrust Pads Based On Features
We have identified a few main factors to consider when purchasing barbell pads.
Material
Looking at how thick, thin, and hard barbell pads are is worthwhile.
The material must be durable, soft, and comfortable enough to cushion the body and the loaded barbell.
The shoulder protective pad is made with rubber because it is more durable and comfortable, and the foam will also have a thicker texture, depending on your needs.
Secure straps
If you want your barbell hip thrust pad to be secure and not risk it moving or shifting around, consider getting a squat bar pad with straps.
The best barbell pad can move around on the bar, but the foam pad can’t hold the bar in place. This means the bar can rotate within the foam pad itself.
You must ensure a good hip thrust pad is securely secured to the bar, so the heavy weight does not move during hip thrusting or squat training. Many barbell pads are tight enough not to require a strap, but there is certainly comfort in having the extra security for some.
Coverage And Size
Look into barbell pads that are wide enough to cover all your muscles for whatever exercise you are doing.
If you want to do barbell squats, you want a pad that is wide enough to go across the width of your shoulder.
For hip thrusts, the bar pad doesn’t need to be as long, but the right size needs to be wide enough to cover the width of your body so the bar can comfortably lay across it.
What Are The Benefits Of Using A Barbell Pad?
A barbell hip thrust pad is important for anyone who wants to do a barbell hip thrust or squat. A product being such a low-price tool is extremely beneficial to both lifters and athletes, especially considering the price.
The extra comfort and security of using a foam barbell pad can help safely take a hip thrust or back squat workout to the next level. With its thick, durable foam construction, the comfortable barbell pad is designed to fit around the neck of an Olympic-size weightlifting bar.
It provides a cushioning surface that helps ensure proper form and reduces the risk of injury while protecting areas of your body like the hip bones, neck and neck pressure, and lower body (as well as upper body).
Which Barbell Pad Is The Best Barbell Hip Thrust Pad?
Picking the best overall barbell pad wasn’t easy, as Amazon has so many great options. We have selected the ProFitness bar pad as the best barbell pad on this list from Amazon.
One thing to consider is that every person has different needs and requirements, so you might find a different pad better fits you. For example, Rogue Fitness makes a great pad that many people love.
In the end, the best pad is the one that helps you achieve your goals and get the quality of workout you want.
Is A Barbell Hip Thrust Pad Worth It?
This certainly depends on your specific workout and fitness wants and requirements.
Trying a barbell hip thrust pad at such a low price point is easy to see if it can benefit your workouts.
Also, many gyms have hip thrust pads on hand near the gym barbells, so you can test these out at your local gym before buying to determine if you should get one of your own.
These bar pads are inexpensive to add to your strength training experience, much like resistance bands or grip trainers, but well worth the cost.
How Thick Should The Best Barbell Pad Be?
This question has no standard answer, as it will be based on the athlete using it.
For some, a thinner pad with less foam padding might be preferred, whereas others prefer a thicker, high-density foam pad for hip thrust exercises and squat lungers to add more comfort.
In the end, the best thickness depends on the user’s preference.
What Exercises Are Good To Do With A Bar Pad?
Regarding the best exercises for which a bar pad would be useful, think about the different exercises you can do with a barbell. Nearly every back or hip thrust movement with a barbell can benefit from a bar pad.
For example, putting an extra thick barbell pad on the barbell can be used to cushion the heavy weights against your body when lowering the arms.
A barbell hip thrust pad can keep the bar and heavy loads from rubbing directly against your shoulders and traps and provide comfort with the high-density foam for back squats and squat lunges.
Many also use a bar pad for hip thrusts to protect the body from being directly impacted by direct contact with the bar. The slight bit of cushion from a bar pad with thicker pads ensures that more reps can be done with more heavy weight (or add more weight) for a better workout experience.
Exercises like the hip thrust, glute bridge, and back squat get all the glory when it comes to the barbell pad, but the bench press is a great exercise that the pad can help with. A thrust and squat barbell pad protects the chest from lifting heavy weights and loaded barbells and gives a little barbell padding to help keep you safe during your lifting.
What Are The Best Barbell Pad Alternatives?
There are not a lot of alternatives available to use, but the main one seen at the gym is gym towels.
You can take any gym towel, or maybe two, and wrap it around the bar at the contact points of your body. Some also try this with a rolled-up yoga mat.
This will help with some cushion and is a great last-minute hip thrust pad alternative, but not a proper alternative to a real barbell weightlifting pad or hip thrust pad.
Final Thoughts
Sometimes, the simple things make the biggest difference and can take our workouts to another level. Like resistance bands, yoga mats, or ab rollers, thrust pads are low-cost tools that can elevate your intense workouts and help you lift more and get stronger.
With a thrust pad, you can do more core and lower body exercises to tone your muscles, burn fat, and increase strength. Whether you’re doing squats or weightlifting movements, thrust pads add a new element of intensity to any workout routine.
A well-placed and small investment into your fitness goals.
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