The Hatfield squat is a safety squat bar squat performed while holding the rack uprights for support. It is named for Dr. Fred Hatfield — “Dr. Squat” — the powerlifter and sports scientist who popularised it.
The safety bar’s yoke sits on your shoulders and its handles curve forward, so the bar stays put without your hands. That frees them to grip the rack, which is the whole point: the arms can steady you, assist you out of the hole, or both.
Brolic lists it as Hatfield Squat (Safety Squat Bar). It deserves a separate history from an unassisted back squat, because the hand support is part of the exercise rather than a detail to leave out when comparing numbers.
Muscles worked
The quadriceps, gluteals and adductors, as in any squat, with the spinal erectors and upper back resisting the safety bar’s forward pull.
The bar’s design shifts the load slightly forward compared with a straight bar, which tends to keep the torso more upright and shift emphasis toward the quads. Hand support reduces how much the rest of the body has to contribute — by an amount you control and cannot measure, which is exactly why the log needs a note.
Set the rack up
Use a safety squat bar and a rack with vertical uprights you can reach without leaning forward. Set the safety stops at a height that will catch the bar below your deepest intended rep.
Rack the bar at roughly mid-chest height, get under it so the yoke sits on your traps, and stand it up. Step back into your stance and take hold of the uprights at about chest height — high enough to pull against, low enough that your torso stays upright.
Do not improvise the hand support. A rack upright, a fixed handle, or the rack’s own crossmember is fine. Anything that can roll, tip, or slide — a dumbbell rack, a bench, a loose implement — is not.
Record which bar you used and its mass. Safety squat bars run anywhere from about 20 kg to over 30 kg depending on the model, so “SSB squat, 100 kg” means different things in different gyms.
Squat, and decide what the hands are for
Descend under control to your intended depth, then stand up with the hands providing the degree of assistance you planned for that set. Keep that role consistent within the set so the record means something.
Two common uses, both legitimate:
- Balance only. The hands rest on the uprights and stop you drifting; the legs do the work. Closest to a normal squat, and the most comparable session to session.
- Deliberate assistance. The arms pull meaningfully on the way up, letting you handle more bar weight or extend a set past where the legs alone would stop. Useful, but the bar weight no longer reflects what your legs lifted.
Neither can be inferred from the number on the bar. If the last reps needed a much harder pull, or the depth shortened, write that down instead of presenting them as the same execution.
Changing the support arrangement does not automatically reduce spinal load, prevent injury, or produce more growth than another squat. Those are separate claims needing separate evidence.
Logging
Record all four of these together, or the entry will not be interpretable later:
- The bar’s identity and known mass, plus plates.
- The hand-support method and height.
- Your depth, or another repeatable description of range.
- Reps, rest, and a note on how much the arms did.
| Session | Bar + plates | Reps | Assistance note |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 60 kg | 10 / 10 | Same support; hands mainly stabilising |
| B | 60 kg | 11 / 10 | Similar depth and assistance |
| C | 70 kg | 10 / 10 | Stronger arm assistance on later reps |
This is an invented example, not a loading recommendation. Session B is one more rep under similar conditions and reads as progress. Session C is a heavier assisted task — useful to record, but it does not establish the same improvement in an unassisted squat.
Common questions
Is holding the rack cheating? No. Hand support is what the variation is. The problem would be comparing an assisted set to an unassisted one as though they were the same lift.
Can I convert the result into a back-squat max? No. This guide offers no conversion, and there is no reliable one — assistance, bar geometry and torso angle all differ.
Can I do it with a straight bar? This guide covers the safety-bar version. Letting go of a straight bar mid-squat is not a comparable setup; use equipment and instruction suited to the lift you intend.
My gym has no suitable rack. Use another squat variation with its own history. A named variation is only useful when its setup is practical.
Use the free workout log for the assistance notes and the weekly-set tally to count the work consistently.
Sources and method
- Catalyst Athletics: Hatfield squat — the supported safety-bar movement and the role of arm assistance.
- That Fit Friend: Hatfield squat guide — practical coaching setup, including hand-support position.
- Brolic catalog version 2026-09-05.3 — the existing safety-bar entry.
Injury-management and load-reduction claims made by source pages are not adopted here. The example log is original and hypothetical.