Great bar! Definitely helps shoulders. I ordered the matte black finish but when I slide my plate on it scratches the finish instantly. Not worth the extra money for matte black finish.

This is a fantastic product. Anyone that lifts hard enough, heavy enough, and long enough will develop some kind of injury history. It's just a given, if you push yourself hard enough for long enough. With that being said, I have some shoulder discomfort after a heavy bench press workout. I have pushed through for years and just considered it "normal soreness". I ran across this bar though recently, and after a ton of research decided to buy. All I can say it that I wish I would have gotten this bar years ago. The pump I get from using this bar is crazy, and it helps basically alleviate the majority of shoulder discomfort during/after a bench workout. The pump is probably due to the increased range of motion from the curvature of the bar, allowing you to lower your hands further on the eccentric phase of the lift than you could with a traditional straight bar, and the more natural hand angle change helps with the shoulder issues. I could write another paragraph about how much I like this bar, but instead I will leave you with this final thought. Buy this bar. Even if you don't have shoulder issues, you should still buy this bar. It's a great alternative to straight bar bench, and again, with the added range of motion and change in hand angle to a more natural position, it's great for muscular hypertrophy as well as strength. Hope this review helps anyone that was on the fence about this purchase.

Bought this 6months ago. Not using a straight bar a lot after this. The grip with is a little thicker, wich I like. The bar isn't wobbly and the curve is perfect. Three positions is enough. I use it for (incline) pressing, rows, curls and extensions. All the people who come over for a workout love this bar as well.

Took longer than expected t ship but it was worth the wait!! Great for Bench Presses as the hand angle takes the shoulder out of the movement.

66 years old and can bench again with no shoulder problems.

I bought this bar a little while ago and it’s a great addition for my space! Love all of the different exercises I can do with it without putting my shoulder replacement in a precarious position. Quality is amazing and love the bar with the PMB sleeves! Seen people complain about the loudness of the sleeves but I think they are nitpicking with all that! Def purchasing more Kabuki x Rogue bars in the future!

As others have said, the ribbed sleeves cause a screeching noise as you move plates on and off. The noise is bad enough, but the real frustration is that it is scraping the black corrosion resistant coating off the insides of my plates. So now I’m going to be fighting rust on my plates because of damage done by this expensive bar. Otherwise, I love it. Tremendous improvement in terms of stress on my shoulder impingement. Much better focus on chest and triceps than I get from a standard bar. Excellent knurling. Glad I got it, but I really wish they offered this with smooth sleeves. Two stars off may seem harsh for the sleeve problem, but a bar this expensive shouldn’t damage my other expensive equipment.

Sleeve: PMB I bought this back in November and it has been a game changer to add some variation. So much less stress on shoulders. The new sleeve finish is tight so I don't even have to use collars. Probably not great if you are changing weight quickly but I don't need to do this often. The tool also came with a cool bottle opener.