I finally got the bar in today, which means Monday I get to finally train in this thing. Y'all had me worried about the hooks so I had to make sure I could unrack the bar safely for bench press. I can see how just looking at the hooks from a distance would give the impression that they would force the bar outward prematurely, but in practice it just doesn't happen. There is enough space between the hooks to unrack without touching the steel. I'm not sure if that's by design or if I'm just lucky it worked out. Below is me unracking the barbell at my full extension. My wife has no trouble unracking the bar either and she is way shorter than me. It's not all roses however, the steel on steel contact with the bar is probably gonna tear up the knurl over time. I'll probably never do snatches, but if my sons want to do them later on I may have to buy a dedicated bar for that. This is just informational in case someone winds up with a rack like this, although I doubt there are many folks here in my area.