This might sound a little crazy, but when I was doing shrugs with a barbell my junk kept getting in the way. I started using a cambered bar and it solved the problem.

One day I decided to knock out some deadlifts after shrugs (probably not the best sequence of exercises, but I was getting started after taking 3 weeks off for a family medical emergency, so I wasn't too concerned about optimizing the routine, I just wanted to tighten back up and get into lifting shape). I found that using a cambered bar for deadlifts actually worked quite well: the bar wasn't scraping up my shins and I could keep the weight more centered because my hands were by my sides and not out in front of my body like they would be with a regular barbell.

Admittedly, I wasn't going too heavy because of all the recent time out of the gym, but honestly, the cambered bar felt pretty good on the deadlifts. Does anyone see any problems with this before I start stacking on the plates? Surely, someone has tried this before...