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Ah, those key moments in life: first day at school, first kiss, first love, first car—memories to treasure! You truly have the weightlifting bug. The right bar will help you nail that technique and score those PBs; it will become a comfy and trusted ally for years to come. But choose poorly, and you will end up with the wrong bar, which, far from being your friend, will hinder your progress and, worse still, be unsafe.
If you need a long, straight metal bar to attach plates to for general beginner weightlifting, there are tons on the market. Generic barbells are useful for those who are just starting out or for those who want to lift LIGHT weights at home or in a group exercise class. So, please rule out these cheap, lightweight metal sticks at the outset. Although we felt obliged to mention generic barbells, please put them to the back of your mind for the rest of this article.
In fact, just put them out of your mind altogether. The name gives it away really. Login to your Fitness Town account. Lost Password? Log In. Forgot Password eMail Address:. Back to Login. Send Password. Enter your account email address and your password will be email to you.
Thank You You will receive reset instructions in your mailbox. The shopper could not be found and the password was not sent. Olympic Barbells vs. Standard Barbells Anonymous. What is the difference between an Olympic Barbell and a Standard Barbell? If you are ever confused, visit one of our 7 locations so our Fitness Town Experts can assist you. Throughout this post I will highlight the major differences between an Olympic bar and a standard bar , their functions and overall designs.
So, what is a barbell? Barbells are long, straight, metal bars that you use as resistance for strength-training exercises. With a barbell, you can do exercises including squats, dead-lifts, presses, rows and curls.
Is that really necessary? The short answer is probably not. The vast majority of home gym owners only need one straight Olympic style barbell.
That said, there are a couple of specialty bars that I think can benefit quite a few of us that train at home. I firmly believe that if you are going to spend time training every week, having the right tools for that training will benefit you greatly. When it comes to barbells, I wrote an entire article that you can see here explaining why I think you might want a total of three. Click here to read about the trap bar.
Click here to read about the EZ curl bar. For the purposes of this article and in helping you select the right bar, it simply refers to the size of the sleeves. This is as opposed to a standard barbell where the entire bar is the same diameter. A standard bar is typically just over an inch in diameter across its entire length. These are the bars that most of us got as kids. A standard bar is NOT what you want for your garage gym.
That means the first decision when shopping for a new bar is easy. Eliminate ALL standard barbells. But you can go low priced and still get a great bar. You can get a very good all purpose Olympic bar for a surprisingly low price see one I really like on Amazon by clicking here.
To spend that much on a bar is a complete waste of money for most home gym enthusiasts. I also want to point out where your bar is going…. This detail is really important! When you look at barbells over on the Rogue Fitness site, keep in mind that almost all of those bars are designed to go into a commercial gym. Bars built for these environments are overkill for your home use. Not only will you never approach the volume of commercial gyms, you will also take care of your bar. Those two things mean that lower priced bars are absolutely perfect for our home gyms.
They are nice. Keep this in mind when you are shopping for your bar. Knowing basic barbell construction will help you match up the bars you are looking at with both your type of lifting and your budget. The diameter of the bar impacts its stiffness, otherwise known as whip.
A smaller diameter bar gives the bar more whip. A larger diameter bar makes the bar more rigid and better suited for powerlifting. Click here to see my article on bar whip for a full explanation. Universally, barbells are made from high tensile strength steel.
Tensile strength will range anywhere from , psi to , psi and over. I wrote an article giving a full explanation that you can read here. Olympic lifts and deadlifts can benefit from a bar with more whip.
Powerlifting is better served with a stiff bar. CrossFit bars usually fall somewhere in between. There is no standardized way to measure whip and it often comes down to preference with different lifters. For those of us buying a single bar for home training, there are many other factors that will be more important and noticeable than bar whip. In fact, for the majority of home lifters, whip will not be a consideration at all.
Knurling is the cross hatched area etched into the bar itself. The first aspect of knurling to notice is how aggressive it is. I would rely on reviews for this and not the description written by the bar manufacturer.
Basically, the more aggressive the knurling, the sharper and harder on your hands the bar will be. To some extent a more aggressive knurl can assist in grip. That can come at the expense of the skin on your fingers and palms.
Likewise, a passive knurl will be easier on your hands, but will not provide much grip. For most, a medium knurl is the most desirable. They have predetermined what they feel is the best for each type of bar. Some companies simply use the same knurl on all of their bars. Another aspect of knurling that will be important to your bar selection is knurl placement and rings.
Knurl rings are smooth rings in the knurling that guide your hand placement for different types of lifts. Bars can have one, the other, or sometimes both.
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