A Good Olympic Barbell

[John Dalton]

Hi guys

I am planning to buy a new olympic barbell for mainly lower body work and there are a few bars that have caught my eye. I am looking for one at around $200-300. This is the first time i am going to own an olympic barbell so i'll need help to find out some good ones. What are the features and specs i should be looking for? (FYI i'll be mainly doing deadlifts, squats, high pulls, power cleans etc for low reps - not crossfit style)

[Cole Dano]

Both Rouge Fitness and Muscle Driver / Pendlay have some decent bars that are somewhat economical. If in doubt go Pendlay just to support Glenn he's a great guy.

[Ryan Libke]

After using a cheap bar from who knows what company, for years (and years and years - I had it since my teens, and the bolts holding on the sleeve were starting to strip, and the original chrome had rusted off from the cat peeing on it while I was in law school), I eventually purchased a Pendlay bar for Olympic lifts. I bought it from it from Rogue, ironically, and their bar looked pretty good, too. Rogue has a pretty big selection of bars for most any specific need, including powerlifting. Customer service was very good. I like the bar very much. I use it at home, where I have constructed a lifting platform with plywood and a horse mat. I still use the old one for squats, the occassional bench press, and cuban press. (mostly Gymnastic Strength Training™ now!)

That being said, pay attention to the way the sleeve is attached to the bar. The cheepo I have just has bolts. I am not sure what is best for powerlifting, but this seems to be a key feature.

[John Dalton]

my favourite to buy would be the pendlay bars. but the rogue bars look pretty good too, and they are significanlty cheaper. I found it difficult to perform olympic lifts with a men's bar but i'm fine with a women's bar ( my hands are the same size as my 10-year old nephew's ). Does anyone have any experience working with very heavy weights with a women's bar? How does it compare to a men's bar? Is the lack of centre knurling in most rogue and pendlay bars significant for back squats?

[Richard Duelley]

I really want one of the Pendlay Nexgen bars. When I get tired of fighting my plates (Pendlay Econ V2 Bumpers, from Muscle Driver USA) on to my current bar (combination of rust and missing surface coating) I will not hesitate to drop the cash on one of the Nexgen bars.

[FREDERIC DUPONT]

This ought to be an investment for a lifetime of use; do not hesitate to buy the best quality you can afford, both for security, and longevity.

Fred

[Nic Branson]

Definitely spend a bit more if you like the more expensive one. As for the women's bar, how much weight are you talking about? Those bars are still rated for a fair amount. I have the luxury of a power bar and York olympic bar.

[Blairbob]

Lately I've been using the Rogue bars at my friend's CF box (though I haven't used them since last week since I found my buddy's garage CFFB gym has a few bars than feel livelier and spin better while not being such a pain to get to) and Pendlay's or Eleikos, and some other bars at another S&C gym. The Rogues are cheaper though.

I feel that the Pendlay NXGen bar is livelier with a softer knurl. This is the cheaper NXGen bar that is around $350, not the one around $550 Bearing series.

I also like this one particular Pendlay NXGen Bushing bar at the S&C gym so I always end up picking it whether I see the end cap or not.

[Joshua Naterman]

I use the 20kg Pendlay NexGen Needle Bearing Bar and it is amazing. Would buy it again in a heartbeat.

[Rikke Olsen]

Now, I haven't had my hands on many bars, but I really, really like the Eleikos down at my gym.

[Joshua Naterman]

Now, I haven't had my hands on many bars, but I really, really like the Eleikos down at my gym.

I would think so, I believe they are the standard all other bars are compared to

[Blairbob]

Pretty much. There is one Eleiko at MidTownStrength an older gentleman showed me and encouraged to use. It had odd collars but seemed good enough.

Uesaka make some good bars, too.

[pdb_atfn]

OP - what sort of numbers are you lifting? I think you probably won't notice much difference between a "good" bar and a normal cheap one. I got the cheapest oly bar I could find when I bought mine in 2007, and it's been fine for me. I've left it outside in the rain for months at a time, and treated it pretty badly, but it still works. And by that, I mean you can still slide plates onto it and lift it! Which is really all that matters for most people.

[Blairbob]

My numbers are low now because I took 3 months off, got back into it and have spent 2 months sort of trying to lift while dealing with some dumb injuries.

You can feel a difference between the Rogue and Pendlay bars. I haven't tried some of the newer special Olympic Rogue bars though.

Our beater bars at the gym are alright. No idea but they are 28.5mm I think. You can tell the difference between that 1/2mm, especially if you have smaller hands.

Back when I was at a different gym in July and August and just using whatever that CrossFit gym had they were fine as I hadn't lifted in 3 months. But when I took a short trip back to Midtown, I could there was a difference between those generic and a Pendlay bar or even the general Rogue bar.

Back in spring, I was cleaning 96 or 98kg. My Snatch positions were still crap and I can't seem to locate the numbers I was hitting.

I was lifting 73/89 kg as 69kg lifter before I sprained my wrists and developed a tear in my left thigh.

My favorite bar at the gym right now is this older DHS bar. I always try to lift with it and consider it my mistress. I do spend some time on the others just so I don't get too used to it though :? . I actually found we have 2 Eleiko's, but one of them has some rust on it's texture. I call it the cheese grater because it will tear the crap out of your shins in no time flat. It spins nice and is great, but nobody uses it because of that (the other Eleiko collar on one side doesn't spin in both directions).

For whatever reason I like our Pendlay Bushing bars to the Needle bearing. They feel like their collars spin more but the Needle bearing feels pretty nice when you actually use it though it doesn't seem to spin as much as the Bushing bars (weird).

Having said that, my friend just bought a DHS bar from DynamicEleiko that had a cosmetic blemish for an awesome price and loves it. I really want to try it.