Guide To Buying A Barbell

There are different kinds of barbells, each with their own functionality.

• The Standard Olympic barbell weighs 45 lbs. It’s made of special steel to allow more whip than a standard bar. With a wide grip of 2 inches in diameter, it helps the lifter maintain a steady grip throughout the lift.
• The Short Olympic barbell is about 5 feet long and can weigh between 25 and 35 lbs. It is easier to balance than the standard 7’ bar and is suitable for exercises such as curls.
• The EZ barbells are 4 feet long and weigh 25 lbs. They’re suitable for close grip exercises, like lying tricep extensions.

1. Squats: This exercise targets your quads, glutes, and hamstrings.
2. Deadlift: This is a great strength-building exercise for the entire body. It’s vital to get the technique right to avoid serious injury.
3. Bench press: This exercise works on your chest, triceps, and deltoids. This compound pushing movement helps you build an impressive torso.
4. Bent-over row: This exercise targets your back, core, and chest. You can also use reverse-grip to focus more on the outer parts of the back.
5. Military press: This one is for building shoulder strength. Apart from working on your delts, it also helps increase overhead strength.
6. Lunge: The barbell lunge targets your quads, glutes, and hamstrings. You can apply heavy loads to a single leg, helping you get the perfect lower body strength.
7. Barbell curls: The good old bicep curl is an effective exercise to increase bicep strength while allowing heavier loading than other exercises.

The Olympic barbell is the best choice for barbell rows.

1. Start with planting your feet slightly wider than hip-width. Grip the bar just outside the width of your knees (a wider grip builds more of your upper back, while a narrow grip focusses on lats and lower back).
2. Get into the starting position by deadlifting the barbell to the standard position.
3. Push your hips back, and bend your knees slightly. Lower the barbell down to reach a 15-45-degree angle with the floor while keeping your back straight.
4. Keeping your core tight, row the barbell by driving your elbows back. Stop the motion when the bar just about touches your torso.
5. Return to the start and do 8-10 reps.

You should use an Olympic Barbell for squats. These barbells are wide but use less knurling in the center to help with the grip during squats. You must also use a squat rack that houses the barbell when not in use and safety bars to catch the weights, should you drop them during the exercise. The rack also allows you to set the barbell according to your height and type of exercise.

You can go for either the Short Olympic barbell or the EZ barbell. Each has its own benefits.

The Short Olympic barbell provides better stability and better bicep activation because your palms are facing up, meaning you can curl up in full supination.

EZ barbell is better for people who lack wrist mobility. The semi-supinated position sacrifices some movement of the biceps but reduces the risk of wrist injuries by providing a more comfortable and natural position.

Barbell row is a full-body compound exercise that targets both your entire back, particularly the rhomboids, lats, hamstrings, spinal erectors, and lower back muscles. This exercise also helps strengthen your posture and increase back size. It also works your abs, hips, and arms.

Short answer, no. A barbell should have enough tensile strength to flex and return to its original form. A barbell that flexes under load easily but can still handle a lot of weight without bending has a lot of whip. Whip doesn’t usually show until you load the bar with over 220 lbs. For most people training at home, this doesn’t matter. Since you will use the barbell for different exercises, a barbell with an average whip should be fine. So, barbell whip only matters to professional powerlifters and Olympic lifters.

Purchasing a barbell along with the weight set ensures that the weights are compatible with the barbell and fit perfectly. There is also a strong chance that you will get a better deal if you buy them together.

Purchasing just the barbell means you’ll need to search for the most suitable weights for your barbell. However, the top-selling barbells usually come as a single entity and you need to buy the weights separately. It is, thus, a matter of choice. You could either go for one of the best-selling brands that sell the barbell separately, or you could buy a set and get a sweeter deal but compromise on the brand value.

Yes, you should buy barbell collars/clamps. The collars or clamps serve both performance and safety purposes. They keep the weights snug to the shoulder of the bar. This ensures that the weights are at equal distance from both hands. They stop the weights from sliding, which would lead to an uneven load. An uneven load can cause the weights to slide off the bar, which may lead to serious injury. The heavier the load, the more dangerous the situation.