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Buyers Guide Barbells
Buyers
Guide Barbells
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About
Barbells.
A barbell and plates will allow you to train just about every
muscle in the body, and load movement patterns to your
heart’s content. You will never outgrow a barbell, it will be
your best training friend for life if used right.
When checking out a new gym, or stocking up for your own
home gym, there are a few things you want to look for in a
standard straight barbell. If you’re new to lifting, this list may
not be extensive; but for a competitive lifter, you may want to
know the bar inside and out.
The Basics.
Shaft Diameter.
The thicker the shaft, the harder you will have to work to maintain your grip on the bar.
An Olympic barbell is 28mm in diameter, but some powerlifting bars can be slightly thicker at 29mm or even 32mm. If you’re interested in a technique bar that is less than 20kg, the shaft may be smaller in diameter to allow for easier gripping.
The Iron Edge 15kg women’s barbell is 25mm, our 8kg technique bar is the standard sized.
If you wanted to go the opposite direction and make the bar harder to hold (thus training your grip), our Fat Bar is 50mm in diameter. Other strategies include using sponges or towels wrapped around the shaft.
Knurling.
The purpose of knurling is to increase friction in your hands or on your back (if squatting), preventing the bar from slipping.
New trainers may find a high degree of knurling uncomfortable, as it bites into the skin. Experienced lifters with calloused hands will demand extra knurling to prevent the bar from slipping from their grasp. Cheaper brands know their target audience will be casual trainers, and will ensure their bars are comfortable to hold.
The width of the knurling may also vary depending on the activity in mind. Bars designed for Olympic lifting and Crossfit will either have no centre knurling or a very fine knurl to prevent the throat from being scratched when holding a bar in the front rack position. Conversely, powerlifting bars will have sharp centre knurling to make the bar as stable as possible when back squatting.
Iron Edge bars have no centre knurling, with a happy medium in knurling depth that will satisfy a serious trainer whilst being tolerated by a new lifter, with both the Olympic lifting and powerlifting markings. These markings allow consistent positioning of the hands set after set.
Sleeves –
Rotating v Fixed.
Sleeves that are fixed means the bar is essentially one fixed, frozen piece of equipment. Rotating sleeves will allow the plates to spin when momentum is applied. For Olympic lifts these are a necessity, as the rotating sleeves reduce torque and make the lift easier on the joints. Casual trainers can get away with fixed sleeves, but as the weights get heavier you will want to ensure your bar has rotating sleeves.
All Iron Edge straight bars come with rotating sleeves, except for the Fat Bar.
Sleeve Diameter.
Cheaper bars will feature spinlocks to keep weights secured, and can vary in size; so if you purchase a cheap bar from company A and plates from company B, there’s no standard to keep these consistent. The standard that any reliable equipment company will adhere to are Olympic specs. These bars are 50mm in diameter, and used the world over.
In general, your plates should not shift around all that much; unless you’re performing exercises where you’re repeatedly hitting the ground like cleans or deadlifts. If you wish to keep them fastened to the middle of the bar, you can use a collar such as our Spring Collars or Lock Jaw Collars.
All Iron Edge bars (and equipment in general) are designed with Olympic specs in mind.
Weight.
An Olympic barbell is 20kg / 45lb. Lighter versions are available for novice trainers, such as our 15kg women’s barbell and 8kg Technique Bars.
Advanced.
Bearings / Bushings.
When bars have spinning collars, they use either bearings or bushings to reduce friction.
Bushings are rings that sit between the inner and outer sleeve which smooth out the rotation, and are usually found in general purpose or powerlifting bars, due to the decreased need for spin compared to Olympic lifts.
Bearings come in a few different types: needle, ball and thrust bearings, which will roll within the sleeve. The more bearings a bar has the better. Compared to bushings, bearings will provide a faster and quieter spin and are typically found in higher-end bars.
Iron Edge bars use 8 needle bearings for a smooth rotation, suitable for the most demanding lifter.
Finish
The quality of your finish will significantly impact the lifespan of your bar.
Decorative chrome will eventually crack and peel, which will lead to rust and the eventual ruin of your bar.
Zinc will prevent corrosion but will lose their sheen quickly. If you want to keep your bar looking sharp, this will require more work to keep them clean and maintained.
Hard chrome is a more expensive option but will provide excellent rust resistance. A drawback is that this can result in a more slippery bar, so look for deeper knurling to compensate.
Our 20kg and 15kg bars use a hard chrome finish, and as covered above, use a medium amount of knurling.
We also offer 20kg barbells with a red cerakote finish on the shaft and black hardened chrome sleeves. Functionally, this is the same as our regular 20kg barbell, but provides a visually striking contrast.
Yield and
Tensile Strength.
A bar’s yield is how much weight it can take before permanently bending, or “yielding” to the weight; and the tensile strength is the amount of weight the bar can take without breaking. The higher this number, the better.
A rule of thumb is to look for a bar with a minimum tensile strength of 165,000 PSI (pounds per square inch). A good general use barbell would be around 180,000 or more.
Our 20kg and 15kg Barbells have a PSI of 200,000.
Load Capacity.
Separate from the bar’s strength, its loading capacity refers to how many plates can be physically stored on the bar. This depends on the thickness of the plates used, but the length of the bar’s sleeves can be universally compared.
Iron Edge 20kg bars’ sleeves are 16” long, or 40.6cm. For reference, this would allow you to use 6 x 25kg Elite Plates on each side with 2.8cm to spare (enough for change plates or Lock Jaws); a total of 320kg including bar weight.
Our 15kg bars’ sleeves are 12.5” / 31.75cm, and the 8kg bar’s are 9.8” / 25cm.
Whip.
Whip refers to the amount of bend, or flex, allowed by the bar. If a bar is appropriately flexible, it allows the lifter to use that momentum to move the weight easier. For example, a lifter who performs a clean and squats the weight up will have the plates bouncing on each side. By timing the jerk correctly, the lifter can use the momentum of the plates bouncing on each side to lockout the weight.
More whip is not necessarily better, as it can make a bar harder to lift during slower grinding movements due to higher instability.
For this reason, Iron Edge bars have a moderate amount of whip allowing for use both as a powerlifting bar and as an Olympic lifting bar.
Iron Edge Barbells.
A barbell and plates will allow you to train just about every muscle in the body, and load movement patterns to your heart’s content. You will never outgrow a barbell, it will be your best training friend for life if trained right.
When checking out a new gym, or stocking up for your own home gym, there are a few things you want to look for in a standard straight barbell. If you’re new to lifting, this list may not be extensive; but for a competitive lifter, you may want to know the bar inside and out.
Chrome Trap Bar.
The hexagonal shape of the bar allows the lifter to stand inside the bar, shifting the centre of gravity from their front to their midline compared to a standard deadlift. This allows the lifter to stay more upright and reduces shearing force on the spine.
A trap bar deadlift typically functions as a hybrid between a conventional deadlift and back squat, given the contributions of the quads and posterior chain; or as an accessory lift. It is easier to learn compared to a standard barbell deadlift, more applicable to training acceleration given the lack of a forced stopping point and can make it easier for athletes to get around poor mobility or back issues.
Trap Bar 2.0
By removing one side of a Trap Bar, this allows creative trainers to shine. The Trap Bar 2.0 is now easier to use for loaded carries and rows, and can now be used for single leg work.
Something to keep in mind is the Trap Bar 2.0 has a reduced loading capacity to the original version. The original Trap Bar has a loading capacity of 270kg + bar weight, compared to 190kg + bar weight for the Trap Bar 2.0. For single leg work and other accessory exercises this is unlikely to be an issue, but may impact stronger lifters looking at improving limit strength.
Swiss Bar.
This bar, also known as a Football Bar, is named for the multiple handles used (like a Swiss Army knife). A straight bar can only be gripped over- or underhand when pressing. Changing the angle of your hands can cause different muscles / muscle fibres being targeted, and may improve the comfort of your lift. For example, poor shoulder mobility can lead to issues with standard overhead pressing. Changing to a neutral grip will help keep the elbow in line with the shoulder, reducing horizontal abduction and keeping the shoulder joint more secure without compromising the load being lifted.
Fat Barbell.
For the most part, a thicker bar is used to increase the difficulty in maintaining your grip when performing exercises like rows or deadlifts. When transitioning back into a regular bar, it will suddenly feel easier.
Alternatively, Fat Bars have fixed sleeves that can distribute the weight of the bar more evenly across the hand when pressing, decreasing stress on the wrist joint; making pressing movements more comfortable.
Safety Squat Bar
A Safety Squat Bar has handles at the front that allow the lifter to keep their hands in front of them when squatting (or performing any myriad of lower body exercises). For someone with shoulder mobility issues, this makes the lift much more comfortable compared a straight bar. The design of the Safety Squat Bar also allows for the bar to be tilted forward or backward, approximating a front or back squat with ease.
These bars are typically used by powerlifters as an accessory exercise, but their use has filtered through to other athletes and general population looking to make a squat more comfortable without sacrificing load.
Olympic Barbells.
When people say they want a barbell, this is what they’re referring to. Designed for Olympic lifting (hence the name) and applicable to almost any exercise you can throw at it (literally, you can throw these on the ground following a heavy snatch or clean), this is the gold standard to which other bars are measured.
The red cerakote is functionally the same as our black hard chrome 20kg barbell, but with a red cerakote finish on the shaft as opposed to black which provides a visually striking contrast.
Technique Barbell
Suitable for beginners or lifters who otherwise haven’t built up the strength to handle heavy weights, our 8kg bars also feature a thinner shaft making them easier to grip.
As a result, the 8kg bars cannot handle quite as much weight as their 15kg and 20kg counterparts, with a weight limit of 50kg. However, given these are to be used for beginners and/or warm-ups, in practice this shouldn’t matter.