Rogue IWF olympic women bar vs Ohio bar

This is a comparison of the IWF women bar and the Ohio bar including pros, cons, and alternatives. Follow the links for more details

Overview and review of the Rogue Ohio bar

This is an overview and review of the workhorse model from Rogue, the Rogue Ohio barbell. This article was originally published in "Which Rogue barbell to buy". Follow the links for more details.

Price 285$/295$

Overview

The Rogue Ohio bar is the flagship barbell of Rogue. This is the workhorse of the portfolio and a best seller. You can make anyone happy from powerlifters to weightlifters to Crossfitters. This bar has been bought by Crossfit gyms and home gym owners all over the world. It is the perfect balance between price and versatile use. If you want a bar and don't want to think or even write a long article like I did, just grab this one.

The Rogue Ohio bar was one of the earliest lineups sold by Rogue. It builds the base of most bars which you can read about in this article. This means that Rogue really knows how to build this bar. Years of experience and experiment have gone into the production process of this bar and they managed to build a very successful business on top of it.

The Rogue Ohio bar weighs 20kg and comes in at a diameter of 28.5mm. The basic model comes in two variations, Zinc and Black Oxide. It withstands 190K PSI Tensile strength with a loadable sleeve length of 16.40. The sleeves are attached with bushing to the shaft and you will feel a standard knurl when you lift.

The basic model still goes strong and if you want to go in bulk for an all-purpose gym, this is the option to go for. If you are more powerlifting orientated look out for the Rogue Ohio power bar. If you have more of a weightlifting focus check out the training bar at a similar price.

Pros of the Rogue Ohio bar

The Rogue Ohio bar strikes the perfect balance between budget, functionality and design. It has developed to the middle of the range product that every use case can rely on. You can purchase this bar without wrecking your head. Even if your training focus changes in the future, you can still make use of the Ohio bar without having to buy a new one. Some of them or six years in action and still going strong.

Cons of the Rogue Ohio bar

Middle of the road means that the Ohio bar is not great at anything specifically. It is neither IPF nor IWF approved. It is not made of the best material available and has no bearing. That doesn't make it a bad bar, just not the greatest you could possibly get for a specific use case. In most scenarios, this won't matter anyway.

Overview and review of the IWF Olympic women bar

Rogue updated their line up in 2019 with several IWF standard products so you can run weightlifting competitions. Here are the pros and cons.

The IWF Olympic women barbell is the IWF approved women bar from Rogue. The main differences to the men’s bar are the weight, the diameter and the price of $525. This bar meets the standards to be used by Olympians. I n addition rogue added a design with Cerakote which makes it one of the first barbells with IPF approval which is just not plain steel. The specifications of the bar are:

Made in Columbus, OH, USA with US and EU Steel
Women’s Bearing Bar (International Weightlifting Federation standards)
Bar Weight: 15KG
Shaft Diameter: 25MM
215,000 PSI Tensile Strength EU Steel
Olympic Knurl Marks (no center knurl)
Bar Length: 79.14"
Distance Between Sleeves: 51.50"
Loadable Sleeve Length: 12.50"
Black Cerakote Color Finish w/ Chrome Sleeves
Official IWF branding on center of shaft and endcaps

If you always wanted some an Olympic barbell with some extra design this one is for you.

Pros of the Cerakote IWF women bar

The pros of the Cerakote IWF bar are:

IWF approval
Price
Design

The Cerakote women bar is one of the few bars of Rogue which Cary the prestigious IWF approval. This means that it is build to the highest demands which live up to the bar being used by Olympians. The IWF has the strongest demands on sticking to their specifications with a minimum margin for error to keep competitions fair and comparable. Compared to Eleiko bars the Rogue bar is comparatively cheap to achieve the same goal.

Cons of the IWF Cerakote bar

The cons of the IWF Cerakote bar are:

Cerakote coating
Cost
Design

The Cerakote coating is not an ideal combination with steel plates. These bars also do not will with metal rack pins. Cerakote tends to scratch a lot faster than stainless steel on metal to metal contacts.

The cost of the Cerakote IWF women bar is considerable when you combine it to the lower Rogue ranges. If you are looking for an all-purpose bar for your home gym or CrossFit bis you can get more bars for the same money.

If you don’t look at this design it works against rather than for this bar. In commercial settings, you might also want to keel the colors and the design more neutral based on the clientele you would like to attract.

Alternatives to the IWF Cerakote bar

The alternatives to the IWF Cerakote bar are:

The Rogue Ohio bar is the workhorse option from Rogue. This is the all-purpose bar from where the entire Rogue production line started. A solid bet at a reasonable price.

The Rogue Pyrros bar has been finalized by Rogue and the finest Olympic weightlifter of all time to produce the finest Olympic weightlifting bar there is. If you want the household name of the Greek lifting god in your home or gym, this is the bar to go for.

The Rogue Thor bar is another option for someone who wants more than a plain design but leans more towards powerlifting. The Thor bar sleeves are longer and can there fit more plates.

Summary for the IWF Cerakote barbell

If you like the design over stainless steel for an IWF approved barbell this is the way to go. If you are looking for a CrossFit bar save yourself $200 and get the Rogue Ohio barbell.