What is your why
Before we go into the details of which
barbell to buy, let me ask you a couple of questions:
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Why do you want to get stronger
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Why do you want to build muscle
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What happens when you do
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What happens if you don’t
These questions will make all the difference to your long term success. Sitting down and reflecting on this will make you more focused on why you train and how to keep doing it. The key to reaching your goals is consistency. Most people drop out of the race when it gets hard. If you stay in you win by default. Many people go about their lives in this fashion:
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What do I want
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How do I get it
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Why do I want it
If you focus on what you want you are setting yourself up for failure. What you want changes hundreds of times a day. If you keep following your impulses you will get nowhere but fat and disappointed. Something interesting happens when you flip the running order on their head:
Whip
One attribute you will check with a
barbell is the whip. Whip describes how likely the
bar is to bend a little under load. This is especially good for the Olympic lifts. The whip can help you with some extra momentum which makes the entire movement easier. If the
bar has no whip it is harder to make the change direction during the lift.
For powerlifters, the whip can help to make the lifts easier too. For the deadlift, a
bar with a great whip can help to have to pull less far as it bends up when you pull. For the bench press and squat whip might not be a good idea.
Knurling
The knurling on a
bar describes how aggressive the metal will eat into your skin. This sounds bad at first and is a good thing when you want to hold on to something that is very heavy.
If you buy
barbells fro a commercial gym you might want to go for more neutral knurling. You want to avoid that your average joe and the soccer moms wreck their hands while training. That is not good for business.
If you have professional powerlifters and weightlifters around, or you are a dedicated weekend warrior, look into something with more aggressive knurling. It makes it easier to hold onto a heavyweight.
Sleeve length
The sleeves are parts at the end of the
barbell are the sleeves. Sleeve length is usually standardized, however, some
barbells come with a longer sleeve. The most extreme example of this would be the Rogue Elephant Bar used at the Arnold.
A longer sleeve is especially interesting when you already have a lot of bumper
plates and do not want to swap all your weights. As you progress to become a better lifter,
bumper plates will take up a lot of real estate on the
bar. You can either get a new set of
plates or try to get a
barbell with a longer sleeve. The longer sleeve might come in cheaper as swapping all your
plates. Another solution can be to get 50kg
plates.
Diameter
Most
barbells have a diameter of 28mm to 29mm. There are some differences between them but not a lot. The main point about the diameter is to check what you would compete in. Get that diameter for your gym.
Coating
There are different coatings for
barbells out there. Again it does not make a huge difference to your lifts and strength. Knurling and whip make more of a difference in those. The coating relates More to how long your
barbell will stay free of corrosion and how much maintenance you have to put in.
Cerakote is low maintenance but gets easily scratched by metal. Check whether you have the right bumpers to train with them. Avoid
steel plates with this coating. It also gives more options to apply to different designs.
Chrome and steel do better with
steel plates but are more susceptible to corrosion. The next level down in quality is zinc.
All of these coatings will last for you for years, especially if you are the only user of the
bar. If the
bar is being used in a gym you might want to be a bit more attention to quality.
Spin
Spin is determined by how the sleeves of the
bar are attached to the shaft. A standard
barbell usually has the capability to spin around its own axis. Most barbells either use bushing or bearing to create the spin. Bushing is of higher quality and more expensive. Weightlifters will appreciate good spin while orbits not as important for powerlifting.
Barbells for men and women
Another decision to make is whether you want to purchase a
barbell for women or men. The dimensions differ slightly and the female version of the standard
barbell comes in at 15kg weight. The male version will put 20kg on the scale.
All-purpose barbell
A well-rounded
barbell has a decent whip, not too aggressive knurling and a reasonable price tag. Good quality can be had at 300USD. They usually have bearing instead of the bushing and therefore spin not as good. A good example is the
Rogie Ohio bar.
Weightlifting barbell
Weightlifting
barbells have a more aggressive knurling and a good whip. They also use bushing over bearing for a good spin. All factors combined this makes weightlifting
barbells the rolls Royce of
bars. This is the reflected in the price tag which reaches from 500 to 1000 USD a piece. Good examples are Rogue weightlifting
bar and Eleiko models which are often used in the Olympics.
Powerlifting barbell
Powerlifting
barbells do not need a lot of spin. Aggressive knurling and stiffer metal are desirable as you will load them heavier than weightlifting
barbells.
Specialty bars
There are several specialty bars out there which are not standard
barbells. Some examples are
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Mastodon bar
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Duffalo bar
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Earthquake bar
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Elephant bar
These are often bespoke to a specific purpose. Unless you are very committed to the strength you do not have a need. They are definitely not your first purchase unless you get your first
barbell for free or as a gift.
Most popular Rogue bars in 2020
This is an overview of the most popular Rogue barbells per views and click through rates for Marathon-Crossfit.com in 2020. If you want more details on how the data was collected you can dig deeper in what were the most popular Rogue products in 2020.
This is an overview of the most popular barbells on
Marathon-CrossFit.com during 2020. The ranking is as followed:
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The
West side bar is a variation of the Ohio bar specifically for powerlifting. It is very similar to the Rogue Ohio power bar which recently has gotten a little more attention from influencers. This is a solid bar if you do not intend to do the Olympic lifts and stick to the bench press, deadlift, and barbell back squat in your training.
You can read the full review of the west side bar via this link.
The
Rogue Russian bar is another surprise on the Marathon-CrossFit popularity list. While it is one of the most expensive bars you can get from Rogue I personally find that it is more of a collector's item with nostalgia attached to it. It is a great piece of craftsmanship to recreate a bar from the Soviet era. Unfortunately, the collar system is not used in competition anymore and also tenders the bar useless once you lose one of the collars. Rogue also does not provide an option to buy the custom collars separately in case you do lose them. Based on this I would take the
Pyrros bar over the
Russian bar any given day for this budget.
You can read the full review of the Rogue Russian bar by following this link.
Which barbell to buy
The
Rogue Ohio bar is a safe bet for most situations. At the level which most people enter the strength the differences between the
bars don’t matter that much unless they are optical or customer services related. Rogue happens to do well in both areas.