Top 10 Olympic Barbells for Men and Women

There are many features you need to look out for when buying your Olympic barbell, as they set apart the top-quality bars from the cheaply-constructed ones. The very first thing you need to consider is the price. Do not pay a lot of attention to it, but what is true when purchasing any other items is the same here - you will get just what you pay for, so don't be afraid of investing into your bar if you want it to last long and remain safe to use! A good bar is made out of the highest-grade steel and various treatments reinforce the bar and make it long-living, which is what you need to look out for! The bearings can be cheap as well, and broken bearings create useless bars, but more about this in the durability section.

One more thing you need to look out for is the knurling. Knurling is the crisscrossing pattern seen on most bars that create a grippy surface, allowing you to safely grasp the bar. Two sets of lines that are diagonal are imprinted into the bar, going in opposite directions. These lines then form small diamond patterns, which effectively imprint onto your skin and hold onto it with mighty strength. The width and the depth of these diamond shapes changes, and the deeper and smaller they are the grippier the surface will be. You need aggressive knurling to assist you when you attempt to lift really heavy loads, where you can most likely lose your grip. The deeper this pattern dives on the surface of the bar, the narrower your grip needs to be. Bars designed for powerlifting usually have knurling more towards the center of the bar, to help sumo lifters with their attempts. Bars usually have a little portion of knurling in the dead center of the bar, known as center knurling. The pattern present here keeps the bar on your back when you squat. Some very specialized bars have much wider central patterns to assist men with wider backs. Olympic bars do not have aggressive knurling. If you have small hands, you may want to look for bars that have more grippy surfaces to help with your lifting.

The whip is also something to think about. Olympic bars should have little to no whip at all. The whip describes how much the bar bends and flexes when you use it. If the whip is high, the bar will be bendy, while a low whip keeps the bar straight and firm. When you're lifting heavy, a bar with a lot of whip will wiggle and hit you repeatedly as it comes down, so do not choose bars with a high whip! The spin is how much the bar rotates, at least the part you hold onto. The spin of the bar can be prevented by installing either bearings or bushings. If you want the bar to rotate when you work with it, like when you're doing presses, then go for high spin, if not, your safety can be compromised so choose bars that have little spin.

This is just about it when it comes to features, so think them all through before you ultimately decide on a bar!

This is a very important factor that affects not only your satisfaction with the bar but your safety as well. The durability of the bar will be affected by a lot of things, but the very first thing you need to consider is the strength of the bar itself. You have two kinds of strength to think about - tensile and yield strength. Tensile strength refers to how much force is needed to pull the bar apart, not break it. Most Olympic bars have a pretty good tensile strength rating, ranging from 130k to 220k PSI (pounds per square inch). The yield strength describes how much weight a bar can withstand before it starts to permanently bend, or even worse, break. Of these two measurements, the tensile strength of a bar is the more reliable one. The manufacturers always have to test their bars for their tensile strength and they get a very accurate number, although a lot of manufacturers fail to mention the tensile strength of their bars in the first place. But the more tensile strength a bar has, the less whip it will have! This makes high tensile bars excellent for powerlifting, while weightlifters need a bar with lower tensile strength.

The coating on the bar also affects its life. Some bars have no coating at all and are just bare. These bars are the cheapest, and they will not last the distance, as they will chip and rust like crazy thanks to your sweat and other factors. Some bars have a black oxide coating. The knurling on these bars is gentle and feels great, and they stand up quite well against corrosion. These bars are also one of the cheaper ones. Some bars have manganese phosphate acting as their protection. This is a newer technology, and you might not see it so often. There's still not much info about how it holds up over time, but the knurling here also feels great and it's better protected against corrosion when compared to black oxide. Zinc is also better against corrosion than black oxide, but the knurling patterns vary here and may not feel so comfy to grasp. They are also slightly pricier than black oxide coated bars. Chrome is the priciest coating, but it sure does look awesome! It also provides excellent protection from rusting, but this finish chips off and flakes, leaving the bar exposed.

The bearings can affect the durability of the bar as well, besides affecting its spin. Even if the spin is something that you do not consider important, cheap bearings can fall apart fast and cause the sleeves of the bars to fall off! You can avoid this by not overloading the bar or dropping it down to the floor once you're done. Bearings are little round balls or needles that go between the bar and its sleeves. But not every bearing was made the same way. Ball bearings deform fast and cannot withstand a lot of weight as they will bend and break. Needle bearings are a better choice. Bearings cost more than bushings do, and they are the best for quick lifts. Bearings do require maintenance, as you will need to oil them and keep them clean to allow them to do their job well. Bushings are rings that sit between the inner and outer sleeves of the bar. Bushings are cheaper than spins, and they do not give a lot of spins. Bushings are very hardy and require no maintenance at all. Bushings are great for Crossfit, for slow lifts, or if you're on a budget.

And the last thing to look out for is the warranty of the bar. If your bar costs you less than 300 dollars, you don't need to worry about the warranty all that much. This is because the bar will inevitably bend, and it will cost more to ship it back than to buy a new one altogether. If the bar has a lifetime warranty it promises durability and excellent quality. Mid-range barbells have warranties that cover 2-5 years. And remember that rarely any warranty will cover the bearings, so you will need to look out for those yourself!

The weight of the bar, plus how much weight it can withstand plays a major role in the quality of the bar. We already talked about the strength of the bar in the Features section, and that strength will determine how much weight a bar can withstand. But you need to think about the different ways you can add more weight to the bar as well. Unless you wish to compete professionally, you don't need to think too much about their quality as opposed to the quality of your barbell. The price of weight plates varies a lot, they can come super-cheap or cost as much as a weight bench, or even more. You can choose between two types of plates: bumper or iron. If powerlifting is your jam, you can choose iron plates. If you enjoy Crossfit and thrown the bar to the floor often enough, or if you practice the snatch and jerk movements in Olympic weightlifting, and you do, you need bumper plates. What you're paying for when it comes to bumper plates is the plate thickness and how much they bounce if you drop them. The bumpers come in different colors which all have their meaning. Black bumpers are cheap, thick, and very bouncy. Colored bumpers are a bit pricier, still thick but with not a lot of bounce. Olympic bumpers are mid-range and they are thin with almost no bounce, which is what you need. If you want to be professional, you need competition bumpers which are quite pricey, but they are thin, have no bounce, and their weight is certified so you know their exact number on the scale.

The weight of the bar itself is also something to think about, especially if you just started lifting weights. The bar itself weighs about 45 pounds, which is much more than the standard bar weighs. You might be even challenged by the weight of the bar alone! If you struggle with lifting the Olympic bar by itself, you might need to downgrade to a standard barbell until you're ready for the challenge of the Olympic barbell!

You need to look at how big your barbell is to figure out whether it falls into the Olympic barbell category or not. Usually, a man’s barbell weighs around 44 pounds or 20 kg. The length of the bar is generally around 7.2 feet or 2.2 meters. By comparison, a woman’s barbell weighs in at around 33 pounds (15 kg) and features a bar that runs a length of just over 2 meters or 79 inches. This is not such a big difference, but it matters because of the natural differences between our genders.

If you have a barbell that does not measure up to these dimensions, you probably do not have an Olympic bar. Standard bars are the lightest and shortest of them all, while barbells made for youth and women may be even smaller than that. This doesn't make them less worth than the Olympic bar, it's just that they may not be enough to satisfy your needs, so you might need to choose an Olympic bar in the first place.

Olympic barbells are usually comfortable enough to grip, thanks to the knurling pattern. This matters because if you do not feel comfortable while holding the barbell you might want to drop it. This is a bad idea because it can damage the bar, the plates, and even your body! Uncomfortable grip surfaces also create blisters and calluses. These can be very painful, can pop and become infected, which can set back your progress, and that's something none of us want. Although calluses can be helpful sometimes since their toughness and hard surface make gripping the bar easier and less painful but they are quite unsightly and leave your hands looking all bumpy and rugged.

You can avoid this by lifting with grips. Weightlifting gloves are usually frowned upon, and they might restrict your range of motion and affect your perception of the weight you're lifting, and both of these can be problematic. By choosing grips, you just protect the surface of your palms from blisters and pain, without affecting your performance. You can also use chalk powder, but you spend it up quite fast and it does tend to leave a mess. The bar shouldn't be too uncomfortable to grip in the first place, as long as you get the right product with good quality!