Olympic Bar Comparison

What barbell is best for you?

First of all, if you're new to lifting and just want a basic cheap 7-foot bar and you're not dropping the bar, you can try the economy bar and see how it goes. It's fine for most anyone starting out who isn't doing CrossFit exercises (snatches, cleans). And 99% of people who start casually lifting weights will never need more than a cheap bar. If you continue to lift regularly for a few years, you will appreciate a higher quality bar.

You can always just contact us and we'll figure out what you need.

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Overview Chart
Types of Bars
Attributes of a Bar
Top Picks

OVERVIEW CHART

TYPES OF BARS

Any of these 7ft bars can be called an “olympic” bar, as they have 2” diameter sleeves (actually 1 31/32”) to take olympic plates, but there is a difference between an Olympic Weightlifting Bar and a Powerlifting Bar.

Economy Bars – The cheap ones. Made in China. Not very strong. Good enough for beginner or casual lifting at home. They may bend or break if you drop them hard on the floor or rack. The easy way to tell if it’s a cheap bar is the sleeve is bolted on as shown at right. The allen bolt often loosens and can break if the bar is dropped. Choose between the chrome and black paint finish.

High Quality Bars – The below two categories are bars are made from higher tensile strength steel. The sleeves are secured with an external pin or internal snap ring (either is good) rather than the bolt of an economy bar that may come loose or break. They are often USA-made.

Powerlifting Bars – Most medium to high quality bars you’ll see. The squat, deadlift and bench press are the competition power lifts, and these bars tend to be pretty stiff to facilitate those exercises. Some bars have a black oxide finish to be very grippy, but zinc is common too and still pretty grippy. The knurling is medium to deep. Center knurling is sometimes added to keep the bar from slipping during heavy squats. A 29mm shaft is the official powerlifting size. 28mm can be good, but the steel has to be very good to be that thin and still handle heavy squats. A thicker 30-32mm allows the bar to be made of a lesser steel and still hold up to heavy squats, but these thicker bars are harder to hold onto for deadlifts. The finger guide marks are positioned narrower than for weightlifting lifts (see below). But some powerlifting bars have features that make them good for weightlifting, and they’re priced lower than weightlifting bars, so many CrossFit athletes are happy with these.

Weightlifting Bars – Weightlifting is the Olympic Games sport. It has two exercises, the snatch and the clean-and-jerk. These bars are made to be springy to facilitate explosiveness, prevent a high shock load for the lifter, and absorb the shock of being dropped, although the springiness only comes into play at very heavy weights. The tensile strength (PSI) is lower than powerlifting bars so that it remains springy. They have a 28mm or 28.5mm shaft, chrome or zinc finish, medium knurling, and no center knurling so that you don’t scratch your neck during cleans. The finger guide marks are set wider than powerlifting bars, and the knurling extends to the near the end of the shaft unlike some powerlifting bars. Competition level bars use needle bearings in the sleeves for ultra-smooth rotation, but bars with bushings are suitable for non-comp lifters. Weightlifting bars can be used for powerlifting, but the spring at very heavy weights isn’t always desirable, particularly for squats.

To avoid confusion for people who are just skimming this article and aren’t aware that Weightlifting is a technical term, and considering the fact that some people also call these bars "olympic bars" to differentiate them from powerlifting bars (even though I say above that you can call all of themolympic bars), much of this article will simply say whether a bar is good for doing cleans.

ATTRIBUTES OF A BAR

Finish - The finish applied to a bar makes a difference in the durability of a bar and how tacky/grippy it feels.

Chrome – Chrome is kind of slippery, even over good knurling. Cheap chrome plating eventually will start chipping, but the hard chrome used high quality bars will wear well. However, any chrome plating process can cause “hydrogen embrittlement” to the outer portion of the steel, which means the bar is a bit more likely to snap rather than bend under a very heavy load. Even for this unlikely possibility, we recommend against using chrome plated bars in a commercial environment, where a strong lifter may put a bar to the task, or for heavy cleans.

Black Oxide – A more secure grip than chrome. Often preferred by powerlifters. It also helps prevent rust, if you care for it properly. It can scratch more easily than other finishes, so a bar used in a rack will show signs of use from the metal-on-metal contact. It’s a little stickier than you may like for cleans.

Bright Zinc – Good grip, scratch resistant, anti-corrosion. There aren’t really any drawbacks. It looks great in a commercial gym too.

Black Zinc – The same as bright zinc but with an extra finish. Slightly better grip, but the black doesn’t look as pretty in commercial environments.

Tensile Strength – The strength of the steel, measured in PSI, pounds per square inch. Basically it’s a measurement of how much force can be applied before a bar breaks or bends permanently. Higher is stronger, but bars made to spring will need to have a lower tensile strength. Over 170,000 starts getting stiff, and 200,000 is very stiff. Another factor, yield strength, determines how much a bar can flex without suffering a permanent bend, but not all manufacturers have those numbers available.

Static Test - The static test strength is what you see advertised as the “capacity” of a bar, such as 1200lb, 1500lb, etc. These numbers are determined different ways by different manufacturers. It doesn’t mean it will hold up to anyone lifting 1200lbs with it. The force is much greater during heavy cleans or heavy squats due to the high torque from the bar flexing. And when a bar is dropped on a rack or the floor it can incur quite a shock load that is very difficult to estimate.

Spring – Also called whip or flex. This really only comes into play when the bar is loaded maybe over 300 lbs for slow power lifts or over 400 lbs for cleans. Weightlifting bars are made to have spring. Powerlifting bars are usually thicker than 28mm and/or are made with a higher tensile strength steel to handle a heavier load for squats, so they have less spring.

Diameter – A shaft diameter of 28-28.5mm (1 1/16”) is perfect for pulling motions like cleans or deadlifts, 29mm (1 1/8”) for bench presses, and 30-32mm ( 1 1/4”) for squats. 28-29mm is a common size. A larger diameter also means less spring. Not to be confused with the size of the sleeve where the weights go, which is always about 50mm.

Knurling - Two aspects of the knurl pattern on bars is its depth and whether it has a center knurl. Deep knurling is sometimes preferred for deadlifts due to the superior grip, but for cleans you want the bar to be a little slicker to faciliate easy grip adjustment mid-lift. Center knurling is primarily for heavy squats, to keep the bar from slipping down your back, but it's also useful for sumo deadlifts and some other exercises. Center knurling is to be avoided for cleans because it can scratch your shorts on the way up and then scratch your neck during the catch.

TOP PICKS

General / Beginners

If you just want one bar, the CAP OB-86B is really the best value for the money right now. A great all-around bar for bench presses and many other exercises. Good strength, good feel, decent durability.

Women or some teenage boys who need a lower starting weight than 45 lbs would get good use out of the AOB-300LZ 17 lb bar.

CrossFit / Olympic Weightlifting

Beginner and particularly women Crossfitters will have the easiest time with a lightweight bar to start with. The 28.5mm Troy AOB-300LZ is good for men, and the thinner 25mm MuscleDriver ALUM5 is good for women.

For athletic Crossfitters, the CAP OB-86B is very popular. The knurling and finish has just enough grippiness and isn't too rough on your hands during cleans. The CAP OB-86PBSZ is the same bar with a bright zinc finish instead of black oxide. The zinc will hold up better to the scratching of a rack.

If you really want the best bar, the more pricey Pendlay HD or Pendlay Bearing are elite weightlifting bars.

Men will want a 28-28.5mm bar for the strongest grip, and 25mm for most women. No center knurling because it can scratch your neck during cleans, and medium knurling is best because the deep knurling of some bars interferes with your hand movement. And you want a bar that will flex at high weights to absorb shock and facilitate the movement.

Commercial Gyms

You want the strongest, stiffest, most durable bars you can get, with medium knurling and probably center knurling. They will keep most everyone happy and stay in good shape through many years of daily abuse. The Troy AOB-1500B is a great choice for a commercial gym where you're catering to a mix of average Joes and serious lifters performing bodybuilding and powerlifting movements (squat, bench press, deadlift, other misc exercises). The black zinc finish will handle repeated banging on a rack. The Body Solid OB86PBS is a bar without center knurling that has a bright zinc finish that is just as durable and looks great in a commercial gym.

Deadlift

You want a 28-28.5mm bar, because thicker bars are harder to grip securely for pulling movements. Any finish but chrome is fine because chrome is slippery. The deadlift is one exercise where many lifters want deep knurling for a killer grip. Nothing rivals the AOB-2000 Texas Power Bar's grip if you're a person who works with his hands and have tough skin that can handle the sharp knurling. For normal humans with hands that can bleed, the Body Solid OB86LPB is more reasonable.

Squat

You want a thick 29-32mm bar and center knurling to help keep the bar from sliding off your back. The CAP OB-86PBCK2000 is a thick 30mm super-stiff bar that can handle any load a human can.

However, if you're doing front squats (in front of your neck rather than behind your neck), the center knurling is undesirable because it can be uncomfortable on the front of your neck, so you might like the CAP OB-86PB better.

Bench Press

The ideal bench press bar is a stiff bar with a zinc or chrome finish that will hold up well on a rack. 29-30mm gives you the best grip for pressing movements like this. The 30mm CAP OB-86PBCK2000 is a pretty awesome bench press bar. If you don't mind a thinner bar, the lower priced 28.5mm CAP OB-86PBSZ would work fine too.