How much does the olympic bar weigh?

thebiggestjim

I always thought the olympic bar weighs 20kg. I was just looking through some of the fitness logs and a Vegeta reckons its 17kg

Bench

17kg (bar)xwarm up sp quite a few

Wikipedia confirms 20kg, does anyone know any better?

Jim

justsomebloke

it should be 20KG for a standard 6" olympic bar.

Vegeta

thebiggestjim wrote: »

I always thought the olympic bar weighs 20kg. I was just looking through some of the fitness logs and a Vegeta reckons its 17kg

Bench

17kg (bar)xwarm up sp quite a few

Wikipedia confirms 20kg, does anyone know any better?

Jim

I have weighed my bar on a scales and its 17kg

I don't want to be fooling myself so I weighed it. Thinking I can bench more than I actually can and all that

thebiggestjim

Vegeta wrote: »

I have weighed my bar on a scales and its 17kg

I don't want to be fooling myself so I weighed it. Thinking I can bench more than I actually can and all that

Your right, I have wondered this myself in the past. Is that you own bar at home or the bar in the gym?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbell

rubadub

I always hear 20kg.

Vegeta- was this a good scales? a body weight scales is often incorrect at low weights. Hence why people will stand on a scale and then pick up a turkey to weigh it. You could stand on the scale and lift the bar and calculate. Or load the scale with 17kg of plates and double check that its readout of 17kg is correct.

All the makers should simply emboss the weight somewhere on the bar.

kevpants

Vegeta wrote: »

I have weighed my bar on a scales and its 17kg

I don't want to be fooling myself so I weighed it. Thinking I can bench more than I actually can and all that

What kind of scales though? Because it's so long some of the weight would be displaced if you tried to weigh it on a bathroom scales or something. I dunno. The "regulation" weight is 20kg though.

Edit: Wiki says a male Oly bar is 20kg and a female is 15kg. Your bar is confused. Maybe it needs to speak with someone? Have you ever come home and wonder why your Oly bar looks embarressed and there's a BRA lying on the grounf next to it?

Hanley

jsb wrote: »

it should be 20KG for a standard 6" olympic bar.

It's actually just over 7"....

Some cheap bars are 17kg. The vast vast majority will be 20.

Vegeta

Its my home set-up

I stood on the scales, noted the weight and then picked up the bar. It is definitely not 20kg. Its an analog scales though so cant give an exact figure (needle bounce) but it was around 17

That's why in my diary thing alot of the weights are like 47kg, 37, 17 etc as its the bar plus some plates on it.

WHIP IT!

20KG??? Had no idea they were that heavy... feeling alot better about my bench-press now

So when people say "I have a XXkg benchpress." are they including the 20kg weight of the bar in that??

thebiggestjim

Im hitting the gym tomorrow night, there is a pretty accurate scales down there, one with the slide measure. Im going to weigh a few of the bars and post results.

Jim

thebiggestjim

WHIP IT! wrote: »

20KG??? Had no idea they were that heavy... feeling alot better about my bench-press now

So when people say "I have a XXkg benchpress." are they including the 20kg weight of the bar in that??

Ya, usually If someone says they can bench 100kg, they mean 80KG of plates and 20kg or barbell. Well I do anyway, thats why i need to confirm the weight of the bar.

Jim

Vegeta

WHIP IT! wrote: »

20KG??? Had no idea they were that heavy... feeling alot better about my bench-press now

So when people say "I have a XXkg benchpress." are they including the 20kg weight of the bar in that??

hell yeah

thebiggestjim: I'd be interested to see your results

thebiggestjim

Hanley wrote: »

It's actually just over 7"....

Some cheap bars are 17kg. The vast vast majority will be 20.

This matters if the bar is 6" or 7". 80kg is a heavier lift on 7" bar than on 6".

I think the bar is 7" its always a good bit bigger than me. im 6ft 4in

spiral

7 foot bar should be 20 kilos
6 foot probably about 17

If its a proper olympic weightlifting bar mens are 20kg and 28 mm shaft
womens are same length but shaft of 25 mm and weigh 15 kilos

Vegeta

spiral wrote: »

7 foot bar should be 20 kilos
6 foot probably about 17

If its a proper olympic weightlifting bar mens are 20kg and 28 mm shaft
womens are same length but shaft of 25 mm and weigh 15 kilos

Mine is taller than me anyway and I'm 6ft so I assume its 7 never got the tape to it though

thebiggestjim

Hanley wrote: »

It's actually just over 7"....

Some cheap bars are 17kg. The vast vast majority will be 20.

Vegeta wrote: »

hell yeah

thebiggestjim: I'd be interested to see your results

Ill post them thursday night or friday morning

rubadub

WHIP IT! wrote: »

So when people say "I have a XXkg benchpress." are they including the 20kg weight of the bar in that??

Yes, and it is the one rep max they quote. I never do 1RM, if you can do 8reps it is approx 80% of your 1RM.

I have no need to know my 1RM, in another thread somebody said it is useful as you can then calculate your 80% 1RM for lifting at 8 reps, but a more logical & safer approach is just select a weight and move it up until all you can manage is 8reps.

My 6ft 1" bar is around 7kg

WHIP IT!

That's great news lads - jebus sure I'm superstrong altogether!

rubadub

WHIP IT! wrote: »

That's great news lads - jebus sure I'm superstrong altogether!

When I started out I was curling 20kg, I would have been lifting "nothing" if I wasnt including bars!

It is also important for people who talk of increasing in increments, e.g. say you started with a bar 20kg, and 10kg in plates -30kg. Then if you arent including the bar and your goal is "double your strength" you are lifting only 40kg, i.e. an increase in 10kg in your plates.

The other reason it is important is for people who lift at home with a standard bar, a hollow bar can be only 2-3kg. They might go to a gym, load up a bar for benching and be way over their usual limit.

thebiggestjim

I had to go to a different gym than I normally do last night so I was not able to weigh the olympic bars. Ill do it monday and post the results.

J

yop

I was the same for a while, never included the weight of my 20kg bar!!!! Also the spinlocks on mine are 2.5kg each!!! So u can include that too

thebiggestjim

Well Well Well,

Just after measuring one of the olympic bars down at the gym, 7 foot and it was 19kg's

It was 19kg on its own. I also measured it with my body weight and just my body weight and she came in at 19kg also. Interesting stuff, maybe they mean for the collars to be included.

walt0r

The standard 7" olympic bar is 20kg. Maybe your bar is just slightly off by an lb or two. It happens

Hanley

walt0r wrote: »

The standard 7" olympic bar is 20kg. Maybe your bar is just slightly off by an lb or two. It happens

Yeah you'll be doing well to find a bar that weighs exactly 20kg.

We have a good few in Hercs but that's because they're calibrated for competition use and cost €600-1000+ a pop!!

It's the same story with plates, unless they're competition certified there probably will be some variance.

rubadub

Due to variations in metal composition, and bubbles/holes forming when plates are cast there will always be some variations. I expect the calibrated ones are oversized and machined down to size. Probably have a balance point too. The finer your tolerance the more the cost, e.g. a bar at +/-0.5kg is going to be a lot cheaper than +/-0.01kg

If you are really that particular I would get a good scales and calibration weights. I expect most plates and bars are underweight rather than over. You could be gluing on metal washers or something in the indents in the plate. Or else stack up a few plates and add some microplates to make up the shortfall. Microplates are expensive, I expect you could get off the shelf metal washers that would do the trick. You could also write the correct weight on your plates and bars so you dont have to keep checking each time, you could possible get a loan of a good scales or go to a calibration test house if you are really that bothered.

Malteaser!

Hanley wrote: »

Yeah you'll be doing well to find a bar that weighs exactly 20kg.
.

True story, there's a few in TF that are 23 - 24kg...was very disheartning when I first starting bench pressing/military pressing etc and struggled with the bar on its own when the week before the bar on its own was easy peasy...now I just avoid those bars!!