Barbell weight

carbonkid

There are 2 different barbells in my GYM and staff dont have a clue about anything...its a pretty bad GYM. It cheap and has what i need though.

What i want to know is the different weight of barbells. I assume the one on the bench press is an Olympic barbell. It has the smooth lines to show were your pinky goes etc. It should weight 20kg right? There is another spare one that i use for dead lift and rows. Its a little smaller and doesn't have that smooth strip either side. Is this a standard barbell and how much does it weight?

deadlybuzzman

It might only be 15kg. If the place has a scales find out by standing on it holding the barbell

carbonkid

Yea i was thinking 15kg as well.

Hanley

Generally - 7ft = 20kg, 6ft = 15kg

Mellor

carbonkid wrote: »

What i want to know is the different weight of barbells. I assume the one on the bench press is an Olympic barbell. It has the smooth lines to show were your pinky goes etc. It should weight 20kg right? There is another spare one that i use for dead lift and rows. Its a little smaller and doesn't have that smooth strip either side. Is this a standard barbell and how much does it weight?

The full size oly bar should be 20kg, but there is no guarantee.
A standard barbell has 1" ends and could weight anything.

The other bar sounds like a short olympic bar. Nobody can tell you how much it weighs tbh. Bring it over to the scales. Weight yourself, weight yourself holding the bar

rubadub

Said it before and saying it again, dunno why they do not engrave the weights on the bars as standard practice. If I owned a gym I would have it at least written on the bar in permanent marker, or a label.

carbonkid

rubadub wrote: »

Said it before and saying it again, dunno why they do not engrave the weights on the bars as standard practice. If I owned a gym I would have it at least written on the bar in permanent marker, or a label.

That would be awesome if they did that, its kinda important to know how much the barbell weights.

The lighter one is bit smaller but with Olympic bar thick ends. Im guessing 15kg.

Mr. Manager

rubadub wrote: »

Said it before and saying it again, dunno why they do not engrave the weights on the bars as standard practice. If I owned a gym I would have it at least written on the bar in permanent marker, or a label.

My gym does this with the weight plates - they're in LBS but all have stickers on them with the KG equivalent.

Mellor

I Love PPPP Longtime wrote: »

My gym does this with the weight plates - they're in LBS but all have stickers on them with the KG equivalent.

tbf, it would be strange if they didn't do that. Where as, i've never need a barbell labeled anywhere

Mr. Manager

Only posted that cause I was in Bohsmans gym the other day and the squat rack weights were in LBS with no KG indication and the Bench area had all the weights in KG with no LBS indication...

martomcg

In the last 2 gyms i've been they've had a sign up with the weight of the barbells.

Brown/dark barbell: 14kg
Silver barbell: 16kg
Smith Machine Barbell: 22kg

Just stand on the scales holding it as suggested above to give you an idea. Or pester the staff enough untill they do it.

Dont make any assumptions as to the weight, i did this for a long time only to realise i was lifting 6kg less than i thought it was.

BossArky

Grab the bar and weight it.

Some plates in my gym have a certain weigh marked on them (e.g 20kg) but the real weight scrawled on the back in tipex (e.g. 23 or 24kg). Gotta check twice before loading up so ensure you don't have an imbalance.

Mellor

BossArky wrote: »

Some plates in my gym have a certain weigh marked on them (e.g 20kg) but the real weight scrawled on the back in tipex (e.g. 23 or 24kg).

That kind of variance surely plays havoc with max lifts.
Out of curiosity, what brand are the plates?

In my gym there are barbells two barbell types.
Four are marked 1500lbs, and two 1000lbs. I prefer the lower rated bars because they are slightly narrower in the grip.
I've always assumed they were all 20kg as they are made my the same company. Maybe I should double check.

googled eyes

I have two Olympic barbells here. One is 20 kg and one is 17 kgs. I guess you should always try to weigh the bar?

carbonkid

I asked about and found weighting scales. The smaller barbell was only 12/13kg. Thought it was 15kg so i wasn't too far off.

BossArky

Mellor wrote: »

That kind of variance surely plays havoc with max lifts.
Out of curiosity, what brand are the plates?

Some generic crappy brand which I've never heard of before. Not Eleiko or Ivanko.

I always double check the plates now before loading up. I've sometimes made the mistake of trying to Squat or Bench with a couple of these dodgy plates aside and you can feel immediately that the plates are off.

Mellor

BossArky wrote: »

Some generic crappy brand which I've never heard of before. Not Eleiko or Ivanko.

Reason I was asking was because my gym, and previous have used AustralianBarbellCompany. Was wondering if it was them ad should I check them paltes out too.

BossArky

Mellor wrote: »

Reason I was asking was because my gym, and previous have used AustralianBarbellCompany. Was wondering if it was them ad should I check them paltes out too.

I checked last night and found they are all York plates.

A quick google on the quality of York plates took me to this thread which sums up my experiences:
- uneven plate weights
- brittle (there may be a chunk of a few hundred gs missing from a plate)
- different widths/height for same plate weight (putting bar at slight angle if deadlifting)
- different bore hole size

Still... I've been training with them for the past 18 months and getting stronger :pac:

harperbd

Hanley wrote: »

Generally - 7ft = 20kg, 6ft = 15kg

exactly.

Also, it's not something you can easily measure in the gym, but the 15KG (women's bars) are usually 25mm diameter on the grip while the 20KG (mens bars) are 28mm+