Olympic Bars | Olympic Barbell Reviews | Olympic Bar

The Olympic Bar For You

We’ve done a lot of research on Olympic bars. Below are some of the best we’ve found based on reviews collected around the Internet, and our own personal experience.  We filter out the junk Olympic bars that bend easily or don’t have collars that spin well. We don’t recommend a low quality Olympic bar, so if you’re looking for the cheapest Olympic bar you can find, this isn’t the place for you. That said, our first option is always a great economical choice for a quality Olympic bar at a great price, while the Pendlay Olympic bars below are some of the best on the planet.  Does it make sense to buy a barbell for $150 that lasts you a couple years, or a barbell for $300 that lasts you a lifetime?

Cap Barbell 1000lb Solid Test Olympic Bar

This is your go-to starter Olympic bar for those not planning on doing a lot of Olympic lifting. We’ve seen great reviews for these all over the Internet, and including at some local Crossfit gyms.   Here is an excerpt of a review, “This bar has fit my crossfit workouts nicely. I will NOT get anywhere near the rated weight capacity of this bar. But, with that being said, it is certainly a HUGE step over a standard 600 lb olympic bar. It’s a very solid design and the ends of the bar are sealed (no worrying about tightening those annoying allen wrench screws on the ends of the bar)! I have used this bar for deadlifts up to the 330 lb mark and of course, I wasn’t even close to it’s rating. Since I use my bar for Crossfit / Metcon workouts, I do my fair share of Olympic style lifts. With my bumper plates on, I have no worries when I release (a controlled drop) of my weight from an overhead position (doing overhead push presses at 175 lbs).”

This Olympic bar is good for any of the slower lifts such as bench, squats, deads (up to around 400 lbs) or for light weight high pace lifts like push presses and sumo deadlift high pulls. It will also serve well for Olympic lifts with lighter weights, however we don’t recommend them for doing a lot of Olympic lifts because the collars probably won’t spin as well as you would like. Likewise anything over 400 lbs might get a bit dicey and you risk bending the bar permanently (1,000 lb test is a misleading stat). However, this is a great bar to leave in a power rack, as a backup for more expensive Olympic bars, or for a beginning garage gym. A lot of gyms like these bars because they have a 28.5mm thickness which is just about the Olympic standard of 28mm, and no center knurling which is good for Olympic lifting. For the price, you can’t really beat this deal. Click here to check it out.

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Pendlay Nexgen Olympic Bars
The Pendlay NexGen Bars are THE Olympic bar if you want a bar that has zero chance of bending no matter how much weight you move. It comes in two varieties, the bushing, and the bearing bar. The bushing bar is best for a mixed use between power-lifting and Olympic lifting, while the bearing bar is awesome if you do a lot of Olympic lifting.

Made from the strongest steel available, Pendlay Nexgen is the only company in the world to use single piece collar construction. It has a cool bright zinc coating throughout the entire bar which absorbs into the steel reducing the risk of chipping, and an advanced gel lubricant to prevent leaking. These are made to extremely strict weight and dimension standards.

Both Olympic bars come with a lifetime guarantee and are made in the U.S.A. If you’re looking for an awesome Olympic bar for your gym that you’ll never have to replace, then Pendlay NexGen bars are worth the investment.  Click here to check it out.

Pendlay Nexgen Bearing Bar:

Pendlay Nexgen Bushing Bar:

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Why Pay More For An Olympic Bar?

A lot of people think that a piece of steel is a piece of steel when it comes to lifting weights using an Olympic bar.  However, this is not the case.  As the weights get heavier, and the bar gets older, you will notice some big changes.  First, the Olympic bar won’t spin as well.  Second, the Olympic barbell will start to rust, bend and so forth.  That is IF you buy a cheap one for one hundred or $150 dollars.  However, if you spend twice as much, it will last you 10 times as long.  Check out the Olympic barbells above, and read the forums, and you will see our advice is sound on Olympic bars.