hi so i'm a girl looking for a barbell. the gym i go to mostly seems to have basic powerlifting bars and they work fine for my hand size. i'm not interested in oly lifts because they seem like a great way for uncoordinated me to get injured.
like what i'm really wondering about is the finish/coating on the bars and the center knurl. right now my lifts are low (only been doing this like 3-4 months) at
glute bridge 200lbs hip thrust 175lbs deadlift 160lbs squat 100lbs
i'm gonna go with rogue as they seem to be high quality and relatively inexpensive. need to decide between ohio power bar and the cerakote ohio bar.
i like the red cerakote because it's pretty and i really don't want an ugly looking rusted bar in a couple years, but i also think i might want the center knurl on the ohio power bar.
so, questions.
how long will the black zinc powerbar last before it starts to look worn and gross?
how important is the center knurl for back squats? right now doing 100lbs it doesn't seem to make much of a difference between the gym bars but i'm hoping to be lifting lots more a year from now and want a bar that will suit my needs for years to come.
Just look for a barbell guide on the internet. This is a waste of time, you will get 100 different opinions from people who have only tried 1 or 2 name brand bars in their life.
Jack Jones
if i didn't say that people would be like wtf your lifts are shit. also since we're talking about barbells it kinda matters because of the women's sizes. but i guess i'm getting men's anyway so whatever.
i've been doing tons of research trying to narrow it down. read articles, watched lots of youtube reviews. and that's how i narrowed it down to these two bars. i sincerely don't know which to buy though. kinda leaning toward the cerakote just because they're so pretty and i live in a small place and everyone will see it when they come inside. but also the center knurl looks like it could help with back squats which are one of my most important lifts.
why don't they have cerakote powerbars? i don't get it lol
Jackson Torres
How about you just get a few of your beta orbiters to buy you some different bars to try out.
Allude to them there might be more in it for them but then deliver nothing after they've given you the bar.
Brody Lewis
Center knurling is irrelevant for squats. I'm pretty sure all of these bars last long without looking "disgusting". Any random causal gym has cheaper bars that are being touched by 100+ idiots every day and they are fine
Brandon Stewart
Fucking google "power bar cerakote" you tard. First fucking link...
Chase Price
yeah look at the price. then compare that to the two bars i'm considering buying. notice a difference?
i said i did my research.
and my research does suggest that after about a year a bare steel bar will be worn out and gross looking (though perfectly functional). i'm not seeing how long the zinc lasts but i know the cerakote would last longer and it comes in pretty red color
Parker Hill
Will then make your decision - do you want to pay more money for a "pretty red looking cool bar"? I mean it's literally up to you. Obviously the answer has to be no because literally no one gives a shit what their bar looks like, hopefully including you.
Landon Barnes
>i like the red cerakote because it's pretty and i really don't want an ugly looking rusted bar in a couple years, but i also think i might want the center knurl on the ohio power bar. >because it's pretty >don't want an ugly looking rusted bar You sound exactly like my ex girlfriend: you don't actually enjoy lifting/being in the gym but you do enjoy getting to obsess over what equipment you use, all the cute gym clothes you get to wear now, and getting to be apart of shitty girl fitness culture. Useless slut.
Kayden Watson
>all these bitter women hating posts
I feel like OP is LARPING and then responding to his own thread trying to get a r9k discussion going.
Zachary Sullivan
i like my things to look nice? and i don't want to have to oil my bar down constantly to keep it from getting rusted out. cerakote would look better and save me some time, though again i don't know how much better it is than the zinc.
we don't all have garages to hide our garage gyms in lol.
anyway it's really coming down to the importance of the center knurl. maybe this thread should have been titled "center knurls- important?" or something.
how important do you people lifting heavy find the center knurls to be.
Kevin Reyes
Yeah, people like important things to look pretty. Their equipment they use to train their body isn't one of those. I don't give a shit what my spoon looks like, i eat with it. You keep saying the bar becomes rusty, hut it really doesn't. It literally just becomes darker because of skin rubbing into it. Not rusty.
I already answered you about the center knurling: irrelevant unless your deadlift grip would be narrow enough so that you can't get it onto the knurling. Then it matters.
Kevin Cruz
i dont see how a regular bar won't last you your entire lifetime if you dont leave it in the fuckin rain or something
Robert Howard
knurl might get annoying if you're doing high reps as far as i know zinc is the best to protect against corrosion so it probably won't last as long as the cerakote but should still be good
David Garcia
>LARPING Seems likely, after all the first words in the op are literally "hi so i'm a girl". Guarantees plenty of (You)'s and an inevitable spiral into an r9k quality thread.
Oliver Bailey
here. if you watch the video they say the discoloration and things happened within the first year, and that they both need to do a lot of upkeep with oil. which seems tedious.
Sounds like hard shilling. As I said, any casual gym I have gone to so far have fucking cheap random ass bars that they never even once clean at all and that are being touched and used 100 times more than a personal bar and not one of these was rusty.
Adam Richardson
pretty sure most gyms replace their bars when they start to get gross. that's why they buy the cheap ones. no one would want to sign up for a gym if the bars were all rusted and gross looking.
has no one here done any research on barbells before? people talk all the time about how bare steel starts to get worn looking after a few months as they oxidize.
Jonathan Howard
anyway i'm looking for more opinions about the center knurl.
does anyone think it's important for squats, or does pretty much everyone agree with the one person who actually had something to say about it?
Gavin Reyes
I have been with these gyms for more than 5 years and the bars are still the same. I really don't even know what you mean by "they look worn out". What does that translate to? If a bar actually develops rust then it becomes unusable, it's integrity would be at risk, etc.
Look, again, the only question that remains, for you to answer: Do you want to pay more money so that your bar looks red and cool and will look like that for longer? Or do you not want to pay more money and instead get a bar that will be perfectly functionally just as long, but won't look red and cool but instead look "used" pretty soon?
Isaiah Sullivan
Or do you want to pay less** money instead
Connor Edwards
>Look, again, the only question that remains, for you to answer: >Do you want to pay more money so that your bar looks red and cool and will look like that for longer? >Or do you not want to pay more money and instead get a bar that will be perfectly functionally just as long, but won't look red and cool but instead look "used" pretty soon? yeah. my answer is that i want the red one that requires less upkeep, but only if the lack of a center knurl isn't a hindrance to my lifts. also i guess the knurling in general. the knurling is more aggressive on the powerlifting bar and i'm not really sure what would be best in that regard.
Christian Collins
muh dick
Jordan Campbell
>liftS Then answer the question that I indirectly asked about your deadlift grip width.
Nolan Russell
i grip the bar at the narrowest possible points? which sometimes tears up my thumbs as they rub against my legs and then i'll go a little wider for a couple weeks. does the center knurl matter for this for some reason?
Easton Hall
>so i'm a girl
Unless youre planning on gripping the bar with your roasty your gender has litrially no impact on bar choice.
Robert Kelly
Thinking about it, it's actually irrelevant. If you want more input on whether or not you need/want center knurling for your squats, consider opening a more specific thread with less info (girl here) either here or on Reddit (I guess girl here helps there). Also consider mentioning if you squat high or low bar. High bar is guaranteed doesn't matter, low bar it doesn't matter for me, but maybe it does for others.
Chase Diaz
more specific with less info?
i already have this thread anyway. i started out doing high bar but switched to lowbar recently after watching some alan thrall videos.
Austin Jenkins
Yes, more specific with less general info about your general situation. >your lifts >your gender >the story about how you have done your research >the fact that you want a cool red bar Etc.
Litterally just the question about center or no center knurling for lowbar squats.
Mason Parker
maybe a thread about knurling in general would be nice. i don't really know if i like a lot of knurling or not. the gym bars seem "aggressive" but they're probably not because they're cheap gym bars. so i guess i don't know what i want in that regard either. and like idk where to go to try out differing knurlings.
but i don't see why it matters that i said i'm a girl. women's bars are things, and hand size can matter with this stuff. lots of women prefer 15kg bars because they can overhead press more easily when starting out.
kinda seems like people are getting triggered just because i'm a woman, which is ridiculous.
but yeah knurling. what do you like when it comes to knurling, and why?
Joseph King
You answered your own question about why it matters that you said you are female.
I like the knurling as "aggressive" as possible. That is because the tightness of my grip is very important for me, mentally. Even with the benchpress.
I see no drawback to them either, eventual callus that you develop can easily be taken care of (as female you are probably aware of that).
Easton Johnson
Buy a 28.5mm standard bar because you'll never lift enough to bend a real bar. I paid 100 bucks for mine and it barely bends with 4pl8.
