Doing cleans today and my hands keep slipping off the bar, clocked myself in the neck a couple of times.  The bar I'm using is a really fine knurled York, I've had trouble keeping a grip on it for dead lifts too.



So what do you look for?  Do you have different bars for different lifts?  I'm probably going to end up with the Rogue Ohio, that seems like a good general purpose bar, or is there a better one?

When I'm looking in a bar I look for women and beer.

A guy with your clever wit really should try the grocery store.  Then at least you can take the beer home.  

I like a good brewery.  I know of several and can do a quick circuit when I need a 16 oz curl work out.  

I use lifting straps with my kegs, so I have that covered.  

I brew at home, so I don't need clever wit.



My woman wears gloves so she can hang onto the bar.  She has girly hands for some reason.

I like to cut a weak one from the herd

What's the diameter of that York?  Ever lift on a 28mm?  

You are hook gripping those cleans?

Things I want on my next bar:
      28mm
      <200k tensile strength
     Good hhwip
     Aggressive Knurling
     Center Knurl
     Bearing
     Made in Sweden.  

Oly lifting.

28 mm bearing bar.  Oly lifting bar.  Makes a huge difference.  A Rogue Ohio is not an oly bar, though you can oly lift with it.  The knurling is a little aggressive for me as well.  I know a guy who has a company who makes barbells, out of NY supposedly.  I primarily use their oly bars and I love them.

http://www.nevergiveupfitness.net/#!product/prd17/3903411941/cobra-5-bearing-olympic-bar

ETA:

And you have to hook grip.  And tape your thumbs.

Yes, hook grip.  I'm not 100% sure on the diameter as I'm not really familiar with the options but...  Bigger than a bella bar.  Smaller than the big pigs I've seen.  Does that help?

Even for your olympic lifts you like an aggressive knurling?  That's really the big questions, all the bars at the ghetto gym are cheap junk York bars with this micro-knurling, which sucks but when I'm doing cleans I can't tell if an aggressive knurl would just rip my hands up and not help.  I guess I'll find something with a more aggressive knurl and try them again.

Center knurls I've found I really like too, nice for both front squats and back squats.

Part of my problem is on my right hand I've got skin grafts that keep my pinkie finger sticking out like an Englishman drinking tea.  I'm going to try taping it to the ring finger and see if that helps keep it out of the way.  Even though I can now keep a full grip in the rack position that pinkie is trouble and ends up bleeding a lot.

I'm not going to buy a nice sweedish bar for a while....  Maybe as a reward when I hit a bodyweight snatch.

Yep yep.


If it's not a dedicated oly, I'd want power and oly marks on it, but wouldn't care so much about whip. 28mm would still be pretty important, and center knurl shouldn't be TOO aggressive.

The Ohio bar is a pretty good all around bar IMO. There's one at my gym, and it's gtg.

Doing some quick research since 3/3 of you mention a 28mm bar it looks like most power lifting bars are 29-30mm.  Will that 1-2 mm really make a difference?  

Roland, I've got a cheap bar at home that I can use for non-Olympic lifts and let the kids abuse, if I get another bar I'd like to make it more suitable for olympic lifts.  What do you recommend for a medium price range?  That one the Lawyer posted is only $400, that doesn't see too bad at all for a good bar.  It's not like a guy that deadlifts what I do is going to bend one anytime soon

I have an Ohio and a WL Training.

Blindfolded, I could tell you which one was which doing one C&J.  Even though the on paper differences are only .5mm and slightly different knurl there is a big difference in feel.  They're even both bearing BUSHING bars but the Training spins much better.

Edit to correct, I wish they were bearing bars.

Yikes.  $870 for a guy with no talent at olympic lifting seems pretty steep

None of the bars I use at the ghetto gym or at home spin better than a cinderblock spinning on the pavement.  

Do they serve Bulleit?  That's important to me

It sounds crazy, but yes you can tell the difference. For something dedicated for oly I'd look at these (I have no experience with them, but the specs look good)

http://www.roguefitness.com/rogue-olympic-wl-bar

http://www.garage-gyms.com/olympic-barbell-review-shopping-guide/

That's a great page, tons of info.  

Combined with some blurbs I read elsewhere it looks like the bar is making a difference even for a retard like me.  I'm not sure what the bars are at home, but they are more similar to the rogue low end stuff and I just thought it was the home field advantage that had me lifting better there.

Looks like I'll be buying a bar soon.

Tanren, if you're in the Spokane area I'll buy you a beer in a few weeks.  

I use a Rogue Operator bar (one of the first ones, it has the grenades on the end. ), it kind of splits the difference between a powerlifting bar and an oly bar.  No center knurl, and it's an awesome olive drab and black.  Or at least it was.  I got it in 2011.  It's held up well, and I absolutely love it.  

I really want one of Rogue's Powerlifting bars.  When I load up a lot of weight for squats or deadlifts, I can really feel the bar flex and bounce a lot.  A second bar makes a bunch of WODs much easier as well.

I'm on the other side, if you're ever in Seattle area, you're on.

This!

I got the Ohio Power Bar and it is really stiff. I start to perceive just a touch of whip in 450 range, but it's barely noticeable. It's a great all around powerlifting bar. The knurling grabs but isn't painful. Collars spin nicely. I wish the unknurled portion was a bit wider like on the Froning bar, just to be a little easier on the shins.

Chalk and a proper hook grip and you should not slip.

Normally I'd agree and in fact I slipped less when I got some chalk.  This bar has never been cleaned either, so the smooth and slippery knurling it does have is pretty packed with chalk.  At home I keep an overhand grip for deadlifts up to about 370, on this bar I can only get to 300 or a little better.  

Usually true, but I've had to lift on some really shitty bars and it wouldn't matter how much chalk you use even with a hook grip.

I didn't know you lift at the ghetto gym in Terre Haute!  See you Tuesday!  

After reading through that website of bar reviews Tanren posted I realized that I have never lifted a good bar.  I'd say the very best ones I've ever used were on the bottom end of his list or below his notice.  ModerndayIsraelite has an Ohio bar that I didn't lift with, just stroked and caressed for a while, then left to him and his puny mustard stained squats.  

Come out to SoCal and you can use my Eleiko bar. It's smooth like butter

We've got an office in San Diego, but they don't work on the same stuff so I've never worked with them.

Besides, it would probably cost me a fortune to lift with you for a half an hour  

I did lift at an Olympic class today on some Rogue crossfit bars.  It was so much easier I couldn't believe it.  I'll be getting myself a good bar as soon as I can lift at home a little.

At what weight in what lift do you start to notice a Mr. Goodbar vs a El Cheapo?

For me it first showed up that I did better deadlifts if I was holding onto a 190ksi cheese grater.  The hands seem to be a good circuit breaker, if you can hold it you can lift it.  With these smooth bars I seem to hit my maxes about 40-60  pounds sooner, that circuit breaker is the only explanation I have.

Then I noticed that I was more stable on a squat with bars that had center knurling but even without it I do OK, it's just nice.  I noticed without it I really have to be tight with the arms/shoulders.  This took a long time to notice, so I don't think it's really a big deal.

I did cleans and snatches with 4 different bars today and the crappy York in the OP last week.  I've found that I can't put my finger on it, but I get more weight and I'm far more comfortable when lifting with the good bars.  That York scares me, I didn't realize why but I just was always afraid of being under it, probably because my hands were acting like a circuit breaker again and I didn't notice.  I can comfortably clean 30lbs more with the better bars, but I didn't realize that till this week.

In short-  dunno.  Can't wait to have a really good bar and do some cleans and snatches.  For basic lifts most bars work pretty well, but I really hate using bent bars.  Not terrible on squats, annoying as hell on deads and weird on bench and strict.

My cheap aluminum bar the kids use is WAY easier to do cleans and snatches with even at the same weights.  Only significant difference I can see is the aluminum bar spins like its greased.  No idea how that helps, I read that a bad spin can cause wrist problems and I've noticed that occasionally my cleans would wrench one wrist or another, possibly that's why.

Wouldn't cost you a penny except for travel to get here

You'll notice the smooth spin on a clean really light...like 135#. Will it really make a DIFFERENCE that light? No, but you can feel it. Snatch is not quite as noticeable until heavier weights for me at least. Though I had to adjust form just a bit because when I first got the bar I tended to lose snatches behind me because the spin surprised me.

I realized that my cleans on a really stiff crappy bar without any spin seem to crash down on my shoulders.  It's interesting how much difference the bar makes even for a relative neophyte like myself.  I really need a good one, trying several out this weekend was really hard on my wallet I think.

Lol