Not sure if anybody trains at Pure Gym in the UK, but does anybody happen to know the thickness of the bars there?
I’ve recently moved so tried a new gym yesterday and the bars felt super thin compared to the ones at Pure Gym - not sure if they are too thin, or whether the Pure Gym bars are crappy ones that are too thick.
thanks
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I personally like the Pure Gym bars, or at least the ones in Reading. I train at two other gyms, one of which has awful, cheap, fat bars, and a powerlifting gym that has various widths right down to a whippy deadlift bar. I’ve not measured any of them, but I’d estimate Pure Gym bars to be around 28-29mm, the deadlift bar 26-27mm, and the nasty cheap bars 30mm (maybe more).
My gym has one bar that is markedly thinner than the rest. I don’t like how it feels, especially on my back. I consider it a “bum bar” and try to avoid it every time. My gym is a regular mainstream gym with no specialty bars, so I don’t think it is a deadlift bar.
However, that bar is surprisingly quiet. The only exercise where I feel a little self-concious is the Pendlay Row because I make awful racket when dropping the bar in a myo-rep activation set every time for 14 reps and more. However, I once did them with that thin bar and besides a low thud of the plates hitting the floor, there was no clingy metal noise from the bar itself. So who knows, maybe it’s actually not a bum bar.
Yeah from what I’ve read around, the thicker (30mm+) bars are usually the cheaper ‘bum bars’ - I supposed to make a sturdy thinner bar you have to use better quality of materials? This is the one at my new gym, which seems good quality from the description - it’s 28mm. Feels better to deadlift with that the thicker bars at puregym, the knurling is much better too https://www.fitkituk.com/strength-c2/olympic-bars-c10/jordan-fitness-elite-steel-high-performance-olympic-bar-p387/s610?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=jordan-fitness-elite-steel-high-performance-olympic-bar&utm_campaign=product%2Blisting%2Bads&gclid=CjwKCAjw67XpBRBqEiwA5RCocbSLwwUz0jHf8qrd6K_MjpErd-8VxfcxF7ywxzHQNAdsA8gdJTW0bBoCR5YQAvD_BwE
I think you can probably buy cheap bars or expensive bars of any thickness. Usually thin bars are recommended for Deadlifts and Olympic lifts and thick bars are recommended for squats. For the bench most people prefer thicker bars, but if you have small hands you may prefer a smaller bar.
The thin bars should have a little bit more bend in them which you want for the deadlift (if the bar bends an inch before coming off the ground that is going to really help deadlifters weak off the floor. By contrast nobody likes their bar bending a heavy squat as it could potentially make you a little off balance so you’d want a thick bar for that.