Hello all. I’ve built a great home gym since moving into my first house. I’ve been using regular Ohio bars (no center knurl) so far with good success. Formerly I trained in a commercial gym with whatever bars were available. But since starting my own I have of course the luxury of getting picky about bar choice. Right now my numbers are kinda low still: 74kg bodyweight 45years old e1rm deadlift 170kg, 65kg OHP, 125 kg bench, 115kg squat. My question is this: when or should I get an Ohio power bar? I know it’s up to me but I was also weighing this against maybe a transformer bar in the future. My goals are hypertrophy over strength. Competition is never in my future. I know the probable answer is “it’s up to me” but I wanted to see what everybody else thinks.
If your current bar is working well, I don’t see a reason to get a new one unless the lack of a center knurl is causing the bar to slide down your back during a set of squats. For me personally, this did not start to happen until my working sets were in the 120-130kg range. I was underdeveloped in the upper back and low bar squatting though, so YMMV.
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