A Beginner's Guide To Barbells For Creating Your Home Gym

The weight-lifting barbell is an iconic piece of gym kit, recognisable as a shorthand for strength training the world over. 

Gym instructors, personal trainers, professional and amateur lifters alike will all tell you that a quality barbell is essential for foundational strength training.

While it has a long history in sports like powerlifting and Olympic lifting competitions, this relatively inexpensive and easy to maintain tool has many benefits when it comes to building power, strength and muscle for other sports. 

If you are a beginner when it comes to barbell strength training or if you are looking to build a home gym from scratch for the first time, the broad selection of bars can be overwhelming. 

Knowing what each is and how they work can lessen the confusion and help you make the right decision to suit your needs, knowledge and ability. 

 

What types of barbells are there, and what are they for?

There are dozens of different variations and specialised barbells for specific exercises and lifts. Here are just a few types of barbells that you might come across in your gym or want to add to your home gym equipment. 

 

Olympic barbell

The classic barbell is seen on squat racks around the world. A 7ft Olympic barbell has a two-inch sleeve and weighs in at 20kg. 

It is a very versatile bar, and the go-to bar for Olympic lifts such as clean and jerk or snatches, and can also be used for powerlifting, such as bench press

A smaller version of the Olympic bar is available with the same two-inch sleeve, so the same plates can be used. It is usually 15kg, 6ft long and has a narrower shaft for smaller hands to grip.

 

Straight fixed weight barbell

Often used by beginners or in fitness classes, these are smaller in length and have fixed weights at the ends. They can be used for many different lifts, but the weight variation is limited, and they might not be suitable for wide-grip lifts. 

 

Studio bars

In commercial gyms, these small bars with removable weights are used for classes such as HIIT, bootcamps and bums, legs and tums-style exercise.

 

EZ barbell

A zigzag-shaped bar that is much smaller than an Olympic bar and can hold weight plates. It is designed for upper body muscle building, and is often used for biceps curls and the terrifyingly named, ‘skull crushers’ for tricep work using a bench. 

 

Safety squat bar

A rare sight in commercial gyms, the safety squat or yoke bar is used to reduce pressure on the shoulders and upper back when squatting. Instead of holding a straight bar on the traps, the lifter holds handles that run perpendicular to the bar and rest across the shoulders.  

Its use is limited to its namesake, the back squat.

 

Trap bar

Designed in either an open trap bar or a closed hex structure, they involve standing in the centre of the geometric frame with handles in a neutral grip. 

They are perfect for building hamstring strength and explosivity with deadlifts without as much pressure on the lower back.

 

Tricep bar

One of the oddest-looking bars in the gym, the tricep bar is a short bar with a frame in the middle that has several different grip options. 

These grip options allow lifters to target different areas of the upper body when used for rows, overheads, or, you guessed it, tricep exercises.

 

What are the parts of a barbell?

Barbells are a relatively simple piece of gym equipment, and they have three main parts:

 

Shaft

This is the cylindrical metal that you grip onto. 

 

Knurling

Checkered grooves cut into the metal of the shaft is called knurling. It provides grip to allow you to hold the bar securely when lifting. 

The central knurling is to prevent the bar from slipping from your traps when doing a back squat. The wider sections are for different grips, for example, a wide grip for a snatch, or a narrow grip for a bench. 

 

Sleeves

These are the sections at each end where you slide the weight plates and collars on. In most bars, these will rotate to allow you to manoeuvre the bar more easily when it is loaded. 

 

What other equipment do you need to use a barbell?

 

Weight plates

While you can use a 20kg Olympic bar by itself, strength training requires progression, and that means adding weight to the bar. 

That is where weight plates come in, from Olympic bumper plates to tri-grip plates or traditional cast iron: load the bar up to see results in strength and muscle building.

 

Clips and collars

Clips and collars hold the plates on the bar when you move it and are vital for your safety. No one wants a 25kg Olympic bumper plate falling off mid-lift and hurting someone. They can be traditional wire clips, plastic lockable collars or magnetic collars. 

 

Rack

The rack is where you are likely to be loading the bar, and it is where you lift it from and return it to after a set. 

The robust metal frame can handle huge weights and can be used for both standing and bench-based exercises.  

 

Bench

Used in conjunction with a rack, the bench is an essential piece of gym kit for upper and lower body exercises.