Whilst they can often look the same or very similar to the untrained eye, not all weight plates are the same and neither are all weightlifting bars. They both have differences substantial enough to turn a manageable lift into something far more difficult.

That is why a lot of care is taken when producing the colourful Olympic-standard bumper plates; not only do they need to be made to an exact weight with a tolerance of just ten grams, but they also need to be protected from intentional and unintentional slams during competition.

However, the devil is very much in the details, and Olympic plates for weightlifting and powerlifting are remarkably different from each other, as is the barbell used to lift them up during competitions.

The differences are such that many gyms will have hybrid barbells that share many of the features of the two or try to find a happy medium, but what are these differences, and why do they matter in the first place?

What Is In A Bar?

Despite their outward appearance, there is a lot of design and engineering work that goes into designing a barbell, aside from the obvious knurling work that makes it easier to maintain a really strong grip on the bar regardless of the lift being attempted.

At its core, a barbell needs to be strong enough to hold a lot of weight, although exactly how much and for what purpose can vary dramatically, hence why bars that are ostensibly very similar can feel so very different when lifted.

The first, and most notable difference is the weight and size of the bar itself. Olympic-grade bars are 2.2 metres in length and weigh 20kg, allowing for a similar level of tolerance to the weights themselves.

This part is essential, as the weight of the bar itself will affect the distribution of weight for the entire lift, and given that a lot of weightlifting at the highest level is a matter of fine margins, it can be the difference between success and failure.

The most infamous example of this in action was a United States Nationals competition, where a bar was five pounds (roughly 2.3kg) heavier than it should have been. For context, many strength training machines can have additional weights added that are around five pounds, so it is far from a trivial sum.

This bar, rather infamously nicknamed a “maverick” bar by Bob Hoffman, caused significant controversy and led to greater efforts to standardise the weight of every part of the bar itself at the competition level.

Even outside of contests, this has had a trickle-down effect, as weightlifters at all levels have a much greater appreciation of the importance of knowing exactly how much they lift.

A weightlifter needs to feel confident that if they can perform a 100kg snatch lift with one particular barbell and set of weights, they can successfully perform the same lift in another gym or in a competition setting with the same types of weight.

On the subject of lifting technique, a weightlifting bar has sleeves on each side which securely hold weights in place and ensure a consistent, even weight distribution. However, they are not only designed to hold significant amounts of weight but they are also designed to rotate it in a smooth way.

The reason for this is that if the sleeves were not designed to rotate, the bar itself would work against a lifter, leading to a more difficult lift and a greater potential for injury at the highest level.

This type of rotating bar was standardised, at least in concept, since 1928, when weightlifting competitions focused on the snatch, the clean and jerk, and clean and press, the latter combination lift eventually dropped due to the difficulty by judges in ascertaining the correct form.

It also needs to be able to store elastic energy due to the whipping forces that often take place during a lift, and it needs to be as strong enough to survive a dropped lift whilst completely maintaining its function and stability as the weights themselves.

Powerlifting, by contrast, uses a similar bar in many respects, but with slight differences to improve stiffness, and stability at the expense of rotation.

A powerlifting bar usually holds a lot more weight than a weightlifting one, with plates that are denser and thinner as a result. Because of this, the sleeves of a powerlifting bar need to be stiffer to make the entire bar feel more stable during the difficult, heavy squat, bench press and deadlift lifts.