Olympic Bars – Significance and Uses
February 12, 2010 by amy
Filed under Bars and Collars
An Olympic or weightlifting bar is a bar in which the sleeves rotate. This enables the discs to spin on their own axis, which eliminates the rotational-inertia effect placed upon the lifter during such unstable lifting and enables an individual to descend under the bar with ease.
Olympic bar is a metal bar that is 7.22 ft long and weighs 20 kg. The outer ends of the Olympic bar are 50 mm in diameter, while the grip section is 28 mm. The Olympic bars have grip marks spaced 910 mm apart to allow spontaneous grip width measurement. It is the standard used in competitive weightlifting where men and women compete at the highest level games like the Commonwealth Games, Pan-American Games, World Championships, and also the Olympics. The total weight of the Olympic bar varies based on the type and number of plates loaded onto the ends the bar and the lift being performed and can be as much as 450 kg depending on the fitness of the person.
In addition to regular Olympic bars, power lifting often requires use of sturdier bars to better accommodate the heavier weights being used in sports. These bars can be longer so it can allow loading of more plates and thicker to deform less under load.
Furthermore, power lifting bars have their grip marks spaced closer, at 810 mm. This closer spacing is used to make sure of the legal grip width in the bench press. The International Power lifting federation does not, though, permit the use of longer or thicker bars.
An Olympic barbell is highly long-lasting. It can hold disc plates weighing as much as 800 pounds. Olympic Bars are commonly used in gyms and professional training.
Its outer portions are two inches thick. The steel bar is typically seven feet long and weighs 45 pounds. Smaller Olympic Bars are about four to six feet long.