Intro:
Barbells & why you want one.
Strength
writer, Mike Thompson, once wrote that if you could squat double bodyweight and
deadlift double bodyweight for 20 reps each back-to-back (no rest between sets),
then you would be strong enough to wrestle a bear.
Resistance
training is the way to go. Add weight - get stronger. Simple as that. The Barbell
is the bread-and-butter strength tool, tried and tested - nothing works
better.
You
don't necessarily need a bench, squat racks and any other equipment. With just
a barbell you can do the following A - class strength exercises....
Now
you could spend the price of a small car on barbells - check out the bars by Eleiko
(a 132.5kg Eleiko set costs about £2000!) Leoko and Ivanko. Nope, that's
no good. How about nipping down to your local Argos
then? You can pick up at York Fitness 50kg set for £50. Yeah you can, but
that's nowhere near heavy enough. Wrestling bears we said.
So
do it right and get an Olympic barbell set. 140 kilos should keep you busy, that's
300 pounds and if you can hoist that overhead then people are probably very scared
of you.
The
Bodypower Barbell set is the best value weight set I've seen to date.
140kg set
plus 2 x 20kgs 'bumper plates'
What
you get:
1
x Olympic bar, 2 x 20kg, 2 x 15, 2 x 10, 4 x 2.5, 4 x 1.25, 1 pair of spring collars.
Bumper plates
were an added purchase
Bar
The bar that
comes with the set is a standard 'Olympic' bar. 7 foot long and weighing 20 kgs.
It has a decent chrome finish, although there were a few very small chips
on the sleeves. The sleeves have what appear to be brass bearing linings and the
revolving action is smooth.
The
standard bar is advertised as "320kg rated" which should be enough for
most people, although bars rated up to a massive 700kgs are available at extra
cost. Although I'm wary about manufacters' strength claims particularly with these
cheap bars, I've only loaded it up to 200kgs, which hardly seemed to test it at
all. So unless you regularly use more than say, 230kgs/500lbs then I wouldn't
worry about the bar strength.
The
bar is pretty stiff, it doesn't have the "springyness" of other OL bars
I've used in the past, but unless you're a competitive Olympic lifter, that shouldn't
be an issue.
The
knurling is deep and sharp, and is set up for a powerlifting style bar - ie. has
heavy knurling in the centre.
Plates
Not much to
report here. The plates I weighed on some home scales were accurate in weight
and the weight was consistent between plates marked the same weight. (yeah, you'd
be surprised how some companies' plates can vary). After a year of use they still
look pretty much the same as new, the heavy black enamel finish is holding up
well. Can't really ask for more than that.
Bumper
Plates
Compared
to the barbell set, these seem a quite expensive - as you could add an extra 2x20kgs
without the bumpers for another tenner more (instead of paying almost £60!).
However if you're going to be doing a lot of lifts from the floor then they're
a godsend. - if you're seriously into Olympic lifts then you'll need
a full set of bumpers, otherwise you can get away with just the one set.
. I've dumped the bar plus
200kgs, with the bumper plates on, many times on the floor and they're soaked
up the weight and bounce with surprising little noise. So if you've got a floor
to save, bite the bullet and get the bumpers.
Customer
Service
Top
marks again for Bodypower. They hadn't all my order in stock, but kept me informed
by regular phonecalls about delivery. I reckon that's pretty cool. You can phone
or email them for a free catalogue.
Pros:
