Wondering anyone has experience with this - The gym I go to has a full set of bumper plates but they only have these shitty barbells that don’t have the grip all the way down to the ends of the barbell. Kind of like the picture, but with even less grip. Anyways yesterday I was feeling really really good at 175 so I decided to make the jump and go for a 195 pr. Problem is I couldn’t keep my grip(hook) on the bar because it’s all smooth slippery surface at the barbell ends, and my hand totally slipped off when I was trying to transition the weight overhead.
Anyone have experience with these types of barbells?
Stupid gym. Full oly bumper plates and no decent bars.
A) join a real gym bro
B) buy a real bar and donate it to “not real” gym
C) buy a real bar and plates and lift in the garage
seriously, your gonna hurt yourself when you start PR’n
LB
The gym I train at now, I train there because
A) They have platforms and bumper plates and chalk
B) I have a friend who trains there who has an eleiko bar that we keep in the back room and only take out when we’re using it (this is probably more important)
The bar is one of the few things I’m really picky about. Weight is weight, so long as the plates are designed to bounce, and the platform just needs to be solid and not too slippery, but I can’t lift on a shitty bar. I’ll do pulls and squats but nothing where I have to turn over and catch the weight.
I suppose I could do the donation thing, but it’s a large chain gym and the bar would probably end up in random places all over the gym instead of by the bumper plates.
It would also be funny to talk up to the front desk holding a barbell and be like “Hi, I’m donating this”.
Oh well, I suppose i’ll just focus on cleans for the next 2.5 months. Headed back to grad school in august and campus gym has real equipment.
I have a similar problem at my gym, the ways I deal with it are making sure I have a lot of chalk and also if the gym management don’t mind, you can try bringing in a metal file and roughing the smooth parts of the bar up.
I also find taping up my thumbs helps, as I can just grip onto my thumbs more securely regardless of the bar.
[quote]Anonymity wrote:
I suppose I could do the donation thing, but it’s a large chain gym and the bar would probably end up in random places all over the gym instead of by the bumper plates.
It would also be funny to talk up to the front desk holding a barbell and be like “Hi, I’m donating this”.
Oh well, I suppose i’ll just focus on cleans for the next 2.5 months. Headed back to grad school in august and campus gym has real equipment.[/quote]
Any chance you are in good enough with management that they would let you bring a bar and keep it in a closet or something so that you would go get it when you need it?
[quote]bpick86 wrote:
[quote]Anonymity wrote:
I suppose I could do the donation thing, but it’s a large chain gym and the bar would probably end up in random places all over the gym instead of by the bumper plates.
It would also be funny to talk up to the front desk holding a barbell and be like “Hi, I’m donating this”.
Oh well, I suppose i’ll just focus on cleans for the next 2.5 months. Headed back to grad school in august and campus gym has real equipment.[/quote]
Any chance you are in good enough with management that they would let you bring a bar and keep it in a closet or something so that you would go get it when you need it?[/quote]
I could definitely ask. Never hurts.