UK Home Gym Barbell Recommendation?

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1

Hi All

I’m putting together a home garage gym, UK based, and I’m looking for any advice/recommendations people have regarding which barbell to get.

I’m looking for an entry-level Olympic barbell, used primarily for basic lifts (squat, deadlift, bench, overhead press, row etc.) and variations of those. I don’t intend to do much weightlifting, but would like it to be able to handle some power cleans for example, if I want to do some.

I’ve got a budget in mind of £100 - £150, which I realise won’t get anything amazing, but then the heaviest I’m lifting right now is only about 140kg for deadlift.

What I’m struggling with is there seem to be a lot of bars that fall in that range (and cheaper) but with pretty different stats…

I know Strength Shop is well rated, and their 2028 bar is £120 and rated up to 250kgs. Their 2029 bar is then £150, with a rating of 260kgs. Is the extra price just for the 1mm thickness added?

When I’ve generally searched online I’ve then also seen Wolverson Fitness recommended a few times, and they have a garage bar for £120 (although their site doesn’t say a lot about it) or otherwise a GT bar for £110, which is rated to about 700kgs (1500lbs).

You do then get a bunch of other bars on Amazon/ebay etc which then seem to be a chunk less but also with high weight ratings. There’s a bunch of bodymax bars rated 300+ for anywhere between £60-£90. There’s one that’s rated to approx. 700kgs for £90, which supposedly has an RRP of nearly double that?

Basically I’m getting lost a bit between all the options and would appreciate anyone who has actually experience using any of these (or similar alternatives).

Thanks in advance

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I own an entry level York bar(29mm) from Gymratz you need specialist York spring clips to fit the bar. Cost about £160 with delivery. I have only used it for front squatting. It’s not great for Olympic lifts I can tell from the spin. But I am sure it would be ok for sub 250kg deadlifts rated about 320kg I think.
As I said I only use it for front squats so the most I have used is around 155kg-160kg .

I had a powerhouse bar which was cheaper. But it its knurling was terrible and had to be sanded down. The spin on that bar was nice though.

I would recommend getting a Phyikal Elite bar (28mm)for around £300 for the Olympic lifts
and a cheap bar York or otherwise for squatting you might total this bar if you drop it in a powerrack. We have not always got the option of dropping rubber plates onto a good platform.
I have rubber plates but no platform, I am pleased with the plates but you can only fit so many on the bar. The plates were from Amazon I can find them, if you want.

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Thanks for the reply. I’m not that keen on Olympic lifting that I’d buy an entirely separate bar, and the idea would be to only do stuff that don’t require dropping from any decent height, so a speciality bar shouldn’t be necessary.

I do already have a pair of 25kg bumpers that I’d use for deadlifts etc to protect non-bumpers