how much does an olympic size bar actually weigh?

[Bigdank]

i was always told 45 lbs. i personally own two olympic size weight bench bars and one is made by golds gym and the other i dont know it came with the bench set. Neither of them weigh 45 lbs. I weighed them with a house scale that i weigh myself on - i hope that doesnt decrease accuracy. The golds gym bar is 7' 2" and weighs 38 lbs. The other bar is exactly 7' and weighs 39 lbs. This confuses me. Anybody else have anything to say about this?

[cmoneybereal]

im pretty sure the bars are both 45 pounds, a house scale wouldnt be the best way to weigh a bar. don't worry about it though.

[Squeebo]

I've heard of 7' olympic bars weighing 44 lbs instead of 45, but not 38. I'm betting it's the scale too.

[C Man]

There is no standard weight for olympic bars that aren't actual competition bars. The weights of bars that come with typical 300 lb weight sets from sporting goods stores are all over the map.

Weighing the bar using a bathroom scale is plenty accurate, assuming you're weighing yourself holding the bar and then weighing yourself alone and using the difference in the two weights. I wouldn't try standing the bar upright on the scale by itself.

[daveray]

Yours isn't the only bar to weigh in rather low. Used my Nautilus brand 7' bar for years before I weighed it about 2 months ago -- and was surprised to see it only weighed 37 lbs!

Wasn't so happy about that...

But no immediate plans to swap it out, either.

[mudd471]

45lbs

[dtrrman]

There has been over a million posts on this topic. The cheap imported chinese made bars that come with the 300lb sets at sporting goods chains can go from 35-45 lbs, usually in the upper 30's range. A standard competition quality bar will weigh 20 kilos(44.5 lbs or so) First thing would be to get a higher quality bar after buying one of the cheap sets that weighs the 20 kilos or find a good balance beam scale and weigh the cheap bar and then adjust when loading. I have an eleiko, york and ivanko bar and they all weigh exactly 20 kilos and I just count them as 45lbs.

[ctgblue]

as stated, 35-45lbs is the range, the cheaper the bar, the less it weighs
a real power bar will be right on 45lbs(you'll pay $100+ for this), but a cheap $30-40 bar can be in the mid 30's (one that comes with a 300# set)

[dtrrman]

The difference between a quality 20 kilo bar and one of the imports is the sleeves for one thing. Good quality bars have machined steel sleeves which add more weight and the imports have light cast metal, not even good quality cast iron, and that is usually the difference in the weight. You get what you pay for, pay less and you get less literally.

[C Man]

45lbs

Wrong, but thanks for playing "I don't know what I'm talking about but I'll throw in my 2 cents anyway."

[Bigdank]

thx folks. now i understand a little better then before.

[Tu-160]

I've got a 7' olympic bar and I'm pretty sure it's 20 kilos (44 pounds).